National Funeral Exhibition 2015

There were around 200 exhibitors at the NFE and it was very well attended by funeral arrangers, celebrants (and the C of E clergy, who were on their annual conference at a nearby venue!) so as representatives of the IoCF, we were able to talk to many people from all areas of our industry.

The overriding impression, when comparing such conversations with those of previous years at the NFE, was that certainly funeral directors and arrangers are much more aware of what a civil funeral ceremony is all about and what it can offer a client as an alternative to a religious or totally non-religious service. They all made the comment that the number of civil funeral services they arrange is definitely increasing rapidly. However, there were still quite a number of them who claimed that they did not know about the IoCF and we did our best to educate them right there and then! Gratifyingly, many of those were very keen to learn about what makes us stand out in the profession i.e. the dedication and time our members give to creating a unique ceremony, our code of practice and continual quality assessment and client feedback, and most arrangers who stopped at the stand took away our updated list of IoCF celebrants in their area.

Our Survey Said ...
We took the opportunity to carry out a short survey of funeral arrangers and, over the three days, a good number were happy to take part. The results can by no means be taken as a full picture across their profession but we collected enough data to obtain a good idea of where the IoCF and civil funeral ceremonies stand in their view.

Here are some of the findings, from those we surveyed:

• 34% said that more than 50% of the funerals they arrange are non-religious or semi-religious. No-one said that they only arranged religious funerals;
• 76% of the funeral ceremonies (of any kind) they arrange are held at a crematorium, 17% in a church. Only 4% of full ceremonies are held at a burial ground and only 2 arrangers stated that they arranged ceremonies at another venue.

We asked what alternatives they offer to clients who are unsure of what type of funeral service to have (we gave them a list which, as well as a minister, humanist or IoCF member, also included registrars, pagan celebrants and others, family or FD led ceremonies etc). From this:

• 50% said that they offer a 'civil celebrant' in general;
• 34% said that they specifically offer an IoCF member (this is a very encouraging figure, although we realise that those who agreed to the survey were probably already 'friends' of the Institute);
• Only 2% admitted to still only offering a minister of religion.

When asked them to rank, in order of importance, factors that they considered when offering a funeral celebrant of any kind:

• Reliability and personality came out on top;
• Then the reputation of the celebrant;
• Next, the creation of a bespoke ceremony;
• And then appearance of the celebrant.

Interestingly, the celebrant having an accredited qualification or being an IoCF member or member of any professional association all ranked the lowest.

Turning to arrangements, we asked which part of the arrangements they were happy for the celebrant to organise/book:

• 84% were happy for the music to be arranged by the celebrant;
• 62% the orders of service;
• 48% any photos / photo presentation.

Participants were given the opportunity to add their own comments and, where they did, those were mainly about the importance of the relationship between the funeral director and the celebrant. They expect to work closely together, in a professional manner, with the family's wishes being paramount, as you would expect. Likewise, one or two did comment that they did not like celebrants 'crossing the line' and doing their job - one quoted that they didn't like it when the celebrant started seating the family.

 
What can we learn?
A survey is only any use if we take the data collected and use it to inform our actions and some of the statistics above give us all food for thought.

We know that the number of civil funerals is growing and, whilst there will always be a need for religious funerals, clearly there is still room for a great deal of growth in ceremonies which will need our services. There is much we can all do to help 'educate' funeral arrangers, not just in recognising the benefits and quality guarantees of using IoCF members, but also in considering talking with their families about venues other than the crematorium, which would be much more appropriate for the type of funeral ceremony (prior to the Committal) which they want. IoCF members have quite extensive experience in this area which they could use to help the funeral arrangers to be able to develop the service and choices which they feel confident to offer their clients.

Perhaps the most important area for our focus should be the issue of how little importance funeral arrangers appear to give to the qualifications and professional association affiliation of the celebrants they use. This is something we can all play a part in - getting the message out about our standards, Code of Practice, on-going assessment and CPD, and our public liability insurance. All things which they should be looking for in each celebrant they recommend and work with.

It is, of course, important to stress that this was a realtively small survey, but we know participants included arrangers from both indepentend business owners and also from the large groups, such as Dignity and the Co-op, and as such, should serve as a reminder of the importance of making and maintaining the best working relationship possible with our funeral arrangers.