Franchise Insurance

Public Liability insurance covers you if someone in your care, or a member of the public, suffers an injury that is held by law to be your fault. Typical examples would be a visitor who slips on a
wet floor which had not been properly cleaned, or a child who traps their fingers in a door. Such incidents can lead to claims being made against groups and you need Public Liability insurance to protect your interests against such lawsuits.

If you employ anyone, you are required by law to take out Employers’ Liability cover. It is similar to Public Liability insurance but relates specifically to employees. Recent examples have included an employee injured when a cupboard fell off the wall, and an employee injured following a fall from a ladder.

Professional Indemnity insurance is designed to indemnify you against your liability to pay compensation and claimants’ legal costs for which you are legally liable arising out of any negligent act, error or omission, breach of duty, infringement of intellectual property rights, libel and slander or any other civil liability incurred in connection with the conduct of the business.

Individual needs and circumstances are not always easy to summarise. You may need to consider a wider variety of cover in addition to your liability insurances. The policy can provide Contents, Business Interruption, Personal Accident, Professional Indemnity, Directors’ Trustees and Officers’, Money, Personal Effects, and a wide range of other covers are available too! Just ask one of our team who will be happy to discuss these covers with you.

Voluntary workers are regarded as employees for the purposes of the Public Liability and Employers’ Liability insurances. Your legal liability for bodily injury to regular voluntary helpers is covered under the Employers’ Liability section.

Member to Member Liability is an extension of your Public Liability insurance which provides cover to individual members of the group so that they may be treated by the insurer as being insured themselves. As a result, group members are covered in the event that they accidentally injure other group members or damage their property.

These are a little-known aspect of the UK’s childcare protection system, but they can be very expensive. If a child suffers unexplained injuries, social services can convene a Public Childcare hearing at which every adult who has had responsibility for the care of the child – parents, grandparents, you, and your staff – could be called to answer questions. Those called should have legal representation since everyone else there will have it. Barristers don’t come cheap. Your Morton Michel policy provides cover for the legal costs of having to have legal representation at these hearings.

The excess is the amount you have to pay if you make a claim on your insurance. It is usually deducted from the total amount you are claiming for. For example, if you have contents cover with a £100 policy excess and a valid claim totalling £1,000. Your insurer will pay £900 towards your claim. There is no excess on our Public and Employers Liability sections. For an additional premium we can also extend the policy to cover contents and loss of revenue. There is no third party property damage excess under the Public Liability section of cover.

Liability insurance covers you for damages and costs that may be awarded against you in a Court of Law, when you have been found to be at fault. The Personal Accident sections provide an agreed amount of compensation in the event of an injury, such as loss of a limb or an eye, suffered by a group official or group child in an accident, irrespective of who may have been at fault. A full list of situations for which compensation would be payable is stated can be found in the Group Summary document.

Public Liability insurance provides cover for accidental bodily injury or physical damage to property of a third party, in the event of an incident occurring for which you are found to be negligent. Professional Indemnity insurance is concerned with errors or omissions you or your staff may inadvertently make in the course of your duties. For instance, you may unintentionally release confidential information about someone in your care. The Professional Indemnity cover available does also extend to cover libel and/or slander.

The policy covers all activities and services that are organised and provided by you as part of your business, other than those that are specifically excluded in the policy wording. An example of excluded activities are martial arts, combat or fighting sports, park/street running and winter sports. Some activities have additional conditions for cover to apply. 

Please make sure that you read the policy wording to ensure that you are adequately covered. If you are not registered with a childcare regulator, then you will be asked when you apply for the policy which categories of activities you provide. You can change the cover for your activities at any time by accessing your policy in your online portal.