For charities: the partner programme

What do we offer charities?#

Every charity and support service we write to gets its own code for 15% off, held by its staff and given to the people it supports. The code comes with a private page from which your team can print what they need, and there is nothing to sign to start using it.

There are two levels. The difference between them is only whether your name appears on our site.

The code takes 15% off the whole order at our checkout: the deed poll, certified copies, any extras and delivery. An adult deed poll at £18.50 with second class delivery at £2.99 comes to £21.49; with the code it is £18.27. The conditions are on the partner code terms page.

The pack is made to be handed over quietly:

• Business cards, 85 by 55 mm, each with the code and a QR code that opens our checkout with the code already filled in. Ten print on a sheet of A4 in the office, and there are files for a print shop.
• A client leaflet, A5, two to a sheet of A4: what a deed poll does, the free GOV.UK route, what ours includes and the prices after the discount.
• A staff sheet, A4: how the code works, what we never ask, and the safety points on this page.
• A two-line message with the link, to send by text or a messaging app.

None of the pieces a client sees mentions your charity, abuse, transition or any other reason for changing a name. They are headed "Your deed poll, 15% off", so a card left in a bag or a message on a shared phone says no more than that. The code itself is a short run of letters and numbers that says nothing about who gave it, so a code seen on an order does not show where someone got help.

Does anyone need to pay for a deed poll?#

No, and we would rather your clients knew that before they spend anything. Anyone aged 16 or over can make their own deed poll for free, using the wording GOV.UK publishes, and sign it in front of two witnesses aged 18 or over. That is an unenrolled deed poll, the same kind we prepare, and it is the usual way to change a name in the UK. For a child under 16, GOV.UK points to a deed poll agency or a solicitor, or to enrolling the deed poll with the High Court.

Enrolment is a separate step that few people need. It costs £53.05 and puts the change on public record: GOV.UK says the change of name and the address are published in The Gazette. For someone who needs to stay hard to find, that matters, and planning a change of name for your safety sets out the choice.

What a deed poll from us adds is the paperwork done for the client and checked:

• a paralegal drafts the deed from the details the client gives, and a second check compares it with what they typed;
• it is printed on paper and posted the same working day, for an order placed on a working day in time for that day's post;
• it travels in a plain envelope that does not say what is inside;
• certified copies are there if wanted, so the original can stay somewhere safe;
• our acceptance guarantee means that if an organisation refuses a deed we drafted and we cannot change its mind, we refund the whole order;
• questions are answered by email, by people who deal with name changes every day.

If a client is comfortable making their own, the free route is the right one for them. Can I get a deed poll for free? and the guide for support workers explain how to do it properly.

What do we never ask, and what do we share?#

We never ask anyone why they are changing their name, and the code needs no proof of anything. There is no referral form. Your staff decide who gets the code, and we do not check.

Our checkout asks a client with a code exactly what it asks everyone else: the old and new names, the titles, an address, an email address and, if they choose, a phone number. For a child's deed poll it also asks for the names of the parents. That is what drafting and posting the deed needs, and nothing more.

We never:

• ask for, or accept, a client's name or details from your charity;
• tell your charity, or anyone else, who used your code;
• pass on anything we learn about a person's past, their circumstances or their gender history (passing on someone's gender history learned in business can be an offence under section 22 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004);
• sell, rent or share order details for anyone's marketing.

What we do share is one number. Each quarter, if you would like it, we tell you how many orders were placed with your code. A count below three is given as "fewer than three", so that a small number cannot point to one person.

In our own records an order made with your code carries the code, which is how we count. Only our team can see which code belongs to which charity. The code does not appear on the deed, on the envelope or in our emails.

How do we keep your client safe?#

Most of the risk in a change of name lies not in the deed but in where the details travel afterwards. This is what happens to an order today, so that you and your client can plan around it.

What the deed shows. The deed prints the old and new names with their titles, the address given at the checkout, and a line saying the person is a UK citizen or resident. The witnesses add their own names and addresses when they sign. Anyone shown the deed, or a copy, sees all of it. The address printed is the address the deed is posted to, so if it is posted to your office, your office address is the one on the deed. Agree the address with your client before ordering. We are working on an option to print a different address on the deed from the one it is posted to; it is not available yet, and we will tell code holders when it is.

Where it goes. Royal Mail carries it to whatever address the client gives, in an envelope that does not say what is inside or who sent it. The exceptions are post abroad and post to a prison, where the sender has to be shown. Tracked delivery is available at the checkout.

Which emails are sent. Every email goes to the address typed at the checkout:

• straight away, an order confirmation that shows the old and new names;
• about an hour after payment, two short guides: how to sign the deed, and who to tell about the new name;
• when the deed is posted, a posting notice, and a tracking email for tracked delivery;
• if an order is started but not paid, reminders: the first within a few hours, the last about a day later;
• later, an invitation to review us on Reviews.co.uk, and occasional news of our own services, each with a link to stop them.

