Member benefits
Should your application to join SurrogacyUK be successful you will join a community of surrogates, intended parents and completed families.
Intended parents pay a membership fee to join the community. Your membership fee does not guarantee you will meet your surrogate, or that you will have a baby. There are no guarantees with surrogacy, with IVF or trying to conceive.
SurrogacyUK have set expectations of every member that joins our community and we reserve the right to remove membership if they do not met those expectations.
The benefits of being a member of our community are:
Opportunities to Meet
Advertising to be a surrogate, or for a surrogate is illegal in the UK, as is matching surrogates and intended parent(s) together. As such meeting potential surrogates and intended parent(s) with whom to undertake a surrogacy journey with can prove difficult.
SurrogacyUK provides it’s members with a variety of proven ways to meet their potential surrogacy team mates.
SurrogacyUK facilitate online social events, face to face social events, an online member HUB (soon to be an online app), online diaries, online chat forums and private messaging systems.
SurrogacyUK provides a safe way to meet others who want a friendship first surrogacy relationship.
Safe, Secure Interactions
SurrogacyUK consider the safeguarding of its members a priority. We ensure that we provide a safe environment for surrogates and intended parent(s) to meet and undertake a surrogacy journey together.
We ensure that applicants are vigorously checked before becoming members of our community.
Members can be sure that potential team mates have undergone a DBS check (police check), have had a health and wellness check from their GP and have had a face to face advisory session with an experienced Membership Advisor prior to becoming members.
We also ensure that all members are identity checked, and that they meet the requirements of a parental order and agree with the SurrogacyUK ethos, before they can become members.
Social Events
SurrogacyUK runs social events nationwide on most weekends, meaning there should be one near to you fairly regularly. These are free, and are a great way to meet others.
Most social events are very informal, where members can eat lunch together and spend the afternoon chatting to others.Please note that our social events are online until such time as it is safe and legal to hold face to face socials.
SurrogacyUK champions surrogacy teams who believe in friendship first. What better way to meet a potential team mate than when you are relaxed and with friends.
Facilitating your journey...
Members Hub
A one-stop shop for all members. It has all information, forms and guidance members need throughout their surrogacy journey, plus its very own private social media site where members can chat to potential team mates and find out about each other in a fun, informal and non-pressured environment.
Online Profiles
SurrogacyUK help members to write a profile about themselves. These profiles can include details of what has brought them to surrogacy, what they are looking for in a team mate, and gives an idea of the type of person they are. These profiles are available to other members who are looking for a team mate, so that surrogates and intended parent(s) can find out more detailed information about each other before starting a surrogacy journey.
Local Networks
As SurrogacyUK grows, our community like to socialise together in their local area, and several local networking groups have been set up, where members can get together locally and spend time together.
Member Wellbeing...
Dedicated Support
Members of SurrogacyUK will be given support in a variety of ways within the community. The community is full of people with first hand surrogacy experience who can help you navigate your surrogacy journey. They are on hand to listen, advise and become a friend who has been where you are now. SurrogacyUK provide one to one support for those members of the community who require more help through their journey.
Wellness Sessions
SurrogacyUK provide online group wellness sessions for both surrogates and IPs to help them through their surrogacy journey. These sessions help with the emotional aspects of a surrogacy journey.
Parents Through Surrogacy Groups
SurrogacyUK members are members for life – this means that when you have completed your family through surrogacy you will have access to our Parents Through Surrogacy group, which provides social events and workshops so that the children born through surrogacy can meet others born through surrogacy.
Added bonuses...
Special rates for professional services
Members of SurrogacyUK have preferential access to a variety of specific professional services including counselling, mediation, will writing and legal advice. These professionals provide SurrogacyUK members with a reduced rate and, in some cases, offer their services for free.
Special rates for conferences/workshops
SurrogacyUK ensures that our members pay a reduced rate for all conferences and workshops that we run. We also ensure that members have priority booking to our events, which can get booked up well in advance.
Help with clinics, employers, midwives, NHS trusts
Whatever barriers you come across when undertaking your surrogacy journey, we have help on hand to work with you all to achieve a positive solution.
Frankland Fund
One of the founders of SurrogacyUK, Jayne Frankland, decided to scale back from her work with the membership in 2016 after many years of dedicated voluntary service.
The Board of Trustees decided to create a hardship fund specifically for our members in Jayne’s name, The Frankland Fund.
As an ethical not for profit organisation it was recognised that this was aligned with the core values of SurrogacyUK and would be used to provide financial assistance to those members who were experiencing unexpected hardship, e.g. to pay for specialist counselling or legal fees.
Basic Terms of Reference
The full terms of reference are available from SurrogacyUK but the key points are:
- The funds are drawn from SUK fundraising and specifically earmarked donations.
- Awards are subject to certain financial limits and payment protocols.
- Applicants can apply in person or be nominated by others.
- All information received in relation to the fund will be kept confidential by Trustees and any associated support team.
- Trustees are committed to regularly reporting back to the membership general information in relation to amounts applied and donations received.