British Pregnancy Advisory Service Also known as BPAS

Updated 7 December 2016

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) is an independent healthcare charity which was established in 1968. The charity’s stated purpose is advocating and caring for women and couples who decide to end a pregnancy. Most of the women have their care paid for by the NHS. The service is provided to more than 65,000 women each year in over 60 reproductive healthcare clinics nationwide.

Updated 7 December 2016

We carried out this announced focused inspection on 18 October 2016 to review corporate issues and governance at a provider level. We did not review “caring” as part of this inspection as care is not provided at this location. Termination of pregnancy (TOP) refers to abortion by surgical or medical methods.We did not provide ratings for this service.

CQC does not currently have a legal duty to award ratings for those services that provide solely or mainly termination of pregnancy services.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) is an independent healthcare charity which was established in 1968. The charity’s stated purpose is advocating and caring for women and couples who decide to end a pregnancy. Most of the patients have their care paid for by the NHS although patients can pay for their own treatment. Patients can self-refer to the service. Vasectomy services are also offered through the service locations. The service is provided to more than 65,000 women each year in over 60 reproductive healthcare clinics nationwide.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• Development of services which meets the needs of patients using the service through research and campaigning. These include the practice of simultaneous administration of medication to effect a termination of pregnancy and the accreditation of the scanning programme.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements at a local level which are described in individual location reports.Importantly, the provider should:

• Introduce and comply with a formal policy and procedure to ensure that the requirements of the fit and proper person's regulation are met. Take steps to assure themselves that members of the senior team meet the requirements of the fit and proper person’s regulation.

Professor Sir Mike Richards

Chief Inspector of Hospitals