SAIF Golden Charter

Let’s shout about our record in communities

It has been a quiet month in the SAIF diary, which allowed me to spend some much-needed time in the office and on a family holiday. I celebrated my belated 50th birthday, my twins’ 21st birthday and my son’s graduation but, more importantly, we enjoyed our first holiday for a couple of years, giving us some much-needed rest and downtime.

I had the pleasure of visiting Hickton Family Funeral Directors at the end of July to celebrate the relocation of their branch office in Halesowen. It was great to spend time with Ross and his family and watch the dynamics of a true independent family business and to witness how people in their community dropped in for coffee, cake, and a chat; a picture that can be seen all around the country, independent businesses in the heart of their community.

Unfortunately, the news has highlighted some rather vile individuals recently who use the title funeral director but are by no means anywhere near the benchmark needed to use that title. Individuals who abuse the deceased, and those who have conned the bereaved and allegedly left the deceased in appalling conditions. These bad apples must not be allowed to cast a shadow over our remarkable profession.

My key words for my year as President were community and professionalism. Now is the time to be proud of the work that you do within your communities and to let your families know that you are professionals, who adhere to a strict code of conduct where care of the deceased is paramount, and that you are members of the largest funeral trade association in the UK because, yes, SAIF now has more members than the NAFD. We must make sure those who need our services look out for the SAIF logo and it is for us to educate our communities about the importance of our logo and what it stands for.

On other matters, I had a meeting with the Spa Hotel to discuss the AGM/Banquet weekend in March 2023. Next year, our Associate lunch on Friday 3 May will be replaced with a ‘Meet the Associates dinner’ and I encourage Members and Associates alike to come along and join us for an afternoon of educational speakers and an evening of networking for our Associate Members with some first-class entertainment.

Booking details will be released in the next issue of SAIFInsight.

Finally, if you haven’t sponsored Brian Hart and his team who are walking the West Highland Way in September, then please do. It’s a mammoth challenge and all proceeds will go to my charity Papyrus.

Did you know that suicide is the main cause of death in under-35s in the United Kingdom? Read that again, it’s a shocking statistic and one that charities like Papyrus are working hard to change. These deaths of young children and adults can be prevented with the right support, so please sponsor the challenge here.