Trust Centre : Our Terms of Business, Policies and Procedures

Our Operational Guidelines

Purpose

This policy is about us providing a proper standard of care for deceased people who are entrusted into our care, to ensuring we only act when authorised to do so, and we are competent to carry out our business.

Scope

To ensure we provide ahigh quality service at all times, and a high standard of client care.

Policy Principles

We will:-

1.We will ensure before taking a deceased person into our care that we have taken all reasonable steps to establish the identity of our contractual client, that they have authority to instruct us, that they have consent for us to act and they have agreement from all family parties asto the funeral arrangements and have where appropriate considered if the deceased left any funeral instructions, and the identity of the deceased person.

We will ascertain the deceased’s full name and address, date of birth, date of death, whether the death has been confirmed bya medical professional, location of the deceased person, contact details for the contractual client.

We will obtain signed authorisation or in caseswhere the contractual client is not present, receive written acknowledge of the transfer of the deceased person and us being asked to do so.

We will check the identification of the deceased person when we collect them, and we will place our own id bracelet on their wrist and ankle, which will remain in place.

We will ensure that when we are conveying the deceased person from their place of death, we do so with dignity and respect and they are covered at all times in line with law.

Typicallywe use our private hearse vehicle to collect the person who has died. We willgo straight to our funeral home, and place them in our clinical, secure, mortuary facilities in a suitable bay/position for their size, where they will stay until their funeral.

Our clinical, secure mortuary facilities are at our Blenheim Road funeral home,where we have procedures to maintain security to ensure the person is safe atall times. Only authorised personnel can enter, and those whom enter must record time in and out and reason for entering that area; such data andprocedures is monitored by Amanda-Louise.

If we areasked to convey the deceased person to another location for example for medical examination, then we will inform our contractual client, and record th einformation.

2.Preserve the dignity of the deceased people inour care at all times by ensuring they are appropriately clothed or coveredwhen not actively cared for;

Where possible, we will use a modesty cloth orsuitable covering to cover the genitalia and other sensitive body areas o fdeceased people when they are being actively cared for (such as embalming process)

We will use a suitable headblock or pillow tosupport the heads of all deceased people that are in our mortuary facility.

We will use cleaned and disinfected tray for everydeceased person we store in our mortuary facility

We provide appropriate space for every deceasedperson in our mortuary facility in our purpose built refrigeration, and we donot have more than we can accommodate at any one time.

We have a service level agreement with another funeral director to use their facilities should our mortuary become full, and we will notify you if we need to use their mortuary.

If you have opted for a cremation and your loved one has an electronic device inside theirbody, such as a pacemaker, Amanda-Louise or our other Funeral Directors willcarry out the procedure for removing the same, as its a requirement of thecrematoria. We will ask for written consent from the contractual client forthis procedure.

Whilst we do not automatically embalm, if you have chosen for your loved one to havethis, you will sign consent, we will ask a specialist to carry out thisprocedure.

Should our contracted client wish to spend time with their deceased person whilst in our care, we will help them to do so, including if they wish to support with any washing, dressing or adding any items to beplaced in their coffin or casket. The contractual client will need to identify anyone who can spend time with the person who has died in our care, and those individuals must abide with our safeguarding and security requirements when in our facility in order for us to protect everyone. We will check that everyone has permission to spend time with the deceased. Everyone will need to sign a document to indicate their name as our evidence to indicate who has spent time with the deceased. We will have made notes of valuables that the person who has died has with them as you enter, and this is checked again when you leave. We will ask to leave mobile phones in our office area, this is to prevent anyone taking images or livestreaming whilst with the person who has died.

We will gently wash the deceased person in readiness for their funeral, and if requested to do so, will change their clothing as agreed.

We will ensure that the coffin and any items within the coffin meet the criteria of the crematoria, cemetery or natural burial ground for example.

3. We will keep accurate and comprehensive writtenand/or electronic records of every deceased person brought into our care, andwill keep such information for a minimum period of five years. Such recordswill show all actions, activities and location at all times.

We will carry out an assessment of every deceased person in our care at least once every 24 hours (Monday to Friday). (this doesnot apply to cremated ashes).

Our records will be evidence to allow any regulator, without assistance from us, who the deceased person is, where theyare/have been, support given to, and information relating to any jewellery or valuables.

We will ensure all information is accurate when supporting our contractual client to apply for a cremation or burial, and thatthe coffin name plate information is correct to satisfy the needs of the crematoria or cemetery personnel.

If we have been instructed to collect the crematedashes (where appropriate) then we will ensure we collect the correct ashes, and sign for them, taking them back to our funeral home to be stored in a lockedcupboard in a locked room. We will record the journey of the cremated ashes.

If the contractual client wishes us to spilt theashes into separate containers, we will do so with care and recording the same.

When the contractual client wishes to have theashes in their procession, we will ask them to sign for them.

We will never withhold cremated ashes in lieu ofpayment of our services.

4. We willensure that we are appropriately trained and knowledgeable in the work that wedo.

Our mortuary facilities are only accessed byauthorised people.

We have suitable mortuary facilities and have access to the same. We carry out regular inspections of our mortuary facilitiesa nd equipment.

Our interior and exterior of our funeral home and our vehicles are in a good and well maintained condition.

We will appropriate policies and procedures inrunning our business in terms of governing structure, with all legislative andregulations including Health and Safety and Data Protection Law.

We have appropriate insurance cover.

We work in a transparent, honest way providingchoice and information so that our contractual clients can make the rightdecision for their wants and needs.

We have appropriate policies and procedures relating to other areas such as terms of business, privacy, accessibility, equality and diversity, code of ethics and complaints handling, health & safety and risk assessments.

Any breaches to this policy then this needs to bereported to Amanda-Louise Knight to be investigated. This policy will bemonitored and reviewed annually.

Policy Updated - April 2026

Next Policy Review - April 2027

Policy Owner - Amanda-Louise Knight

Policy Reviewer - Amanda-Louise Knight

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