Partnership Agreement between Doula UK and Course Providers (v. 7 October 2025)

Doula UK agrees to:

1. Signpost and promote your training course on the Doula UK website with a description, website link and contact details.
2. Signpost and promote your training course at our Doula UK Introductory Workshops and to individuals who contact Doula UK for guidance.
3. Promote you on our social media, resharing content when possible and help you gain visibility about your doula training opportunities.
4. Share details of CPD hosted by your organisation (under the same business name) to our members on request.
5. Provide the opportunity to join a course provider group for community peer support.
6. Host course providers group gatherings in person or online with Doula UK twice a year, providing we have a volunteer Course Liaison in post.
7. Inform you of Introductory Workshop dates when they are scheduled.
8. Give support in terms of signposting to resources and professional development.
9. Provide you with a named point of contact for regular one-to-ones to allow for honest feedback.
10. Not make public defamatory statements or remarks that damage the reputation of your training course either in writing (including on social media) or verbally.
11. Demonstrate confidentiality and impartiality towards you and your training course.
12. Review the Partnership Agreement and Dispute Guidelines on a four year cycle.
13. Follow the Doula UK Course Provider Dispute Guideline in the event of a dispute including breach of partnership agreement.

The Course Provider (CP) agrees to:

1. Adhere to the Doula UK Code of Conduct and Philosophy.
2. Follow the Doula UK Core Curriculum.
3. The Course Lead and course facilitators continuous membership of Doula UK, including an active Find a Doula profile.
4. Receive an external assessment from one of Doula UK’s Approved Assessors a minimum of every four years which must be returned before the end of the four year cycle.
5. Foundational and continuous completion of LGBTQ+,  Disability Awareness and Cultural Competency training by the Course Lead, learning from which should be cascaded to Facilitators.
6. Complete the Doula UK Course Provider Annual Return with accuracy and honesty. This collated information will only be available to the Doula UK paid admin team and Course Liaison, none of whom are Leads or Facilitators of an Approved Course. This information, which does not include any personal data, will be used by Doula UK to monitor the effectiveness of the partnership and to assess membership recruitment efforts.
7. Offer equitable opportunities, prevent discrimination and support under-represented groups and to monitor the effectiveness of this by asking diversity monitoring questions to participants in line with GDPR.
8. Indicate that they are a Doula UK Approved Course Provider on their website (with current Doula UK logo and a backlink to www.doula.org.uk).
9. At various points in the year, share via social media and mailing lists, communications by Doula UK relevant to the doula community and the members and prospective members, when requested by Admin or the Course Liaison (for example, but not limited to, the Doula UK conference and Regional meetings).
10. Commit to promote and encourage Doula UK membership by:

• encouraging course graduates to join Doula UK (graduates not intending to work in the UK should be encouraged to become Overseas Members or Friends of Doula UK);
• describing the benefits of Doula UK membership and its purpose as an organisation;
• sharing the provided Doula UK materials, including a video outlining the benefits of joining Doula UK.;
• Data Sharing and GDPR Compliance;
• sharing the name, email address, and date of course completion for each graduate using the password protected link, to support Doula UK’s membership outreach and monitoring efforts. This data will be used solely to issue a one-time invitation to join Doula UK and to assess the effectiveness of our partnership. Doula UK processes this data under the lawful basis of legitimate interest, in accordance with UK GDPR. The Course Provider agrees to update their privacy policy to reflect this data sharing and to provide graduates with a clear opportunity to opt out of having their information shared for this purpose.

11. Not make public defamatory statements or remarks that might damage the reputation of Doula UK either in writing (including on social media) or verbally.
12. Not aim to replicate or rival Doula UK as this would be a conflict of interest when it comes to promoting and encouraging members to join Doula UK.
13. Not create, nor participate in the creation of, an organisation with, or with plans to include any of the following:

1. open membership to graduates of other courses.
2. approval of other courses.

14. Course providers can, if they so wish, list Doula UK members on their directories (in addition to the Doula UK directory). Course providers retain discretion over directory acceptance criteria. Course Providers agree to ethical advertising guidelines as follows:

• Advertising should focus on the unique benefits and services offered by a listing in a course provider’s doula directory rather than making comparisons to or criticisms of other course providers.
• Marketing efforts should be general and not target specific client lists or databases belonging to other course providers.
• All advertising should promote the industry as a whole and encourage a collaborative rather than competitive environment among providers.
• Course providers should avoid any advertising practices that could be perceived as poaching clients from other legitimate businesses.
• Focus on attracting new clients through the quality of services and positive reputation, rather than attempting to divert clients from existing relationships with other providers.

15. Follow the Doula UK Course Provider Dispute Guideline in the event of a dispute including breach of partnership agreement.
16. Give Doula UK three months’ written notice to end the Partnership. CP Subscriptions will remain payable throughout the notice period. To ensure a smooth transition, Doula UK will continue to accept as members any graduates who have booked or trained on publicly advertised courses prior to the end of the notice period.
17. Adhere to the terms of the agreement during the notice period.

We mutually agree to work productively together, to advance the profile and interests of our doula community.

Fees payable:

Approved Course Provider fee of £360 per annum, to be paid monthly at £30 p/m, by subscription via the Doula UK website.