Showing kindness, compassion, and supporting those who need it most, is what your people do best. Domiciliary care insurance is there for when you’re the ones needing support.
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Professional indemnity insurance defends you against claims of negligence, breach of confidentiality, dishonesty, libel and slander.
Public liability insurance covers third-party property damage and injury caused by you or your business.
Employers’ liability insurance is a legally required cover for any business with staff.
Caring can be a difficult job. It takes a certain kind of person to look after others in a safe and empathetic way.
Despite your due diligence, some of the people you place can disappoint. And if they do, your client will be pointing the finger directly at you.
Having so many workers in different places, doing different things, for different people, all at the same time…makes having the right domiciliary care business insurance essential for your peace of mind.
Even if none of that worries you (it should…), it’s a legal requirement to be registered with the CQC, and have insurance, if you’re providing in-home care. And we reckon that’s reason enough to get it.
If you’re running a domiciliary care agency, supplying carers to clients’ private homes, you’ll need suitable insurance for in-home care providers.
To be registered as a domiciliary care service, you need to be approved by the CQC (Care Quality Commission) or Care Inspectorate (Scotland and Wales). And to be approved by any of these governing bodies, you’ll need to have a certain level of insurance cover in place.
So it’s imperative you have it.
Our domiciliary care insurance can also cover you if you run a healthcare or nursing agency.
It’s worth noting that if you run a care home or you’re a self-employed carer, you’ll need a different type of insurance.
You can tailor your domiciliary insurance cover to suit your needs. But these three main areas are covered as standard:
Professional indemnity. If a client or a potential recruit thinks your agency has acted negligently and makes a claim, professional indemnity insurance protects you. Say you accidentally send a candidate’s CV to their current employer. Or you don’t send a carer round to a patient when you’d agreed to, and they have to find a stand-in.
Those on the receiving end of your error could be badly affected, out of pocket, and want compensating. Professional indemnity will pay your legal fees and cover any compensation you owe.
Public liability insurance is there to back you up in the event of an accident or unfortunate mishap. It pays legal costs and compensation for injury to a third person or damage to their property.
For example, if a patient trips over your employee’s first aid kit and breaks a hip. Or you accidentally spill your coffee over a candidate’s phone during an interview.
You’ll also have cover for the administration of drugs. So, if an employee accidentally gives a client the wrong dose or the wrong thing altogether, and it has an adverse effect, you’ll be given help to defend yourself against a claim.
Employers’ liability is a legal requirement for any company with employees. If anyone working for the agency becomes ill or injured, and says it’s your fault, employers’ liability has you covered.
Another benefit to this domiciliary care agency insurance is cover for supervision and direction. If you run the agency in all respects, and give guidance and advice to your agency staff, it’s important you cover your own back. Because a wrong instruction or misadvice could cost your client, employee and you.
This policy can be extended to give vicarious cover. In case you aren’t sure, that means all staff you place through your agency are covered by your insurance in the same way as you and your employees are. Even temporary staff.
That depends on a few things – the number of people you recruit, the kind of work they do, and what types of cover you choose to take out.
As it’s a condition of the CQC to have public liability and employers’ liability insurance at the very least, it’s a cost you’re going to have to factor into your business.
The more staff you have, the more cover you have, the higher the risk to your insurer, and the higher your premium will be. But that’s only common sense.
We’re guessing you store a lot of sensitive information about your staff, clients, and contracts on computers. Yes? Then you really need cyber insurance.
Cyber insurance covers you in the event of a cyber-attack or data breach. It’ll get you back on your feet, with help from IT experts to recover your systems, and legal experts to defend your reputation.
You might also want to consider directors’ and officers’ insurance (D&O). If anyone accuses the people running your organisation of handling business badly and decides to sue, D&O is there to protect them and their personal assets.
Say an employee you place doesn’t have the right qualifications and ends up injuring a patient. If the care home then sues the agency owner personally for failing to supply qualified staff, D&O picks up legal costs and compensation.
You can also add employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) to your D&O policy. If a member of staff makes a complaint about your conduct or mismanagement, EPLI takes care of it.
Business insurance is our bread and butter. It’s what we do, day in, day out.
We’ve ‘advised sales’ status from the FCA. Which means we’re approved to give insurance advice that’s tailored to your needs.
You can get a quote, buy a policy, and receive your documents without ever needing to pick up the phone. But our team of expert advisers are here, if you need a helping hand.
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