Bereavement Services

As required by the Health and Safety Executive, local authorities carry out a rolling programme of headstone safety inspection in the cemeteries.  In Barnsley , the Council are responsible for 20 cemeteries and 12 closed churchyards, with over 30,000 headstones and memorials. Many of these are in a poor condition and have the potential to cause danger.  Safety Technicians carry out an inspection of each headstone/memorial, looking for damage, breaks, leaning etc. A "topple test" is carried out to ascertain whether the headstone is stable enough to withstand the pressure of someone trying to push it over.

Where the headstone/memorial is found to be unsafe, work is carried out to make it safe, usually by laying the stone down to prevent the risk of injury to members of the public. Where members of the family/owners of the grave can be traced, they will be notified of the action taken wherever possible. They may then wish to arrange for the headstone to be repaired.

This inspection process for cemetery and headstone inspections requires the capture and storage of large volumes of data. Each inspection generates a detailed record of the location, name and condition of the headstone. Due to the sensitivities involved in bereavement services it is considered essential practice to capture and save for future reference the detail of all inspections and actions. This action is supported by the capture of digital images at each stage of the process.

Motile Cemetery and Headstone Inspection Functionality 

• Creation and maintenance of reference data for local masons, cemeteries, memorial types, materials, actions, inspections sources and citizen notification types
• Creation and maintenance of headstone records, including the ability to record section, row, number, height, material, type, base, kerbs, mason, family name, additional names, category.  GPS coordinates are automatically recorded, facilitating return trips to individual headstones
• Creation and maintenance of headstone inspection records including ability to record lean angle, cracking, rocking, priority, topple test results and comments
• Creation and maintenance of inspection action records and scheduling of future inspections
• Digital image capture and direct upload into database to be stored with headstone inspection and action records
• Generation of electronic documents (mobile reports) pre-populated with system data for review and optional signature capture in the field
• Real-time browse and search facility for any data in the system.  Search functions can be made available to the public, allowing headstone records to be examined for e.g. genealogical research.

Project Nomad funded and available to all with no license costs

The system can be implemented using either a hosted model (where Kirona manage the servers and databases in their data centre, avoiding the need for hardware procurement) or installed on the council’s own hardware.  In both cases Kirona offer the system license free and will provide a quote to cover implementation and support costs.  Integration with existing systems can also be carried out where appropriate.

 www.projectnomad.org.uk/products/cemeteryheadstoneinspections.html