Window to the Womb

Updated 28 May 2019

Window to the Womb is operated by Divine Sparks Limited. It is a private clinic in Leicester, operating under a franchise agreement with Window to the Womb (Franchise) Ltd. Window to the Womb (Franchise) Ltd was established in 2003 and now has 36 franchised clinics across the United Kingdom.

As part of the agreement, the franchisor (Window to the Womb Ltd) provides the clinic with regular on-site support, access to their guidelines and policies, training and the use of their business model and brand.

The Leicestershire clinic opened in July 2017 and primarily serves the communities of the Leicestershire region, though it also accepts women from outside this area.

The clinic provided baby scans including early pregnancy scans, well-being checks, growth and presentation scans and 4D scans including keep sakes and souvenirs.

The clinic has had a registered manager in post since July 2017. We have not previously inspected this service.

Updated 28 May 2019

Window to the Womb in Wigston, Leicester, is a fixed location owned by Divine Sparks Limited, and operates under a franchise agreement with Window to the Womb (Franchise) Ltd. The service provides obstetric ultrasound services for pregnant women aged 18-65 across Leicestershire.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out a short-notice announced visit to the clinic on 19 March 2019.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Services we rate

We have not previously rated this service. We rated it as Good overall.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• The service provided mandatory training in key skills to all staff and made sure everyone completed it.

• Staff understood how to protect people from abuse and had completed safeguarding training on how to recognise and report abuse. Staff knew how to apply this training.

• The service had enough staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep people safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment.

• The service provided care and treatment based on national guidance and evidence of its effectiveness.

• Staff worked together as a team to care for the women and those who accompanied them.

• Staff cared for women and their families with compassion. Feedback from women confirmed that staff treated them well and with kindness.

• The service planned and provided services in a way that met the range of needs of people accessing the clinic.

• Women could access the service when required.

• The service had a vision for what it wanted to achieve and workable plans to turn it into action, which it developed with staff, women and local community groups.

• Managers across the service promoted a positive culture that supported and valued staff, creating a sense of common purpose based on shared values.

• The service had good systems to identify risks, plan to eliminate or reduce them, and cope with both the expected and unexpected.

• The service was committed to improving services by learning from when things went well or wrong, promoting training, research and innovation.

Amanda Stanford

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (Central Region)

Updated 28 May 2019

The provision of ultrasound scanning services, which is classified under the diagnostic core service, was the only core service provided at Window to the Womb.