At an event on 1 February 2022, Down to Earth's Lindesay Mace discussed with over 40 local authority representatives the findings from our 2021 research report on public health funerals.
Our research during 2020 and 2021 had involved telephone 'mystery shopping' of 27 local authorities, and reviewing information on 40 local authority websites regarding public health funerals. The purpose of the research was to find out what people's experiences can be like when they try to access a public health funeral through their local authority; it is the legal duty of local authorities to provide a public health funeral "in any case where it appears to the authority that no suitable arrangements for the disposal of the body have been or are being made" (The Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984).
The results of our research were worrying:
- Mystery shopping investigation of 27 local authorities indicated that 10 were not carrying out their legal duty with regard to public health funerals, turning people away when they did not have the funds to pay for a funeral and needed their council to take responsibility
- Our survey of 40 local authority websites found that at least 65% were not following government guidelines on public health funerals. 14 had no information available online whatsoever and of the 26 that did, 12 had no contact details for people who need to notify their local authority of a death requiring a public health funeral
- Over half of the websites with information contained incorrect or misleading information. The most common error related to local authorities’ legal duty, with a third misrepresenting the circumstances in which someone can access a public health funeral.
We were pleased to be invited to speak at an event on Tuesday 1 February, as part of QSA's ongoing efforts to increase awareness of the concerns raised in our report, and to promote what we believe are five key characteristics for ensuring appropriate access for, and treatment of, people needing a public health funeral for a friend or family member. These five characteristics have been agreed by the Churches' Funeral Group as part of its minimum standards recommendations:
- It should be easy for the bereaved, and those supporting them, to find out that public health funerals exist, when they can be accessed and how, and what they contain
- The bereaved should be able to self-refer for a public health funeral
- A funeral service should be held and the bereaved given unquestioned access to it
- The bereaved should be given free access to the ashes in the case of cremation
- The bereaved should be treated respectfully throughout.
Tuesday's event was a meeting of the Bereavement Services Forum facilitated by Estate Research and attended by local authority workers involved in the provision of public health funerals around the country. Down to Earth's Lindesay Mace explained the findings of our report, and also the fact that her team has been working with a number of local authorities since publishing the report to make positive changes to their public health funeral provision and website information, including creating web pages where none existed.
Following Lindesay's presentation, the delegates discussed some of the issues raised, including the need to consider self-referrals from members of the public in line with government guidance, as well as the undoubted challenges of providing appropriate public health funeral services within limited budgets.