Report of the National Committee on Infant Cremation 2014-15

2. Committee Working Practices

Meetings

The National Committee on Infant Cremation has met on four occasions to date: 9 October 2014; 26 January 2015; 11 June 2015 and 13 November 2015.

As well as the main Committee, there are also five separate Sub-Groups: Cremation Practice; Shared Cremations; Training and Communications; Forms and Record-Keeping and Policy and Code of Practice.

These Sub-Groups are each chaired by a member of the Committee, with membership drawn from relevant organisations and fields. These groups' dual role in maintaining oversight of- and undertaking practical work to complete - assigned Bonomy recommendations has been a critical factor in the progress made to date. In total, the Sub-Groups have met on 17 occasions over the last year, which is testament to their commitment to the tasks in hand.

Transparency and Communication

At its first meeting the Committee agreed its Terms of Reference, including an agreement on communications and transparency as follows:

'A dedicated area of the Scottish Government website will be set aside for publication of National Committee material and content. This will include:

• A brief summary of each Committee meeting, published shortly after the meeting has taken place
• Committee meeting agendas and, once approved, official meeting minutes
• A regularly updated overarching Work Plan
• Any relevant meeting papers, such as these Terms of Reference'

These webpages are available via the following link: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Policy/BurialsCremation/NCIC

Over time, the webpages have expanded to include the approved meeting minutes of the Committee's Sub-Groups and also a separate 'Resources' section, where Committee and/or related outputs are collated and available. This includes all key documents mentioned within this report.

Attendance and Participation

Meeting attendance and participation levels have been high over the initial year. This is expected to continue, although meeting frequency is expected to reduce to once or (at the most) twice a year now that the majority of Lord Bonomy's Infant Cremation Commission recommendations are either completed or well underway.

Parent participation and involvement on the Committee and its Sub-Groups has been of immense value to its work over the last year. For various personal reasons however, some have required to reduce or withdraw their membership and engagement over time, including the parent representatives on the main Committee.

The Committee has decided that there is no question of putting any pressure on any parent representative to attend or participate in Committee related meetings, and also that it could be intrusive to re-establish contact with previously involved individuals who may rather wish to move on and away from these matters. For that reason, the National Committee and other Sub-Groups will not pro-actively seek representation from affected parents, but will rather accept nominations or volunteers from amongst the group of affected parents.