Altiora /Childcare Insurance Products /Childcare Public Liability Insurance

Childcare Public Liability Insurance

Policy wording for public and products liability

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All childcare service providers including but not limited to:

  • Long day care
  • Outside school hours care
  • Vacation care
  • Pre-schools
  • Kindergartens
  • Playgroups
  • Family Day Care

should have Public Liability Insurance to protect them against claims for Personal Injury or Property Damage caused by an Occurrence in connection with their childcare service.

NB: If you have or are applying for a Funding Agreement through the Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) you are required to have a minimum of $10 million Public Liability Insurance and $5 million Professional Indemnity Insurance.

What is covered under the Child Care Public Liability Insurance package?

Following is a brief description of the cover provided in the Altiora Childcare Public Liability Insurance package.  As with all insurance policies, conditions apply and we recommend that you read the full details contained in the policy wording prior to purchasing a policy.

  • $10 million public liability insurance (option to increase to $20 million)
  • $10 million products liability (option to increase to $20 million)
  • Property in Your physical or legal control up to $100,000
  • Excursions, Events and Fund Raising where daily attendance is not more than 500 people
  • The erection, demolition of and/or alteration or addition to buildings or structures for up to $500,000 in completion value
  • Cover for failure to render first aid services performed by persons other than Medical Persons on Your Premises
  • Cover for failure to render other non-medical services (such as Catheterisation, Tube/Peg feeding,Tracheotomy Tube Suctioning, the distribution of pre-dispensed medicines such as Ritalin®, Epipen® and Ventolin®) performed by persons other than Medical Persons on Your Premises
  • Optional: Errors and Omissions (optional limits from $1 million to $5 million). We can also offer Professional Indemnity Insurance under a separate policy.
  • Optional: $50,000 Criminal Defence Insurance

Public Liability Insurance

The Altiora Childcare Public Liability Insurance protects your childcare service if you, your employees, work experience students or volunteers are held legally liable for third party Property Damage, Personal Injury to children in care or Personal Injury to persons associated with your childcare service.

Childcare Public Liability Example

A baby falls off the change table and suffers a head injury. The parents take the baby to the hospital and x-rays reveal that the baby’s scull is fractured. A claim is made against the childcare provider for medical expenses and compensation for the lifetime effect the Personal Injury has caused to the child (eg scarring and brain damage). If the court determines that the reason the incident occurred was due to the negligence of the service provider eg the supervision was not adequate because carers were attending to other children in care at the time of the incident, then the public liability policy should respond to cover the claim.

IMPORTANT

Under the Statute of Limitations a child can claim against a Public Liability Policy up to the age of 18 years and then for at least 3 years after that. Claims can occur many years after the incident as it may take years to determine the full effect the Personal Injury has had on the child’s quality of life. Therefore it is really important to choose a Public Liability Policy that will provide protection now and in the future.

The Altiora Childcare policy is an occurrence policy. This means that as long as you were insured at the time the incident occurred, the policy will protect you against successful claims even if they are made many years in the future and even if you no longer operate a childcare service.

There are policies available in the insurance market that are claims made policies. Standard claims made policies require the insured to have current insurance at the time the claim is made. Therefore, to protect yourself against claims that are made during the Statute of Limitations period you would have to continue to pay insurance premiums each year, even if you no longer operate the childcare service.

While claims made policies may initially be cheaper than an occurrence policy, a claims made policy can potentially cost much more in the long run and may not provide the same long term protection you need.

Without adequate public liability insurance protection,
the childcare service is left to pay claims out of their own pocket.

Examples of how each type of policy may respond to a claim

A two year old child hits their head in care. The Personal Injury seems so minor that the childcare provider does not think it necessary to advise their insurer. Four years later a claim is brought against the childcare provider because the child has learning difficulties which may have been caused by a bump to their head. In the meantime the childcare provider has sold the business and retired.

Occurrence Policy

The public liability policy will cover a successful claim because the owner was insured at the time the injury occurred.

Claims Made Policy

The policy may not cover the claim because:

a)    the owner did not advise the insurer of the injury at the time the injury occurred ie during the period they were insured

b)    the owner was not insured at the time the claim was made – they had retired and didn’t think they needed to continue paying for insurance.

Given the significant potential difference in the way insurance policies work, it is vitally important that you read the policy wording so that you can make an informed decision about the type of policy that suits your insurance needs.

Products Liability (automatically included)

Covers legal liability for Personal Injury, Property damage due to Public and or Product Liability.

Example

A childcare service has a sausage sizzle fundraiser. Some parents and children suffer from severe food poisoning as a result of eating the sausages. Upon investigation, it appears that the childcare service had not refrigerated the sausages properly and they had gone bad. A claim is brought against the service as they were negligent in their food handling practices.

Optional Policy Inclusions

Errors and Omissions

Covers legal liability for claims arising from a breach of professional duty.

Errors and Omissions will cover you if someone sues you because they have suffered personal injury or property damage as a result of your professional advice. To be considered professional advice you must be paid by the parent to provide expert advice that they may rely on to do something or not do something.

When considering if you need this type of cover, ask yourself what professional advice you could give to a parent about their child that would cause:

a) the child to be injured or

b) that would cause their property to be damaged

If you believe that the parent’s are paying you to provide professional advice that may result in the above then we recommend that you take out errors and omissions insurance. If the parents are not paying you to provide professional advice then it is unlikely that you would need to take out errors and omissions cover.

If you believe the parent’s are paying you to provide professional advice that would cause them to suffer a financial loss then we recommend you take out a professional indemnity policy. Errors and Omission does not cover financial loss as a result of professional advice.

Criminal Defence Insurance

Covers the legal costs associated with the successful defence of a criminal prosecution brought in relation to your childcare business (Subject to certain conditions).

Experience that counts

Altiora Childcare has more than 20 years experience in providing insurance support and advice to the childcare sector and we believe that an occurrence Public Liability Policy provides better protection for childcare services.

Do you want to change from a claims made policy to an occurrence policy?

If you currently have a claims made policy and wish to change to a claims occurring policy we can offer you a claims occurring policy that includes, at no additional premium, cover for up to 5 years for claims arising from incidents of which you were unaware and had not advised your insurer ie as per policy conditions, cover is backdated for up to 5 years. This is known as Retroactive Cover.

For more information or to arrange a quote, please contact our childcare insurance team on:

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