A baby scan company that was rated inadequate at its last Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection has been told once again to improve its services.

Precious Glimpse in Burnley, provides 2D, 3D, 4D, HD live and gender keep sake baby scans to self-paying women and their families, as well as trans-abdominal ultrasound scans from week seven to week 40.

At a previous inspection in August 2019, the service was rated inadequate and was told to suspend the regulated activities after inspectors found no mandatory training was in place, appropriate control measures to manage the risk of infection were not in place, and staff did not always understand how to protect patients from abuse and had not completed safeguarding training in line with national safeguarding guidance.

Following this, assurances of immediate improvement actions were taken and the suspension was removed at the end of a four week period.

However, in June this year, the CQC carried out an unannounced inspection on the service and found that despite improvements in some areas, such as 'safe' and 'responsive', Precious Glimpse was still rated as inadequate in the 'well led' area.

Overall this meant the service had rectified some of the issues, but was still given a rating of 'requires improvement'.

At the time of the inspection, the CQC found little over half (56 per cent) of staff had completed mandatory training, with inspectors saying they were not assured staff understood how to protect women from abuse, or manage safety well.

The report, published in August, stated: "There was lack of information relating to how the registered manager acted and recorded on risks to women.

"The service did not always manage safety incidents well and we found no evidence of learned lessons from them.

"Staff did not collect safety information to improve the service.

"The registered manager did not monitor the effectiveness of the service and did not regularly review if staff were competent."

The inspection also revealed that people could not always access the service when they needed it, as it was only open three days a week between 8.30-4.30pm, with no evening appointments to accommodate women who worked.

The report went on to say: "The service did not have a vision or values.

"Risks were not always identified, reviewed or mitigated. We found there was limited information to demonstrate how the service made improvements.

"The service did not have systems in place to identify, respond to and mitigate risks to women but had introduced a system to escalate abnormal findings.

"There was no system in place to ensure staff knew how to manage a woman whose condition was deteriorating in the clinic.

"Therefore, we were not assured women would receive care quickly if an emergency situation arose on the premises.

"Staff did not discuss the potential risks of frequent scanning with women, they relied on women reading the information in the client waiver form, and there was no process in place to identify women who frequently came for scans, and the service did not recognise the potential risk of rescanning and did not monitor those who booked in regularly."

At the last inspection, gaps were identified in staff records, but since then a history of employment, supply of professional references and completion of enhanced disclosure and barring service checks were available, however, documents were still incomplete, as references did not have dates on them.

However, it was noted that staff at Precious Glimpse treated women with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and took account of their individual needs.

In addition, staff felt respected, supported and valued and were clear about their roles and accountabilities and worked within their scope of practice.

CQC inspectors served Precious Glimpse with a Section 29 warning notice, meaning they now have a specified time to make improvements to ensure compliance with regulations - a review of the quality of the service is currently being carried out.

The report concluded: "We will revisit the service to check that appropriate action has been taken and that the quality of healthcare has improved."

Precious Glimpse were contacted for a statement.