This has been on our minds a great deal lately so I am writing in attempt to continue the raise of awareness…..’The Changing Funeral Industry’. Most of us don’t even consider how the funeral industry operates until we are at a time of need, and then, we can be desperate, panicked, exhausted, angry….a whole list of emotions and behaviours…so thinking clearly or researching is not something we feel like doing necessarily.
A little while ago ITV ran a documentary about funeral costs and Frank Field, now Lord Field of Birkenhead, chaired a Parliamentary investigation into the funeral industry back in 2016. He commented that some funeral companies have been "ripping off” grieving families. Also, currently, we are in the midst of a major enquiry by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into the funeral industry. So much is actually going on and this has led to many changes.
Lord Field references two large corporate firms, Dignity and Co-op commenting "Sadly, you would expect Dignity to rip off people because they’ve been given the chance. That’s what they’re doing, it’s to their eternal shame. But what I think is so bad, is the Co-op following them.”
It is obvious, we think, that care and compassion should be at the centre of our services and that all of our staff should behave with the upmost respect for our grieving families. It really saddened me to read a review of a funeral directors online the other day (I won’t mention the name!) with a family member commenting that one of the coffin bearer was laughing and joking whilst waiting by their loved one. Put this aside a moment, although hugely vital, you also need to consider how we need to be professional, organised, have an attention to detail and have high levels of presentation. So many families are too used to receiving an average level of care and, in our chats at the office, we just don’t think this is good enough. A funeral is one of the most important events in our lives and the attention to detail as well as levels of care should be immaculate. We are hoping that the CMA report forces the industry to be operated differently by some firms who simply are not offering high enough levels of care, experience, professionalism and also those charging unreasonable prices.
The funeral industry has been unregulated for many years and this is something that needs to change. We are proud members of SAIF (https://saif.org.uk/) who demand a certain standard, similar to the NAFD (National Association of Funeral Directors) but it is possible to set up a funeral company without any affiliations. Of course, this does not mean that your levels are sub-standard but we need to be asking ourselves: where is my loved one being looked after? what are the facilities? what is involved in care of deceased? can I visit my loved one? who is going to be dressing my loved one and looking after them? have I met my funeral director yet? can I call my funeral director directly or is it a call centre? What is important to me at this time? Price is important to everyone; why pay more to a corporate firm where staff are ferried from one branch to another across the county when you can pay thousands less and go with an independent firm with more personal levels of care? There is no sense in paying more money for less. We need to be more aware of the funeral industry to make more informed choices.
Coming from teaching, we are well-tuned to accepting that you never ‘finish’, by that I mean we are always learning, evaluating, improving, experimenting, challenging ourselves to do better for others. I have brought this teaching into what I do now at Hadaway & Denton and as a family firm we are always looking for more ways to improve our business for the community. Currently, we are aware our website does not show our team and this is something that we are working on as well as more detail about Green Funerals and Bereavement Support – all aspects that we want to display more information about. I feel strongly that we should all have access to more information about funerals and this is one thing that is changing…
Today, when I was doing more research I noted funeral firms are displaying much more cost information than before the launch of the CMA report. You can get some ‘typical’ costs on a few sites and on others you can build your quote from a base cost. I did note though that the cost builder did not allow me to add one of the biggest costs – the cost of cremation or burial therefore the quote would be less than true by about £1000-£1500! This again seems deceiving to me and not transparent. I also noted that corporate firms are seemingly ‘disguised’ as family run firms and again, this does not fit with the new transparency of the industry. A family firm is made so by the involvement and leadership of the family – not a corporation. So, one thing that is changing is this level of transparency but perhaps we still have someway to go there. We are debating working on our cost builder to offer more options; there is a fine balance of giving key information and overloading the bereaved we feel.
So, what is the true cost of a funeral? Well, this is indeed a difficult question due to differing costs of burials and cremations including church fees, cemetery fees and crematorium fees but it is worth stating that these third party fees aside, professional fees can differ by as much as £2000 or more! It is well worth you doing your research; saving money is something you should not feel guilty or embarrassed about when looking after your loved one.
Other aspects that are changing are the rise in popularity of ‘Green Funerals’ (environmentally more friendly options), interactive or creative headstones (using Smart phones and QR codes!) and live streaming of services (especially supportive right now through the Covid 19 restrictions). We are just updating our website with more Green Funeral information and when it is complete I will write a little blog to give more information on this topic. We haven’t yet experienced the QR code on headstones but it has huge possibilities for creating and sharing memories online. It opens the door to a whole new approach to funerals and remembering our loved ones.
The funeral industry needed to change, still needs to change, and it is. Changes are happening and things are shifting and we are more aware of our options including what we are paying for. It doesn’t have to be viewed as something not to be discussed until we are in a time of need. I have learnt so much since working in the industry and although still on a learning journey, I have been able to bring so many of the qualities I nurtured in teaching to my work. I feel passionately though, reflecting on what I have learnt, that more needs to be done in this industry to raise awareness and demand higher standards. We are striving at Hadaway & Denton to live up to these expectations and both Carl and I are Capricorns so do not let ourselves off one bit! We are highly self-critical and reflective and retain the approach that if we look after every one the same as we would someone in our own family then we are going someway to achieving what is needed in what is essentially the ‘care’ profession.
Monday offload complete! Hopefully these little written particles also give you an insight into our vision 🙂
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