Our involvement activity around our draft interim policy for accessing assisted conception services has now ended, and the survey has closed. 

Many thanks for giving us your views and comments through the survey and for attending our events. We are now working on our Report of Findings, which will be available to read on this website. We aim to publish it in early summer 2023, so please do check back then.

You can read about our draft interim policy in our leaflet, easy read leaflet and the other documents below.

Assisted conception involvement, February – March 2023

The current criteria for accessing assisted conception services are not the same across the whole of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. We want to align the policies (make them the same) across our area.

We started this work in 2020, as part of a bigger programme called Clinical Policy Alignment (previously called Difficult Decisions). While we were working on our recommendations, the Women’s Health Strategy for England (WHS) was released. This is a 10-year strategy, which will include a review of fertility services across England. We also expect updated NICE guidance on fertility treatments at the end of 2024.

As we will not know the results of these reviews for some time, we have decided to develop an interim (temporary) policy for assisted conception.

The interim policy will make the criteria for accessing assisted conception services the same, wherever you live within Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. This will give fairer access to services across our geographical area.

Later, when the wider reviews of fertility services and treatments have taken place, we will look at any updated guidance that comes out. We will then see whether our interim policy needs to be changed in any way.

What is our draft interim policy?

Please read more about our draft interim policy before you complete our short survey. There are four main documents:

• Information leaflet
• Easy Read leaflet
• Draft policy document
• Proposed changes to criteria for assisted conception services

How you can get involved

We want to hear your views on our draft interim policy for assisted conception.

Complete our short survey below:

Survey link: https://nhs.welcomesyourfeedback.net/fu30z1

If you prefer, complete our easy read survey linked below:

Easy Read survey link: https://nhs.welcomesyourfeedback.net/s/gslhlk

The survey will be available here to complete until Wednesday 22 March 2023. If you would prefer a paper copy, please call us on 0333 150 3069.

We are also holding two online sessions where you can ask questions and share your suggestions. These will be on:

• Wednesday 15 March, 12.30 to 2pm (this event has now passed)
• Monday 20 March, 6pm to 7.30pm (this event has now passed)

You will need to register to join these events. You can do this quickly and easily on our registration page