Insurance for education consultants explained

Education experts: your countries country’s schools need you.

Shrinking budgets, rigorous Ofsted inspections, academies on the rise, free schools on the flop, a ramped-up national curriculum. The UK’s education landscape has gone through some seismic changes recently, no doubt about it.

Great news for you, of course. With schools needing expert advice to stay top of the class, education consultants are more in demand than ever before.

Educating educators might be what you do best but that doesn’t always guarantee you a gold star. Each client you work with, be it a school or an individual student, has the potential to become a success story. But would you bet your career on it?

Luckily, with professional indemnity insurance for education consultants you don’t have to.

How does it work? Time for a quick lesson …

School of hard knocks

Let's say you’ve made a professional mistake (unlikely we know, but bear with us). Perhaps you’ve given a school advice on a buying contract that’s not worked out. Or lost a document containing students’ private details.

Embarrassing? Yes. Is your career over? Probably not.

Nine times out of ten, an apology is enough. Your contract terminates and you never work with that client again.

But let’s say you get a letter from your client, weeks or months later, accusing you of professional negligence and suing you for damages. If you don’t have professional indemnity insurance already in place then, unfortunately, you don’t have a leg to stand on. And the last thing you need is to see your career in free fall. Your time and money frittered away in court.

But, educate yourself about PI insurance first and you’ll be covered for those (admittedly rare) times when your work doesn’t make the grade.

What insurance for education consultants do I need?

We’d recommend starting with professional indemnity insurance. It covers your mistakes, as well as things such as loss of documents, breach of confidentiality and defamation. If a claim goes to court, your insurer appoints a legal expert to defend your case, pays for your legal costs and covers any compensation you may have to pay out.

Public liability insurance is also a good idea, to cover bodily injury and property damage claims while visiting schools and other offices. Also, portable equipment insurance for your laptop, mobile phone, tablet, or anything else likely to be lost, dropped or stolen while you’re out and about.

The Society of Education Consultants recommends you have PI insurance before you start any consulting work. But it's not the end of the world if you don't. Just make sure you get retroactive cover for any work carried out in the past and you should still be covered.

Live and learn

There are other good ways to protect yourself and your business too.

If you work from your own office, either at home or anywhere else, think about whether you need office and business insurance. It can cover your equipment in case of accidental loss or damage (be it fire, flood, or flea infestation). Or business interruption insurance, to compensate you for loss of income should your office become temporarily out of bounds.

And, if you’re an education consultancy firm with one or more employees, don’t forget that you’re legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. Skimp on it and you could be fined up to £2,500 a day. Yikes.

If in doubt, call one of our specialist advisers on 0345 222 5378; they’ll ask you a few questions and figure out exactly what you need.

Or, just click here to get started on your quote.

Image used under license from Shutterstock.