The old and the new: bridging the gap of FPA the Charity and FPA the Company.

The Family Planning Association (FPA), started as a movement in the 1930s, registered as a Charity in the 1960s and become a Company in 2019. In its history of almost 100 years, real achievements have been made.

For the past 13 years, I have been and continue to be proud to be part of the FPA old and new.

The great thing with the new FPA is we still adhere to our old values and our mission to be the: Sexual Health Company who provides gold standard, accurate, unbiased and up to date information on Relationships and Sex Education, Sexual and Reproductive Health, and Postnatal Health and Wellbeing.

We have stayed well connected in the sexual health field and continue to be highly respected.

In the past year alone, we have produced two new leaflets on Menopause and Postnatal Health and Wellbeing; updated our flagship online Primary School resource Growing up with Yasmine and Tom, bringing it in line with the Statutory requirements. It’s one of a kind!

An exciting time, as we have a pipeline of leaflets and new initiatives on their way. So, watch this space.

Our contraception, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), pregnancy choices are considered the Gold Standard of information leaflets. They have been widely distributed to clinics across the UK for over 20 years.

Health professionals including GPs and sexual health Consultants, tell us how essential they are for their work.

Our History

The Family Planning Association (FPA) started in the 1930s with the aim of providing contraception to married women. In the 1960s Brook advisory was borne out of FPA to provide contraception for unmarried single women. FPA wasn’t hip enough! A story for another time.

FPA’s main aim was for contraception be more widely available and for free as part of the National Health Service (NHS).

In 1974, we achieved this aim when over 1,000 family planning clinics were handed over to the NHS.

Family planning was now part of the health service and has remained there ever since.

In the 1970s we worked with Saatchi and Saatchi on the Pregnant Man campaign. It was and continues to be an iconic image.

FPA continued as a charity providing information leaflets to the NHS and established a medical advisory, library and helpline service providing the public and professionals with information and advice.

This was only ever possible through government funding and as a result of cuts, we saw the closure of these services. Eventually we had to sell our leaflets to sexual health services in order to continue production.

We have been selling our leaflets since 2015.

In 2019, FPA closed as a charity, due to a significant and unsustainable final salary pension deficit. Our assets were bought by McCorquodale (Midlands) where we are proud and relieved to be able to continue the great work FPA has always done, and more!  We maintain the charitable arm of our work with a percentage of our contraceptive leaflets sales donated to the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (FSRH).

We plan to work with a different charity going forward donating a percentage of our leaflet sales which are relevant to the organisation’s aims.

We’re ever thankful for all the support we have received and want to give something back.

Natika H
FPA the Sexual Health Charity
2008-2013 Director of Information Services.
2013-2015 Director of Communications, Health and Wellbeing.
2015-2019 Chief Executive Officer.

FPA the Sexual Health Company
2019 to present date Executive Director.