Information for SAIF Members

Why choose SAIF Care?

As a funeral director you will often see people at the start of their journey of grief and know that their feelings of loss and sadness don’t end with the funeral. There is a growing need for those struggling to come to terms with their loss to seek support following the death of someone close.

That is why SAIF Care was launched in 2018, in partnership with SAIF and Professional Help, to enable SAIF Funeral Directors to go above and beyond for bereaved people that are in their care to ensure that they get the support and advice they need at life’s most difficult times. By providing support early on you can be assured that you are helping many people through their grief journey.

SAIF Care is now used far and wide by funeral directors across the UK who now offer this exclusive service to bereaved people. If you are not yet offering SAIF Care to your clients please do get in touch to find out how you can help bereaved people in your care.

A SAIF Funeral Director benefit

SAIF Care is a bereavement support service available for clients of all full SAIF Funeral Directors who are over the age of 18 and wish to access bereavement support. The service includes:

Helpline on Freephone 0800 917 7224
Email at help@saifcare.org.uk
SAIF Care Chat * – an online webchat which provides emotional support for bereaved people from trained bereavement counsellors

*The SAIF Care Chat box is available to link to on your Funeral Director website, if you would like to, via the SAIF or Funeral Advice websites.

If you would like to embed the SAIF Care chat box on to your website, there is a monthly subscription fee. However, if you set up a Counselling Fund with Professional Help Limited to provide counselling sessions for your clients, we will waiver the subscription.

If you have any queries about the above or you've not yet set up a Counselling Fund for your clients and would like to know more please contact us.

Listen to Lara Collins from H. Porter & Sons Independent Funeral Directors talk about why they offer the SAIF Care Service to their families. A special thanks to Mark Binnersley and Lucy Porter for making this video for SAIF Care.

How you can promote SAIF Care to the families that use your funeral service

Talk to all your staff and ensure they know the service exists and they understand what is available from your funeral services.

Talk to all your customers about the service.

Have the SAIF Care leaflets printed and send out with your company information (see below).

Have the SAIF Care service information and the SAIF Care logo on your website (see below).

Install the SAIF Care Chat box on your website (contact us for details).

Link to this website from your website – www.saifcare.org.uk.

Send a press release article to your local press (see example below).

Follow SAIF Care on Facebook and Twitter and mention us in your social media posts.

Example Press Release

Press Release Covering Email

Frequently asked questions

How do we look after your clients?

When a client contacts the SAIF Care service a member of our supportive team will listen to their experience, answer any questions they may have about bereavement or bereavement support and share helpful information about our services and other appropriate organisations that they might wish to contact. The helpline is open from 9am-9pm, Monday to Friday and although we endeavour to personally answer every call, there may be times when the phones are busy, in which case the client will hear an answerphone message where they will be asked to leave their contact details and tell us the best time for us to call them and we will ring them back as soon as possible – at the latest on the next working day.

All SAIF Care staff are trained in counselling skills and bereavement care and our Associate Counsellors are highly qualified professional counsellors who have successfully completed our rigorous application process. All of our people are friendly, reassuring and supportive as well as being fully vetted and insured.

Sometimes a client may speak with you about accessing support, but you may feel that they need some help in making the first step, so with the client’s permission you too can contact SAIF Care, pass along their details and ask us to contact the client directly.

SAIF Care is a free to access helpline, which clients can call as often as they need to. Calls are generally limited to about one hour in duration. The email service offers the opportunity for clients to communicate with a counsellor either on a one-off or ongoing basis, and our webchat service is available for instant chats. We also normally limit webchats to one hour in duration. If the client is looking for longer term counselling support, we can help them to find appropriate local bereavement organisations, or look into counselling.

What happens with clients under the age of 18?

Is counselling available through the SAIF Care service?

Is this service only for our clients?

Have more questions? Contact us.

Helpline 0800 917 7224

Information for SAIF Members

Why choose SAIF Care?

A SAIF Funeral Director benefit

How you can promote SAIF Care to the families that use your funeral service

Frequently asked questions

'The counsellor was excellent'

'I found the counselling sessions so helpful'

'The client has spoken to me about the positive impact the counselling sessions are having on them'

'I felt understood and supported from my initial contact with SAIF Care'

'Very useful, helped me in so many ways'

'Very understanding service'