Support and intermediary service

Who can access this service?

Donor-conceived people and some donors affected by donation issues can access the service, as long as the donation or treatment took place at a UK-licensed clinic after August 1991.

Family members (such as parents, spouses and non donor-conceived children) or friends can also pay to access the service if they wish.

If the donation or treatment took place before August 1991, you should contact us for more information about the Donor Conceived Register.

We fund sessions for eligible individuals only - see the section below 'Am I eligible for free sessions?'

How many free sessions will I get?

If you're a donor, who donated after 1 August 1991 but before 1 April 2005, and are considering re-registering, you're entitled to two sessions to discuss the implications of this decision.

If you're a donor-conceived person (aged 16 or over) seeking non-identifying information about your donor or donor-conceived genetic siblings, you're also entitled to two sessions to discuss the implications of this decision.

If you're a donor or a donor-conceived person potentially having intermediary services (ie, which might result in contact between yourselves), you're entitled to:

• Two sessions, separate from any meeting with your donor or people conceived from your donation.
• If desired, one further session with both of you present if you both agree to a face-to-face meeting.

Similarly, if you are donor-conceived siblings (linked via DSL) potentially having intermediary services (ie, which might result in contact between yourselves), you're entitled to:

• Two sessions each, separate from any meeting with your donor-conceived sibling.
• If desired, one further session with both individuals present if you both agree to a face-to-face meeting.

This means that a maximum of five funded sessions are available for each intermediary case.

There may be situations where a number of people have been born to different families as a result of donation from the same donor. The same allocation of funded services will be available every time a different donor-conceived person seeks identifying information about him/ her.

The same applies to donor-conceived people who have been linked with more than one donor-conceived sibling or more than one sperm or egg provider where the donor-conceived person was born following double donation (i.e. both sperm and egg donation) or embryo donation.

If you think you might be eligible for free sessions, please contact us at: openingtheregister@hfea.gov.uk or on 020 7291 8200.

What can I expect?

The service gives you an opportunity to explore issues with a specialist support worker, through:

• face-to-face meetings
• telephone contact
• other methods of communication, such as email and Skype.

Before you take up any sessions, we strongly recommend that you read the 'useful reading' above, to prepare you for some of the issues that could come up in a session and give you the opportunity to think about them beforehand.

How does it work?

The support service gives people the opportunity to discuss the implications of accessing information and some of the issues that might come up for them, what their expectations are, and how they might feel or cope if they do not find out the information they are hoping for.

The way it would work is that we would provide you with a contact email for the support worker. Once you’d emailed them they will explain the process and take some personal details (e.g. name, date of birth etc.) from you over the phone. We do not pass on any personal details about you to the support worker so; the only details they would receive about you from us would be a reference code and what the referral was for e.g. joining Donor Sibling Link, accessing donor and sibling information.

You do not have to access the support service before your application is processed and can get in touch with us if you want to access it at a later date.

You can let us know if you would like to be referred in your application form.