Talking Politics with Councillor Jane Scullion

Children’s homes, pest control, parks, traffic lights and environmental health inspections of fast-food joints – Calderdale Council covers a very wide range of services. But there is one service that isn’t well known, and it is a service which illustrates the role that we have in looking after everyone in the borough.

Public health funerals are provided by local authorities for people who have passed away and have no next of kin, or whose next of kin, relatives or friends are unable or unwilling to make the necessary arrangements for a funeral. They are designed to protect public health and to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect, regardless of circumstances.

This week I have been talking with one council officer about the role she plays when people have passed away alone. She told me about the responsibility of the council when they get a referral from the Coroner’s Service or social workers. Sometimes the deceased is someone who has become estranged from their families due to mental health problems and sometimes it may be an elderly person who now has no living relatives left.

Following notification, she undertakes a painstaking process of searching for next of kin, even using a genealogy service if necessary, and checks all the council’s own records. Searches are also made to see if the deceased left any wishes about what should happen after they passed away and these are respected.

If no friends or relatives can be traced, working with a funeral director and a local religious or humanist celebrant, a small funeral is held under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984. Costs can be recovered, but if the person had no assets then the cost is covered by the public purse.

This is all very very sad, but I think it points to two things that give me comfort. The first is to be grateful that public services like ours exist and I would argue that the fact that they do exist demonstrates that we are a decent society that looks after our residents at the end of their lives in the most dignified way possible.

The second thing that gives me comfort is the feedback that our council officer often gets from the family and friends after they make contact, relieving the burden of guilt and shame about losing contact. Families are usually so pleased to be contacted and often take comfort from taking over the funeral arrangements. It is also satisfying to provide a dignified funeral, as we did in the case of a young family on low income and not on qualifying benefits for funeral expenses, where the father

passed away. The family were able to attend to say their goodbyes in the usual manner.

We are fortunate here that such circumstances are rare, but we are also lucky to be living in Calderdale where kindness is so widespread, and people really do look out for their neighbours.