After taking instructions, you promptly provide your client with a clear printed or written itemised estimate that clearly states why each charge has been included;

Any estimates you provide state clearly which costs are attributable to you and which costs will be paid to a third party on the client’s behalf. Third parties are named wherever possible;

You provide clients with a written itemised final account that is comparable with the written estimate provided. Any changes from the estimate to the final bill are clearly described;

You clearly explain any limitations or conditions on what you can do for the client, for example, because of the terms of a pre-paid funeral plan;

In taking instructions and during the course of your interactions with your client, you have proper regard to your client’s mental capacity or other vulnerability, such as vulnerability due to bereavement;

You clearly explain your fees to your client;

You explain in advance about any other payments for which the client may be responsible;

You discuss how the client will pay, including whether state financial support may be available;

You provide information in a clear and accessible form which is appropriate to the needs and circumstances of the client;

You ensure that disbursements included in your bill reflect the actual amount spent or to be spent on behalf of the client.

You carry out annual assessments of your refrigeration capacity requirements to help ensure you can make adequate provision for the year ahead;

You never take more deceased people into your care than you can accommodate in suitable refrigerated spaces; and

You have access to mortuary equipment that can accommodate a wide-range of body types.

You ensure all deceased people in your care are appropriately clothed or covered when not being actively cared for;

Where possible, you use a modesty cloth or other suitable covering to cover the genitalia and other sensitive body areas of deceased people when they are being actively cared for (e.g. during the embalming process);

You use an appropriate headblock to support the heads of all deceased people stored in your mortuary facility; and

You use a newly cleaned and disinfected tray for each deceased person you store in your mortuary facility.

You ensure every member of staff is informed in writing of the identity of their line manager.

Where you and another business jointly market services, the nature of the services provided by each business is clear.

Staff or subcontractor adhere to a set of defined trade standards, such as the Funeral Celebrant Accord (Funeral Celebrancy Council)

Your complaint procedure includes the ability to complain about the services of a third party subcontractor.

You and your/their staff keep a personal development record and take responsibility for your continued learning.

You require your/their staff to keep up to date with industry developments and devote time every month to their continued personal development.

You regularly review the training needs of your staff and invest in appropriate training and/or qualifications, relevant to the role undertaken.

You ensure DBS checks are carried out for all staff caring for deceased people, bereaved people and those with responsibility for ensuring compliance with legal and conduct obligations.

You have Service Level Agreements (SLA) in place for all third party contracted services, either customer based, service based, or multi-level as appropriate.

Having a written equality and diversity policy (which may be contained within one or more documents, including one or more policy documents, as appropriate) which is appropriate to the size of the firm and includes the following features: 1. a commitment to the principles of equality and diversity and legislative requirements, 2. a requirement that all employees and managers comply with the outcomes, 3. provisions to encompass your recruitment and interview processes, 4. details of how you will implement, monitor, evaluate and update the policy, 5. details of how you will ensure equality in relation to the treatment of employees, managers, clients and third parties instructed in connection with clients matters, 6. details of how complaints and disciplinary issues are to be dealt with, 7. details of the firm’s arrangements for workforce diversity monitoring, 8. details of how the firm will communicate the policy to employees, managers and clients.

Providing employees and managers with training and information about complying with equality and diversity requirements; and

Monitoring and responding to issues identified by your policy and reviewing and updating your policy.

Your systems and controls for identifying risks to client confidentiality are appropriate to the size and complexity of your business;

You comply with the law in respect of your data protection obligations;

You only outsource services when you are satisfied that the provider has taken all appropriate steps to ensure that your clients’ confidential information will be protected;

You have a clear General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance policy and make all clients aware of this; and

You specifically appoint a data protection compliance officer to monitor your compliance with the GDPR.

You inform the client of their rights to complain, including their right to complain about services or invoicing.

You have a written complaints procedure which:
1. is brought to clients’ attention at the point of taking first instructions;
2. is easy for clients to use and understand, allowing for complaints to be made by any reasonable means;
3. enables complaints to be dealt with promptly and fairly, with decisions based on a sufficient investigation of the circumstances;
4. does not involve any charges to clients for handling their complaints;

In the event that someone makes a complaint, providing them with all necessary information concerning the handling of the complaint;

Clients are informed, both at the time of engagement and at the conclusion of your complaints procedure, of their right to complain to any trade body that you belong to, the time frame for doing so and full details of how to do this; and

If you are regulated by an external body, you inform clients that services you provide are monitored and regulated by the relevant organisation(s) and how this affects the protections available to them.

Reporting to your regulators any disciplinary action taken against you by another membership body or regulator;

Actively monitoring your achievement of the outcomes in order to improve standards and identify non-achievement of the outcomes.