When back in March, Humberside Police were forced to step in and arrest two people at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull on suspicion of preventing lawful burials taking place, the local funeral industry was thrown into crisis.
Police say a helpline they set up to support those affected by the Legacy situation received over 2000 calls in the weeks after news of the arrests broke.
With so many people in our community feeling a real sense of anxiety about who to trust with an upcoming ceremony, we sat down with one of the most trusted funeral directors around to see if things really are as bad as they seem.
How would you like to introduce yourself?
My name is Chris Fielder. I’m one of the partners of JG Fielder and Son— so I basically joined the business and at the bottom of the ladder, working in the workshop in 2010, I think it was, and then I worked my way up, doing each role up the ladder. Eventually becoming partner of the business.
Day-to-day my job for the most part is the management side of things, but obviously I still conduct funerals when required.
When you first heard reports of the situation at Legacy Funeral Homes what was your initial reaction?
Shock really, a little bit of disbelief.
It’s hard to understand exactly what’s gone on. As it’s an ongoing police investigation it’s not exactly clear what has happened but some of the things that appear to have happened are quite shocking really.
Have you ever heard of something like this happening before?
Nothing like this.
I mean, we’re all human and people make mistakes but not to this extent.
When things do happen, you have to be honest with families. You address them, you do what you can to rectify things. But to this extent, I’ve not heard of anything, nothing even close to this, really.
Since the news broke, have any of your clients expressed any extra concerns about the care of their loved ones?
I’d say we’ve had a handful here in York.
We own a couple of branches in The East Riding. They’ve had quite a few people talking about what’s gone on. There are a few people who have asked additional questions.
But nothing like what we expected, to be honest.
We thought we’d have had a few more. I would like to think that it’s our reputation that means that we’re not necessarily having to answer those questions for families.
What do you say to reassure people?
It’s just a case of being as open and honest as you as you can be with people. We’ve never tried to hide anything that we do. There’s a softer approach to talking to people about certain aspects of things, but nothing we do is hidden.
If anyone does have concerns about a director, what kind of questions would you encourage them to ask? Is there anything specific you’d recommend?
It’s going to be things like “where are the deceased actually being looked after?”
As in, “Is it the same premises where you know you’re sat at the moment or is it going to be somewhere off site?” Is it somewhere you can actually visit if you so choose? For example, we’ve actually got a preparation room which, if families want to be involved in that process, which a few do, they’re more than welcome to come in, by appointment, to take part if they choose.
It’s things like— asking questions about the kind of facilities that people have, is it refrigeration? Do you embalm everybody?
Asking if they’re members of different sorts of trade associations [like the] National Association of Funeral Directors or the Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors. The reason being for those ones,
is that the premises are inspected and there’s a code of conduct.
If for any reason they’re not being met, then to remain a member, you have to address them and obviously make any amendments. In particular with Legacy, at one time they were a member, but they declined to continue their membership.
One way to prevent a funeral director from escaping inspections would be through an independent regulator. Is that something that you would be supportive of?
I think it needs to be a measured balance. Regulation is a good thing, but equally companies have to be able to do something that makes them flexible for families. In terms of care of the deceased, there should certainly be a set standard for what’s required.
I think there needs to be regulation, that is clear. I just think it needs to be brought in in a good way and not just jumped into headfirst because of what’s happened with Legacy.
Would you be happy to reassure our readers that the majority of funeral directors in our area can be trusted?
In terms of the East Riding following on from Legacy, the council’s been around and inspected every single funeral home that falls under their jurisdiction, two of which were ours.
If there has been anything raised, it’s been extremely minor things. We haven’t seen any reports to say exactly what they are, but just in talking to the inspectors overall, they’ve been extremely pleased with what they’ve seen.
We do visit a lot of other funeral homes. The vast, vast majority of them are looked after very well. High standards that we would expect. It’s very unusual is what’s happened with Legacy.
What signs should people look out for that a director shouldn’t be trusted with the funeral of a loved one?
The biggest things to look out for are — if you are asking some of the questions, I mentioned earlier— that they’re not willing to answer them.
There are times where you might not be able to get an answer immediately and they have to come back to you on certain things. But if there’s any sort of hint of not giving a full enough answer, or if they’re trying to divert away from a question rather than just giving you an honest answer and that’s going to be the biggest red flag really.
If you want to see the facilities, ask to see them. It may be that you can’t see them immediately because there’s another family there, but arrangements can be made for that to happen.
Again, speak to family and friends, get recommendations on who they’ve used and who they’re happy with, and one of the biggest things when it comes to arranging a funeral is actually the relationship with the funeral director. The individual that you’re dealing with. At the end of the day, all funeral directors have access to the same services, the same suppliers, things like that.
Any final comments?
It’s certainly extremely unusual that this has happened. The vast majority of people in the funeral business are good, honest people who do the job because they care and because they want to help people.
If you’d like to speak to one of the team at JG Fielder & Son to help organise an upcoming service, call 01904 654460.
If you have any personal concerns about events at Legacy that you’d like to speak through, call the police helpline on 0808 281 1136.
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