The National Association of Funeral Directors and its members share the national sense of utter revulsion at the crimes of David Fuller. As a profession devoted to caring for deceased people and supporting their loved ones as they say goodbye, we cannot begin to imagine what the families involved are going through and they are in our thoughts.
We note that, in a debate in the House of Commons on Monday (8 November 2021), The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, indicated that the forthcoming public inquiry into what happened in the Kent hospital mortuary should be expanded to include lessons learned from – and for – all settings where deceased people are cared for, saying: “There are a number of settings that rightly need to be looked at, including, for example, local authority mortuaries, private mortuaries and other settings, such as undertakers. I think the inquiry should be open to all of that, and I think we would want to see that reflected in the terms of reference.”
The funeral profession has much to contribute to these considerations. Secure access to mortuaries, restricted to authorised persons and provision of Disclosure and Barring Service checks are in The Funeral Director Code, to which all of our 4,100 funeral home members must abide. In addition, member funeral homes are regularly inspected, to ensure that they are routinely operated to high standards.
To further strengthen these safeguards, an independent funeral standards body, IFSO, is being launched in early 2022, which will take over responsibility for monitoring standards of care in funeral homes – providing the public with reassurance over the standards of care their loved ones will receive prior to their funeral.
This is not to say that there are no further improvements that could be made – but it will be important that any steps which result from this inquiry are proportionate to each setting. The NAFD therefore welcomes the public inquiry and commits to working with the government to support its work, ensuring that the high professional standards achieved by the funeral profession in care of deceased people is understood and that there are no unintended consequences for funeral directors or bereaved families from any reforms brought in as a result of this inquiry