Insurance for Freelance Instructors

What you need to know - Frequently asked questions

Q. Why do I need insurance?
A. You are advised to take out insurance to protect yourself against substantial claims and legal costs. Below are a few examples of claims, could you afford to pay them?

• High ropes participant claimed for loss of earnings due to back injury sustained from uncontrolled belay resulting in fall from 5-8ft.
Insurer paid out over £250,000

• Caving participant claimed for back injury sustained from a slip whilst caving, at the time the participant was happy to continue with session and the incident was not noted in accident book.
Potential claim £8,000

• Participant fell and fractured neck whilst welly wanging as part of a team building activity. Participant is currently paralysed from neck down.
Substantial potential payout

• Whilst on a training course a member of staff broke their pelvis whilst being trained on the high ropes course, the freelance instructor brought in to carry out the training was found to be at fault and sued.
Insurer paid out over £23,000

• Participant was climbing under instruction at indoor climbing centre, they were asked to climb down from bouldering wall, they were unable to do so, and therefore they jumped from 5-6ft. They fell awkwardly on matting and injured their ankle.
Potential claim £15,000

As a self employed person or small business If you can not afford to pay the claim it could mean having to sell your house and contents, and for limited companies liquidation and loss of business assets.
It is important to remember that you may not automatically be covered whilst working for an activity centre; you would need to check their cover extends to cover freelance workers and therefore class you as an employee. Activity centres are asking more and more for freelancers to have there own insurance so having your own Public Liability Insurance Policy could make you more employable.

Q. What sort of insurance do I need?
A. As an activity instructor working with the general public we would advise you to purchase Public Liability Insurance to protect yourself against potential claims.
Remember you have a duty of care to all participants under your supervision and if sued you would need this policy in place to fight any claims.

Q. I have a Personal/Third Party/Civil Liability Insurance policy is this the same thing as a Public Liability policy?
A. Outdoor enthusiasts and activity instructors will often have Personal/Civil Liability/Third Party Insurance through there activity association, sometimes included in their membership payment. This cover protects you against claims for death or injury from third parties but not whilst you are acting a professional instructor in anyway, an example of what you would be covered for would be accidentally hitting someone will your paddle whilst canoeing.
If you have purchased insurance through a trade association ensure you have a copy of the full policy wording. It is important to read these as some companies do not cover ‘artificial structures’ therefore you would not be covered on indoor climbing wall or others do not cover ‘team building activities’ which the majority of our clients do in some form.
Public Liability offers protection for you against being sued by the general public i.e. your activity participants, and in our increasingly litigious society claims can be for seemingly simple things you may not have even noted in your accident book.

Q. What is Claims Occurred and Claims Made cover?
A. We provide a policy, which is on a ‘claims occurring’ basis. This means that any claims that occur during the period of insurance you will be covered with us. This is irrespective of whether the policy is in force at the time of the claim. Therefore you can have peace of mind and insurance that you can trust to cover you if a claim is made.
However, if you have a ‘claims made’ policy and a claim was not notified before the insurance expiry date you will not be covered. Therefore with a ‘claims made’ policy it must be in force at both the time of the incident and the time of the claim. This is important to remember should you sell or close your business, as you would no longer have cover once the policy ended.
If you are currently on a ‘Claims Made’ basis we are now able to offer you retrospective cover.

Q. Do I still need to take out my National Governing Bodies insurance cover?
A. Although we cannot advise you to cancel an existing policy the advantage of this scheme is that you should not have to take out multiple policies for different activities, as your JLT policy will cover you for all the activities on your insurance schedule.

Q. Do I qualify for this scheme?
A. To be eligible for this scheme you must be a freelance instructor and not employ any members of staff. If your client group is larger than you can lead under your qualification and need assistance from other instructors who are working under your direction they would be classed as employees as you are responsible for them and you would need employers liability insurance for them, in this case you would not be classed as a freelance instructor.

Q. Why choose JLT?
A. While AAIS are part of the JLT Group – a global brand and the largest UK and European based insurance broker, we are based in Gloucester with a team of regionally based account executives to provide a local service.

Benefits of our scheme:
• You can amend your policy during the year including upgrading your liability limit.
• You can also upgrade to a company policy mid term
and add more activities to your certificate of insurance
as you take on different work.
• £2,000,000 or £5,000,000 indemnity limit.
• Rates from £161.70 including insurance premium tax.
• Our customer Service team is available to help with any queries.

Jardine Lloyd Thompson Leisure. A division of Jardine Lloyd Thompson UK Limited. Lloyd’s Broker. Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
A member of the Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group. Registered Office: 6 Crutched Friars, London EC3N 2PH. Registered in England No 00338645. VAT No. 244 2321 96

01452 511430
adventure_activity@jltgroup.com
www.AdventureActivityInsurance.co.uk