Employment Claims and Expenses Insurance Employment Claims

The insurance cover is an optional extra for our standard Education Retainer package and offers the school the ability to cap its total employment costs, by covering the legal costs of defending any employment claims, together with any awards of compensation made to the employee, up to the maximum level of cover provided under the policy (this varies from £50,000 per claim to £100,000 per claim – see below).

The insurance policy we use is excellent in that, provided you follow our advice in situations that might lead to an employment claim, the insurer will honour any claims against the school.  We will advise on a pragmatic basis which is tailored to your school’s needs, making every effort to enable you to achieve the outcome you require, rather than advising on the basis of protecting the insurer against a possible claim.

In our experience, most other insurance policies in the market place require the insured to take advice from the insurer’s own retained legal or HR team, which places considerable constraints upon what the insured can do, as the advice is inevitably tailored towards preventing claims, even if this means that the insured is not able to achieve the outcome required.

The high level of insurance cover inevitably makes it more expensive than some competitors, but we are able to tailor the insurance product to the school’s requirements, by adjusting the level of cover under the policy and the degree of excess per claim that the school is prepared to carry.  Obviously, the higher the level of excess, the lower the insurance premium.

The highest level of cover available is £100,000 per claim (against any school), with an aggregate maximum of £1,000,000 per annum (per school).  However, cover is also available for up to £50,000 per claim, with an aggregate maximum of £500,000 per annum (per school).

The standard excess level is £500 per claim, but the cost of the insurance element of the package can be significantly reduced if the school is prepared to meet a higher excess on each claim.  This can be any amount up to £20,000 per claim.