New inspector of funeral directors will be pleasantly surprised by the standards we hold
Tim Purves outlines how firms work to help bereaved families
At the beginning of July, Scotland’s first Inspector of Funeral Directors will begin work and everyone in the profession is awaiting her arrival with keen interest.
With regulation of funeral directors high on the Scottish Government’s agenda, Natalie Mckail will doubtless be keen to meet funeral directors from across Scotland to hear their views.
She might be pleasantly surprised. The National Association of Funeral Directors, the profession’s leading trade association which represents 80 per cent of funeral directors across the UK, is supportive, as is SAIF, the Society of Allied Independent Funeral Directors.
However, both associations have much to offer in terms of what they already do, in terms of standards, protocols and education.
The NAFD, which is working closely with Government on a number of fronts in relation to the future of the funeral and cremation professions, offers a Diploma in Funeral Directing and Diploma of Funeral Arranging and Administration.
Members are also subject to stringent standards checks, a Code of Practice and Code of Professional Standards, ensuring that members of the public can choose an NAFD member with confidence. All the existing standards will be offered as a way forward to create protocols for Government regulation.
More than that, at a specially organised conference in April, held in Stir- ling to discuss matters around regulation, the two organisations signed a historic agreement to work together to support the Government in the best interests of bereaved families.
The joint agreement, which is a public document, sets out a series of guiding principles for both organisations to follow in the development of regulation. These include the need to ensure safety and public health and to work in the public interest. It was submitted to the Scottish Government and represents a formal commitment to work with Scottish Ministers to develop regulation that will be proportionate and appropriate, and will ultimately benefit bereaved people.
The document also states that its purpose “is to facilitate the contribu-