Shoobridge Funeral Services

Shoobridge Funeral Services named runner up for Regional Funeral Planner of the Year Award Honiton and Exeter funeral directors Shoobridge Funeral Services have been named a runner-up for the best small pre-paid funeral planner in the South West region at this year’s Funeral Planner of the Year Awards. The event was orchestrated by one of the UK’s market-leading funeral plan providers, Golden Charter. Hosted by the BBC’s Dan Walker, the awards mark the biggest annual gathering of independent funeral directors in the UK with this year’s event taking place at the Park Plaza London Riverbank Hotel. Paul Shoobridge, CEO of Shoobridge Funeral Services, said, “This not only recognises the hard work our team has put in again this year, but endorses our absolute belief in a marketing process that can save the consumer money but is primarily designed to put the client in charge of his or her own future funeral, whilst giving their families and loved ones peace of mind at poss

Baby Loss Awareness Week 2017 Every year since 2002, in the UK, between the 9 th and the 15 th October, the renowned charity Sands, the ‘Stillbirth and neonatal death charity’, in collaboration with 40 other leading UK charities, recognises, ‘Baby Loss Awareness Week.’ The week is a dedicated opportunity internationally, for parents, their families and friends not only to acknowledge and commemorate the lives of precious babies who have died, but equally to unite with others in similar circumstances. It also aims to raise awareness about pregnancy and baby loss in the UK; to pursue improvements in support services and research, and to improve ‘policy’ regarding bereavement assistance. Furthermore, it is a demonstration to key stakeholders as to the progress of ongoing and past efforts in achieving the aims surrounding bereavement support relating to pregnancy and baby loss. In recent years, the campaign has helped in tackling situations such as: breaking the silence

Dementia Action Alliance – National Group Dementia Action Alliance brings together leading organisations across England committed to transforming health and social care outcomes for people affected by dementia. Dementia Action Alliance membership and what it means to Paul Shoobridge of Shoobridge Funeral Services and Exmouth & District Funeral Services. Why get involved? On a personal level, my grandmother suffered from dementia for more than 10 years. Socially, and in my work as a funeral director, I am constantly subjected to and involved with families in similar situations and as such, have first-hand experience of clients and their families coping with dementia. Many of the nursing and residential care homes I visit deal with the ever-increasing numbers of people who are living longer with numerous forms of ‘age-related’ diseases. All these factors not only affected me but prompted me to enrol myself, and our ‘team’ at work, on a ‘Dementia Friends’ awareness s

In the past, funeral businesses were family-owned operations that would serve whole communities and in some small towns, this set-up still exists. However, larger chains have been gradually buying-out family businesses often, when senior members of the family retire. These large funeral chains tend to keep in place, the name of the family that originally ran the funeral home. Every branch of ‘Dignity’, a British funeral corporation, is run under a family name and 30% of Co-operative funeral homes – notably the largest funeral corporation in the UK, trade under a family’s name. When these businesses buy ‘independent’ funeral homes, they purchase the use of the family name and consequently, their reputation and ‘good will’. ‘Many customers visit funeral homes with family names in the belief they are supporting a local, independent, business or because they would rather place their trust in a family-owned organisation rather than a large conglomerate’ – reports the The Guardia