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Insurance: news

Last updated on 21 January 2025

Information on Kingswood Centres going into Administration

People may have seen that Inspiring Learning Group, owners of Kingswood Centres, have gone into administration with 7 centres closing.

PGL have acquired 3 of their centres:

  • Grosvenor Hall - Ashford, Kent
  • Dearne Valley - Doncaster, South Yorkshire
  • Overstrand Hall - Cromer, Norfolk

For the three acquired centres, it will be "business as usual" and PGL will honour existing bookings at the price agreed, which is great news for schools, especially as PGL won't see any of the money previously paid to Kingswood by way of deposits.

PGL have worked with the Administrators, Teneo, to provide a PGL alternative for all those booked to travel with Kingswood at the other seven closing centres and will work with a retained team at Kingswood over the next twelve weeks to transfer as many trips as possible over to PGL “with no financial impact to parents".

PGL will accept new bookings from affected Kingswood customers at the price previously agreed with Kingswood, and further reduce that price to recognise any monies previously paid to Kingswood.

Some schools may have to amend dates/durations but may be assured PGL will work closely with them on this.

One of the immediate priorities is to increase standards at the 3 centres PGL are acquiring and this includes ensuring the centres gain or maintain their Quality Badge.

What schools need to do:

Schools booked at the three centres listed above - PGL will make contact directly with the schools in due course to progress their booking, as per usual.

Schools booked to travel to one of the closing centres need to contact Kingswood on 0800 655 6564 or via email sales@kingswood.co.uk and give permission for PGL to be given their details so that PGL can contact them to offer an alternative and support them more generally.

Insurance costs 2024/25

Hertfordshire County Council continues to offer all types of insurance. The Council ensures that as far as possible the cover offered remains competitive.

A marginal increase of 3% will be applied to property insurance from 1 September 2024 and 3% to liability insurance. The rate for computer insurance remains unaltered. The property rates go to 0.84 per sqm and £10.94 per pupil and liability to £4.32 per pupil. Engineering insurance rates are dependent on increases to the Average Weekly Earnings (AWE).

The Insurance Team will provide details of the cost of insurance for your school on receipt of your enquiry.

Please note: The Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) offered to academy status schools by Central Government/DfE is available to all Local Authority Maintained schools. The rate from 1 April 2024 has increased by 8.7% to £25 per pupil.

Please be aware that the RPA does not provide engineering or motor insurance; however, HCC can continue to offer this cover to schools.

Cyber cover

Although the RPA are offering some limited cyber insurance cover it is subject to the school complying with all of the following four conditions:

1) You must meet the Department for Education’s Cyber security standard relating to backups. The standard states:

“You should have at least 3 backup copies of important data, on at least 2 separate devices, at least 1 must be off-site.”.

2) National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) training: All Employees or Governors who have access to the school’s information technology system must undertake NCSC training annually. In the event of a claim the School will be required to evidence that any Employee or Governor involved in the claim has undertaken the NCSC training. NCSC training to be completed by start of the Membership Year.

3) The School must register with Police CyberAlarm.

4) The School must have a Cyber Response Plan in place

The Council’s insurance team are currently exploring the possibility of offering some form of cyber cover.

School trees and their risk

Trees on school grounds are recognised to hugely benefit school children and allows them to enjoy discovering nature and greatly enhances the school environment.

However, schools also have a duty to maintain and manage the risks that the school trees and vegetation pose. These risks include safety to pupils, parents, staff, to property and our neighbours property.

The Insurance Team receive a variety of claims as a result of school trees, which include personal injury, damage to cars, inside and outside the school grounds and damage to neighbouring property including subsidence to neighbouring property. This can be costly to both the school and Hertfordshire County Council.

As we all know, climate change is a hot topic of conversation, and due to the extreme weather conditions that we are experiencing, we are seeing an increase in claims received with trees falling and causing injury and damage including subsidence claims. In view of this you need to ask yourselves the question: How do we look after our trees? Are we able to demonstrate the maintenance of our school trees to help defend the schools position should a claim be received?

Therefore you have to be mindful of the above, and ensure that you are actively managing and maintaining these risks. This can be done by ensuring that you have regular inspections and a maintenance plan in place to maintain the trees on the school site. Having this documented and in place will help the Insurance Team successfully defend such claims.

If you have any further questions please email insurance@hertfordshire.gov.uk

Last updated on 21 January 2025