Insurance: useful information
Fire alarms and security/intruder alarm systems should be maintained but if they do fail, please contact insurance@hertfordshire.gov.uk as soon as possible so that we can inform our property Insurer.
Risk management is a central part of any organisation’s strategic management including schools. It is the process whereby the risks attaching to activities are recognised with the goal of preventing an event from disrupting those activities.
The focus of good risk management is the identification and treatment of these risks.
To assist with identifying and controlling risks, the Council’s Risk and Insurance Team have prepared the attached template risk register
Who can be key holders?
- a third party or school member that run the before and after school clubs.
- cleaners
- long term hirers
- school personnel and school governors
We advise the above should only be key holders to reduce the risk of theft and or arson occurring in your school, if theft and or arson occurs without forcible entry or exit your school would not be covered by the insurance policy.
Third party or cleaners
Contracts should already be in place with the third party of the before/ after school club and cleaners. In the contract it should state who the key holders are, the key holder’s responsibilities, the importance of locking up correctly, their responsibilities for returning the keys if they leave and a contact number will need to be provided of a member of the senior management team for them to call if necessary.
Long term hirers
If the hirer is a long term hirer, a signed agreement would need to be in place detailing who the key holders are, the key holder’s responsibilities, the importance of locking up correctly, their responsibilities for returning the keys if they leave and a contact number will need to be provided of a member of the senior management team for them to call if necessary.
If the hirer is a one off hirer and not a long term hirer they should not be a key holder.
Guidelines for key holders:
- keys holders should be kept to a minimum where possible.
- keys should not be given to third parties other than described above.
- ensure keys are returned when a staff member, hirer or cleaner described above leaves.
- hirers of the school need to be let in by a school staff member (site manager) if they are a one off hirer.
- the school then needs to be locked up by a staff member at the end of the hiring if they are a one off hirer.
- a staff member does not need to be on site for the duration of the hiring.
- rooms with valuable items in, such as IT Suites need to be locked or secured wherever possible. If an item was stolen i.e. a laptop without forcible entry or exit there would be no cover in place for this item.
- where possible restricted access should be given.
- if possible where the hirer is unknown or it’s a hiring where the numbers vary a head count should be undertaken in and out.
- it is recommended that key holders should be 18 years of age.
PTAs should have their own insurance; they will not be covered by HCC insurance policies. There might also be activities that will not be covered by HCCs policies and you may need to ask your PTA to insure.
Fireworks are not covered under HCC’s insurance policy.You could arrange a separate insurance cover or get your PTA to insure. The PTA should have their own insurance in place to cover these types of events.
If you are holding a fair- summer, Christmas etc. We advise that these are run and insured by your PTA.
Our insurance does not cover the use of bouncy castles; this would be down to the owner or supplier of the bouncy castle.
If you hire a bouncy castle from a third party, the third party should arrange their own public liability insurance. Their policy limit should be at least £5 million in any one occurrence.
Please be advised to ensure the following:
- risk assessments are in place.
- the bouncy castle should be maintained and suitable checks should be carried out before it can be used for the event.
- continuous supervision should be available during the activity by trained staff.
The diocesan is the property owner of Voluntary aided schools; however you are able to buy into our Liability, Motor and Schemes insurance.
The insurance policy in place does not provide cover for dogs in schools; however it does cover therapy dogs.
If the dog is being trained as a therapy dog and will be used as a therapy dog within the school, then cover would be in place once the dog was trained (all relevant training documentation would need to be held by the school).
Our Liability Insurer will not consider adding cover for a dog as a dog is considered a risk for several reasons and is not deemed educational.
Please see below link where a teacher informed the school they were allergic to dogs. The therapy dog went in to the school, the teacher had no direct contact but went on to have a severe allergic reaction to the dog:
School governors are covered under HCCs liability policies.
For more information please contact us by email: insurance@hertfordshire.gov.uk or by phone: 01992 555480
Please be aware that the courts allow minors until their 21st birthday to pursue liability claims or 3 years from the diagnosis of an illness, injury or learning disability. This means that notification of claims can be received many years after the completion of the pupils schooling. Record keeping and retention of documents is important. Following DPA guidelines will help if you were to receive a claim.
The leader of the forest school should have undertaken the forest school course and risk assessments provided by the forest school should be prepared by the fully trained leader.
More information about Forest Schools can be found at:
A school holiday security guidance document has been created to help you plan and ensure suitable security arrangements are in place.
If you do have any questions, please contact insurance@hertfordshire.gov.uk.
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.
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