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Agenda item

Public Health Funerals

To review public health funerals, looking at best practice, resourcing, mortuary costs, and the impact of Covid19.

 

Minutes:

7.1.      The Committee received a report from Alex Juon, Head of Service for South and West PPL, on public health funerals (PHF) in Westminster. It was noted that this was the first-time public health funerals had been scrutinised by a policy and scrutiny committee and this had been brought to Scrutiny in response to a recently published Quaker Social Action report on the accessibility of public health funerals.

 

7.2.      Officers put on record that the Council’s public health funerals provided a good and dignified service to residents.

 

7.3.      The Quaker Social Action Report noted that Westminster City Council could improve its awareness amongst its residents of the public health funerals offer. The Committee was advised that the report had stated that ‘Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster both lost two points for their information being very difficult to find. We acknowledge however that we do not know if the People First website is well-known to residents and if they would automatically look there for help.’

 

7.4.      The Committee was informed that there had been a spike in referrals for these funerals at the beginning of the pandemic, but that the referral rate had returned to pre-Covid19 levels. Officers informed the Committee that these funerals sometimes had lengthy delays, though this was due to delays at the mortuary and not Council procedure.

 

7.5.      The Committee asked about the use of ‘common graves’ for public health funerals and was advised up to a maximum of four people could be buried in a common grave.

 

7.6.      The Committee also discussed if the term ‘Public Health Funerals’ was the best phrasing to use and if other terms might be more accessible to the public. Witnesses informed the Committee that other local authorities referred to them as ‘contractual funerals’, but it was felt by Members that this phrase was not suitable either.

 

7.7.      Darren Hale (Environmental Health Services Officer, LB Brent), advising the Committee as an expert witness, informed the Committee that it was important to strike the right balance between promoting public health funerals to residents and the cost to the public purse.

 

7.8.      The Committee asked Officers how much costs were recovered from public health funerals and how the service forecasts its budget. It was noted that LB Brent recovered on average 75% of its costs per funeral and the Committee asked for further breakdown of recovered costs from Westminster.

 

7.9.      The Committee wished to support the resilience of the Council Officer working day in day out on arranging public health funerals and asked if the Officer had enough support. The Officer reassured the Committee that whilst it was an intensive job, the Council provided pastoral support.

 

7.10.    The Committee reviewed the questions in the report and decided that this agenda item should come back to this Committee at a later date.

 

Actions

1.         For the service to consider redefining public health funerals in its public communications.

2.         For Officers to update the Council’s website so that information about public health funerals is more easily accessible to Westminster’s residents.

3.         For Officers to share with the Committee a breakdown of costs recovered from public health funerals.

4.         Public Health Funerals to be added to the work programme for later in the municipal year (in sufficient time ahead of the re-procurement of the contract).

Supporting documents: