Charity spotlight: The Coroners’ Courts Support Service

The Coroners’ Courts Support Service (CCSS) was created in 2003 by Roey Burden OBE so is now in its 21st year.

Roey created the charity having personally attended a coroner’s court for an inquest into the circumstances and causes of a loved one’s unnatural death. This can be a harrowing experience and is frequently described as the third worst day of a bereaved families’ life. The first is the death itself, the second is the final goodbyes of the funeral and the third is attending the inquest and having to relive all of that whilst being potentially confronted with incomprehensible medical, forensic details, reports and photographs.

It is an incredibly sensitive time and frightening experience. CCSS therefore provides vital emotional and practical support to those attending an inquest.

This support is provided through the expertise and experience of our specially trained volunteers. There are about 400 of them working in 49 Coroner’s Courts in England and Wales.

The volunteers guide the family members through the process, sit with them, answer questions and signpost them to follow up specialist services should they be needed. The volunteers also work in partnership with the coroner and their team to support the smooth running of the court and to ensure the bereaved families are at the heart of the service.

In addition to the court-based work, CCSS also runs a complimentary helpline for anyone needing information about the coronial system or support in preparing for attendance at an inquest.

Over the past 21 years the CCSS has supported 500,000 families through the inquest process.

My professional background is within the related fields of health, education and social care.

I have worked across all sectors, local authority statutory services, private independent companies and internationally with non-governmental agencies and charities. I’ve worked with most client groups, from ‘cradle to grave’ with varying degrees of vulnerabilities and life challenges.

I was appointed to the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in September 2022. On behalf of the Board of Trustees and under their direction I am responsible for the daily management and oversight of the charity, which includes strategic direction, operational and financial management.

The CCSS is a fabulous team of 400 volunteers and only a handful of staff working together to provide practical and emotional support to the thousands of bereaved families having to attend inquests into the unnatural deaths of their loved ones. We have a portfolio of positive and moving testimonials from families and individuals who have been in receipt of CCSS services.

The CCSS has a significant and exciting future ahead as we hope to develop services in all of the Coroner’s Courts across England and Wales.

The CCSS currently provides services to 49 Coroners Courts and our ambition is to provide services to all 80 Coroners Courts in England and Wales.

CCSS has the unequivocal support of the office of the Chief Coroner for achieving this. However, the CCSS is unable to provide services within a court without the express invitation of the Senior Coroner and with the agreement of the Local Authority in which the court sits to fund the CCSS service.

The CCSS does not receive any central government funding. The fees received from Local Authorities only cover 40% of the actual running costs of the services provided. CCSS is a registered charity and therefore relies on fundraising initiatives to cover the shortfall in funds.

Whilst the unequivocal support of the Chief Coroner’s Office is encouraging individual coroners to seek out CCSS services where we do not currently have services, the challenge is securing the local authority funding to part-finance the services.

This funding model severely hampers the CCSS’ ambitions to provide a service in all of the coroner’s courts.

The current economic climate is having a significant detrimental effect on our ability to raise funds and donations from the public, corporate sponsors and/or major donors.

The CCSS is a niche charity and sadly very little is known about the work we do, unless we’ve accompanied you through an Inquest. We are therefore reliant on donations and awareness raising for people to understand more about what we do.

CCSS are calling for an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to support our fundraising efforts, because without that the charity’s life span will be limited. Find out more here >

There are lots of others ways to get involved with CCSS, including volunteering. To find out more about what we do, or to get involved, please do contact me: [email protected].