The subject lines mention the deed poll, and one mentions a name change. So the email address is the choice that matters most: use one only your client can open, or a new one set up for this. If a device or an account might be shared, finish the order in one sitting, so that no reminders are sent. A client who wants no emails beyond the order itself can tell us from the order's email address, and we stop them.

The phone number. It is optional, and if one is given we use it only when email has failed. Leave it blank unless the number is safe.

Who sees the order. Our own team, and the suppliers who process it for us under our instructions: Stripe takes the payment (we never see card details), Supabase holds our order records, Resend sends our email, Cloudflare runs the website, Royal Mail delivers, and Reviews.co.uk sends review invitations. Nobody else. There is no register of unenrolled deed polls, and we tell no organisation about anyone's change of name. The privacy policy has the detail.

Deleting it early. We keep an order, with a copy of the deed, for seven years, so that we can help if the deed is ever questioned. Anyone who would be safer without that record can ask us to delete it once the deed has arrived, by writing from the email address used for the order. We then delete the order and the deed file, keeping only what the law requires us to hold about the payment. A deleted record cannot be used to make a replacement later, so a client who chooses this should keep the original deed somewhere safe.

If something goes wrong. If we ever find that a client's details have reached someone they should not have, we tell the client and, where the law requires it, the Information Commissioner's Office.

The guide for support workers covers the wider safety steps: which records to change first, banks, and keeping an address off public records.

Could someone use this to hide from the law?#

It is a fair question. The plain answer is that it makes nothing easier than GOV.UK's free wording already does, and the law has its own rules for exactly this.

• A deed poll is not identification. It is evidence that a name has changed. Passports, driving licences and other identity documents come from organisations that check the person, and GOV.UK's own deed poll wording warns that the authorities may check "the history and validity" of both names.
• A new name does not change a record. A criminal record stays with the person, and a DBS check asks for every name they have used since birth, with dates.
• Registered sex offenders must tell the police. Under section 84 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, a registered sex offender must tell the police about a new name within 3 days of first using it. Failing to do so without a reasonable excuse is an offence under section 91, with a prison sentence of up to 5 years. Some violent and terrorist offenders also have to tell the police about a new name.
• The law is getting tighter. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 has passed. Section 125 will let the police require some registered sex offenders to get police permission before applying for a passport, driving licence or other identity document in a new name, and section 118 will require notice to the police 7 days before a new name is used. Neither section was in force when we checked on 26 October 2026.
• Our terms say so too. Everyone who orders confirms that the new name is not being taken to deceive anyone, to escape a legal duty or to get round a court order, and the terms remind registered offenders of the 3-day rule. We can refuse an order where we have reasonable grounds to think the change is for an unlawful purpose.
• The codes stay with caseworkers. They are never published, and a code only takes money off. So the programme opens no route that our ordinary checkout, or GOV.UK's free wording, does not already offer.

Can I change my name if I have a criminal record? sets out the rules in full.

Who are we?#

Deed Polls Online is two things: a handbook on changing your name in the UK, which you are reading, and the deed poll service that pays for it. We are an independent private company, not part of government or the courts. We do not enrol deed polls, and we do not give legal advice about anyone's own case. We have prepared deed polls since 2000.

Trustees and safeguarding leads rightly check who they are dealing with before saying yes, so here are the facts in one place.

On request we also send the one-page partner agreement and our safety statement for charities, so that your trustees or safeguarding lead can read them before you decide.

How does a charity join?#

If we have written to you, your code and the link to your pack are in that email, and you can start using them today.

To ask for a code, or for the partner agreement, reply to our email or write to us through the contact page, with:

• your organisation's name;
• its charity number, or its company number if it is not a registered charity;
• the nations you work in;
• one work email address for the code and the quarterly count.

We check the number on the register before sending anything. There is no sign-up form yet.

We write to organisations at the general contact addresses they publish, and we post printed packs only to a published office address, never to a refuge. If you would rather not hear from us again, say so and we will not contact you again.

What does the partner agreement say?#

It fits on one page, and it is the only thing a charity signs. In short:

• no money changes hands in either direction, and you need not link to us or mention us anywhere;
• we may use your name, and your logo only if you send one, on your own page on our site and in our partner list, and nowhere else;
• nothing about you goes live until you have approved the wording, and the same goes for any change;
• either of us can end it at any time, and your name comes down within 5 working days;
• no personal data passes between us in either direction, and the quarterly report is a count;
• "partner" is a label on our site, not a partnership in law, and neither of us speaks for the other.

Being a code holder, or a partner charity, never means you recommend our deed polls, and we never say it does. Our charity directory lists many organisations that have agreed to nothing at all, and says so.

What if a code leaks, or you want to stop?#

Tell us. We switch the code off and send you a new one, normally the same working day, and orders already placed are not affected. If we find a code on a voucher site, or used in a way the terms do not allow, we switch it off and tell you.

You can stop at any time: say so, and we switch your code off. A partner charity can end the agreement by email whenever it likes, and we remove its name, any logo and the partner wording from our site within 5 working days. Any page of its own then becomes a plain directory entry with no partner wording, or comes down altogether if the charity asks.

We can end or replace a code too, with notice to you. The partner code terms give the detail.