Insurers are raising premiums in response to increasing employee injury and liability claims in the sector, however there is a lot you can do to keep care home insurance premiums low, here are some tips on getting a good insurance deal.
Firstly, lets look briefly at the problem. The care sector is dominated by geriatric homes and care for incapacitated individuals, requiring manual lifting and assistance on a daily basis. This care is often delivered by low paid and poorly trained staff who incur injury caused by repetitive bad practice over time.
With the recession and people have less money in their pockets, the bringing of Personal Injury claims became all too attractive and this has seen a spate of these types of small claims flowing into Insurers offices. Similar increases have also been seen in general slip & trip claims as the marketing campaigns of ‘No win no fee’ solicitors has attracted claimants. In another area, larger claims arose from abuse of care users and while less frequent these added to the claims tally of Insurers.
Insurance is a business, and prices have to reflect a profit for the Insurers, premiums therefore started to rise, sometimes in an extraordinary way.
So what should Care Home owners do to guarantee they get the best deal from insurers? Here are some ideas:
- Make sure to use a broker who can access a range of Insurers for quotes, so there is some competition between providers.
- There are also dedicated schemes for certain sectors, speak to your broker about how to access these.
- Introduce a medical questionnaire for new staff, include questions about back pain and upper limb disorders.
- Also ask staff to complete a medical questionnaire when they leave your employment.
- Ensure you have a manual handling risk assessment and training matrix within your Health & Safety documentation.
- Every now and then send a senior staff member on a round with a junior staff member to ensure they are still following best practice.
- Keep full documentation on any training and audits.
- If staff do not follow your Health & Safety policy, they are breaking the Law, inform them of such and if necessary use disciplinary proceedings.
- Do not wait for a back problem to become a claim, if an employee complains of a bad back take immediate action to prevent workplace injury.
- Finally, ask your broker to undertake a full review of the cover and sums insured under the policy to identify any further cost savings.