National Association of Funeral Directors

The National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) is an independent trade association. It boasts that it has the broadest membership within the funeral profession, including more than 3,200 funeral homes nationwide. It also oversees the funeral undertaking business.

The NAFD claims that its lion logo “is acknowledged as a 'kite mark' of quality assurance, guaranteeing the highest professional standards.

The NAFD states that it takes the lead in education and is also responsible for initiating professional development programmes. It claims to represent the funeral profession at all levels of Government in respect of legislation and campaigns on issues affecting not only funeral undertakers, but also the bereaved. They provide opinion to Parliamentarians, Government agencies and consumer groups on all funeral matters.

Members of funeral trade associations are not regulated by law. They operate their own voluntary codes of practice and principles. Also, there is no requirement in law that a funeral undertaker belongs to one of the two known associations in the UK, the NAFD and The National Society of Allied & Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF).

Non-members are not subject to the codes.

In consumer terms, funeral undertakers are viewed as general traders of goods and services, and there is no legal requirement that they all offer the same company terms and conditions.

According to Geoff Caldwell of the NAFD, the terms and conditions published on the NAFD website is an example template only, and is designed so the member company can edit it in line with their own trading style. This raises the question of why all the members of NAFD are not held to a common code of practice, as is the case with many trade associations.

History

In 1898 a group of funeral undertakers set up the British Institute of Undertakers to raise the status of the profession. This organisation ceased to exist in 1901 and in 1905 the British Undertakers Association was founded. In the same year it also adopted a new constitution when it changed the name again to the National Association of Funeral Directors.

The Association has been supporting funeral undertakers since 1905. Members enjoy a wide range of business support services.

Bereavement Advice Centre

In partnership with ITC Legal Services, which says it is “the UK's largest probate provider”, the NAFD established the Bereavement Advice Centre, which calls itself a not-for-profit advice organisation. The Bereavement Advice Centre was launched at the House of Commons in June 2007.

The Bereavement Advice Centre claims to have been welcomed by a variety of organisations from health, funeral, legal and advice sectors and their policy committee oversees development of the service and includes clergy, hospital bereavement support, legal, care home, medical, funeral undertaking and local government representations.

An article in the Law Society Gazette in June 2009 drew attention to the “financial links” between the Bereavement Advice Centre and ITC Legal Services. The article says the link has “come under fire from solicitors”. Patricia Wass, a partner at Plymouth firm Foot Anstey and chairwoman of the Law Society’s wills and equity committee, is quoted in the article as saying that she

is concerned that registrars ‘up and down the country’ are giving BAC’s leaflets to people when they report a death. This might imply that local authorities sanction BAC’s promotion of ITC’s commercial interests.

The Bereavement Advice Centre publishes a website with the subtitle ‘What to do when someone dies’. Solicitors say that the organisation’s leaflets publicising a helpline promoting BAC’s commercial owner ITC Legal Services are also widely available at local authority registrars.

Under the heading ‘how to deal with probate’, the site lists four options, the second of which is ‘Use a specialist company such as ITC legal services’. It says the company is ‘competitive with solicitors on cost and less expensive than some banks’.

While the Bereavement Advice Centre does provide a link to ITC Legal Services, it does not provide any link to consumer agencies such as Consumer Direct, which gives people limited advice on how they can conduct their own funeral arrangements at low cost and in their own preferred way, coupled with consumer information intended to afford better protection to the funeral consumer.

ITC Legal Services has also signed a deal and agreed a third party arrangement with Barclays Bank. Jonathan Rayner, writing in the Law Society Gazette, describes the deal as follows:

As part of the arrangement, ITC has access to all of a deceased person’s Barclays Bank account details, and may refer the bereaved friend or relative to its own, commercially independent probate services division to arrange a home visit.

Rayner quotes Jeremy Groeger-Wilson, head of the wills and estates team at Kent firm Clarkson Wright & Jakes solicitors, as questioning ITC’s claims of price competitiveness: “He said he was also concerned that vulnerable people may feel under pressure to sign up to the probate service.”

Centre for Death and Society

The NAFD has entered into a deal with the Centre for Death and Society (CDAS) at Bath University “to help support research, education and policy development into the social aspects of death, dying and bereavement” and to provide training for professionals in the funeral sector.

The CDAS announced on its website:

A £150,000 four-year deal will mean a close collaboration between the UK’s leading death research centre and the primary funeral trade association which represents the interests of funeral directors conducting more than 80% of UK funerals in the UK, Europe and worldwide.

A quote from Alan Slater, Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Funeral Directors, suggests the direction that the research done by the CDAS will take:

We are delighted to be working closely with the Centre for Death & Society to foster greater understanding of the funeral director’s role and to support initiatives which will promote professional development within the sector.

CDAS has worked with the NAFD to develop a new Foundation Degree in Funeral Services. This takes the shape of a two year full time course (or three years part time), with the opportunity for students to top this up to a bachelor’s degree over an additional year. The flexibility of the degree will allow people to study whilst still in full time employment.

APPG for Funerals and Bereavement

The NAFD supports the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Funerals and Bereavement (APPG).

All-Party Parliamentary Groups are informal, cross-party interests groups. They are not part of the official structure of the Houses of Parliament and are therefore not accorded any role or powers by it.

The APPG for Funerals and Bereavement was set up and first registered in May 2002 and is chaired by Bill Olner, Labour MP for Nuneaton.

The group is required to register the names of its officers and of 20 qualifying members. This may be viewed on its Parliamentary Register entry.

In addition to the NAFD, the group is supported by Politics Direct, which provides secretarial services to the group.

Groups may or may not receive support from other organisations but if they do so and the benefit received by the group is below a certain financial value which is currently £1000.00 per calendar year, there is no requirement for the group to register it.

How groups keep their accounts is up to them, except that they must keep sufficient records to be able to meet the registration requirements detailed in the Guide to the Rules on All-Party Groups.

Any member of either House may turn up and speak at any meeting of any group; anyone else may only attend if invited by the group.

Groups have no official status in Parliament. Hence although some basic information about them is registered they are in most regards subject to a light regulatory regime, but are no under any lawful obligation to make their minutes or accounts publicly available.

It seems clear from an announcement made by NAFD after Gordon Brown became prime minister that the APPG for Funerals and Bereavement acts like a lobby group:

When Gordon Brown reshuffled his team after taking office as Prime Minister this summer, the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) wasted no time in seeking consultation with key Ministers on issues that are of concern to the funeral profession…. A General Election would have resulted in a further reshuffle, so Gordon Brown’s decision not to go to the country means the All Party Parliamentary Funerals and Bereavement Group can continue to develop its excellent relationships and solicit the support of the new Ministers.