SAIF Golden Charter

What the future holds

Meeting one

The first meeting was the Burial and Cremation Working Group, a continuation of the original Infant Cremation Steering Group. At present it’s still about infant ashes recovery, but this is expected to change. It will be the defining committee, which oversees the implementation of the Burial and Cremation Act (Scotland) 2016.

I attended along with Paul Cuthell, who was substituting for John Williamson. The new Statutory Cremation Forms A, (all six of them), will shortly be put before Holyrood and will be legally constituted by spring 2018. It has been a very long time in coming but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Scotland’s first Inspector of Cremation, Bert Swanson, reported 100% infant ashes recovery. So kudos to Scotland, Scottish crematoria and Bert.

The new infant cremation code of practice has been now been active for almost a year; it’s statutory, yet 90% of funeral directors don’t know it exists. No matter how much trade associations inform and educate, members seemingly bury their heads in the sand. Things are further complicated by different NHS Trusts using different paperwork and terminology; this is a joint problem when we contradict the midwives and vice versa. It is still a very hot topic.

There are joint education groups in every NHS Trust area, and you need to be aware that these are very good to attend, for everyone’s sake. Either that or have a very good excuse ready for when the press come calling. Ignorance will be no defence in public opinion; you’re a professional and should know.

One unexpected outcome of the code of practice, by the Scottish Government, was the almost complete collapse of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) wherein companies agreed to look after the disposal of Pregnancy Loss cases for NHS Trusts. Some of you may recall them as Hospital Baby Contracts. (Please do not use any term other than Pregnancy Loss, a foetus to full-term stillbirth are now all Pregnancy Losses.) These SLAs were previously commonly fulfilled by the corporate firms, although this wasn’t exclusive.

The problem is that the pan- UK baby ashes scandal has placed the original practices under the spotlight and the new SLAs are so full of legalese and inferred risk, no one wants them. They were a public service but now they are a liability, which make no commercial sense. Hence the reluctance to agree to perform.

Midwives are now being retrained to ‘encourage’ Pregnancy Loss mothers to arrange private funerals; I personally have had two where the time between death and cremation wasn’t days or weeks, but months.

These were under 16 and 10 weeks’ gestation, so please take heed, look up the new infant cremation code of practice, learn it and make sure all your colleagues know it as well. Speak to your NHS Trust midwifery managers and find out where and when the joint seminars are being held. Which leads neatly onto…

Continuous Professional Development

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) , hitherto unheard of in our vocation, is a phrase we’re all going to get used to – either that or stop trading.

For three years in Government meetings I have been looked at in horror by the rest of the caring professions, not because of my devastating good looks, but rather when I inform them we don’t require CPD to function as a funeral director.

New inspector

Natalie McKail is Scotland’s first Inspector of Funeral Directors. Natalie is an independent appointee, reporting solely to Scottish Ministers, with a two-year remit to appraise, assess and present to Scottish Ministers, her recommendation will be for a fair and workable regulatory or license scheme for the entire funeral profession in Scotland.

Natalie presented an interim report, since she only started in July this year. She reported that she had visited more than 30 firms, so far by invitation only, big and small, including a corporate and an island business. Apart from care of the deceased, she also highlighted her concerns over risk assessment by owners. Not for assessing risks for health and safety but rather risk planning for running out of suitable storage space, flooding, longer periods of power failure, etc. How many reading this report are already juggling fridge space? And all SAIF Scotland members have by now met mandatory criteria for refrigerated facilities.

What she didn’t report to the national committee was that she has found basic issues with the care of the deceased on a number of visits. Remember these were announced visits.

See February’s issue of SAIFInsight for Jim Brodie’s report of meetings two and three.