SAIF Golden Charter

Jewel in the crown

Since the launch of the Diamond Partnership, we are delighted that those who have signed up now benefit from the great savings on direct cremations at any Westerleigh Crematorium, giving families a greater choice when visiting their local funeral director.

Here we chat with Rachel Newham, Manager of the Diamond Partnership at Distinct Cremations, to find out how things are going, and, importantly, how those funeral directors who have yet to sign up to the partnership can do so.

Rachel, can you let us know how many SAIF members have now joined the Diamond Partnership?

As at the end of July 2022, we’ve processed an engagement form from around 350 SAIF members which is a lower uptake than we would have anticipated. Of those, we’ve received over 140 service bookings, so there are many funeral directors yet to benefit from the Diamond Partnership. For those yet to send back their engagement form, just post your completed form to ‘FREEPOST Distinct Cremations’ or email me and I will process it the next working day. If anyone has misplaced their form, I can easily send another.

Can you remind us, what are the Diamond Partnership package prices?

For a direct delivery service, where an encoffined deceased is delivered to a Westerleigh crematorium for an unattended direct cremation, it’s £275. Where Distinct Cremations collect the deceased from the funeral director premises it’s £350. If it’s a witnessed direct cremation where a funeral director has delivered to the crematorium, a maximum of eight mourners can witness the committal and stay in the chapel for 10 minutes, and it’s £475. Finally, for a collection by Distinct Cremations from the place of passing, with care at the Distinct Cremations mortuary, and an unattended cremation at a Westerleigh crematorium, it’s £650.

And what’s the process when a SAIF member needs to book a service?

The process could not be simpler. For a direct delivery service, a member can call their local Westerleigh crematorium directly to book in. Please don’t just turn up! A funeral director can call Distinct Cremations too, whichever suits them best. For any other services, a phone call to Distinct Cremations is needed please, as operationally we’ll need to ensure our own funeral operatives are in the right place at the right time.

If it’s not a direct delivery service, is there agreement to still use the closest Westerleigh crematorium to a funeral director’s premises?

If requested at the time of booking, we will endeavour to use the crematorium of choice. However, there may be instances where our approach to selecting the crematorium may need to differ. In such circumstances, the funeral director will be fully informed at the earliest opportunity.

There are some members who are concerned that ashes will be returned directly to the family and not to their premises. Can you explain the process you go through at Distinct Cremations?

Distinct Cremations will never contact a family who have the existing relationship with a funeral director. If a collection service has been booked, we can deliver ashes directly back to a family, but only if we’ve been asked to do this. If we have had a request to deliver ashes back to funeral director’s premises then this is what will happen. The label on the ashes box will always be the name of the funeral director and not Distinct Cremations. In all cases, we try to deliver ashes back within a period of 14 days from the cremation service.

If a SAIF member has any questions about the Diamond Partnership, they can contact Rachel on 0808 134 9648 or by email.