The ICCM Journal | Spring 2022 | V90 No. 1
59
achievements and awards recognised - afternoon tea! Covid, What Covid! We at Nene Valley crematorium are very proud of not only getting through the worst of the Covid-19 lockdown with little impact on us because we adopted a “can do” approach, but what we as a team managed to achieve during the external chaos happening around us. Our achievements including: Success in being selected to receive The Northamptonshire Rose Award, raising our Bereaved Charter Gold Award position by 6 points, presentation of a £10,000 donation to our chosen charity from the recycling from metals scheme, and finally four team members passed their cremator technician training scheme certificate (CCTS). So how do you celebrate all this in one afternoon, well, once we were allowed to dip a toe in the water, our events and commemoration assistant (me) organised a wonderful traditional afternoon tea with special guests and team members - because of restrictions at that time we were only allowed to have 30 people in attendance. Rose Award - our awards ceremony started with the Northamptonshire Rose Award. This was to be presented by the High Sheriff of Northamtonshire. However, the day before the presentation the High Sheriff received a positive covid test and sadly was unable to attend (that Covid still trying to get in our way). That was not going to stop our afternoon of celebrations. Our very own Councilor David Brackenbury (portfolio holder for bereavement services) stepped up at the last minute and gave us a brief rundown of what the award was all about, how we had been nominated and finally how we were chosen to receive such a high honor, which primarily was for keeping people safe during an unknown and fearful time, balanced against complying with the law/ guidance, but from a pragmatic “bereavement-led” approach. We are very proud of this award and were named by dignitaries as the unsung heroes of the pandemic. ‘To recognise those who have worked tirelessly as part of the COVID-19 response effort, Northamptonshire County Council, alongside the High Sheriff's office and Lord Lieutenancy launched the 'Rose of Northamptonshire' award scheme in October 2020, to recognise the county’s ‘unsung heroes’ of the COVID-19 pandemic.’ Bereaved Charter - Our business adheres to the ICCM standard, and processes and our aim is to keep to the highest standards as governed by the Charter for the Bereaved– our bespoke “standards” policy supports us with this. Nene Valley crematorium has only been open for five years and in our first three years we went from bronze status straight to gold status, bypassing silver, which we were over the moon to have achieved this is such a short space of time. We are always doing our best to keep to the highest standards so when we were told we not only kept our gold standard award, but had improved our position by 6 points, we knew this was something else to celebrate, because we could have achieved so much more had that Covid not been in the way! We enjoy working through the various sections of the Charter to improve “standards” and service provision year on year for bereaved people. We support this by including a team target within our individual annual
