Frequently Asked Questions

Two people swimming

Find out more about your cover

The following are some frequently asked questions about your swimming cover.

Swim England Coach members and Institute of Swimming Teachers members who are resident in the UK or the Republic of Ireland automatically receive Public Liability and Professional Indemnity Insurance with their membership.

Liability insurance provides protection from the consequences of claims against the organisation for injury, financial loss or damage to third party property arising from your teaching and coaching activity where negligence occurs.

There is no age limit within the Liability insurance, however you should contact Swim England or the Institute of Swimming with regards to any age limits on taking coaching or teaching qualifications.

Personal Accident cover is for affiliated members who are residents of the UK and Republic of Ireland between the ages of 16- 80 years. Please note the benefits for anyone over the age of 70 are limited to death, loss of two or more limbs or both eyes or one of each, or loss of one limb or eye.

A Claims Made policy means that you are covered for claims reported during the period of insurance, rather than the policy that was in force at the time of the incident.

No. Insurance provided via the Swim England Coach or Institute of Swimming Teacher membership will only apply to members who are residents of the UK or Republic of Ireland.

If the incident involves an injury, you should record this in the accident book. Please refer to your incident recording and notification guidelines provided with your membership summary of insurance.

Liability claims notification requirements

If you are injured in an incident, you may be covered by your Personal Accident Insurance dependant on where and when the injury occurred and the type of injury sustained.

Yes, both the Liability and Personal Accident cover is applicable when you teach/coach outside the UK for a period of up to 6 months. However, you must maintain your residency of the UK or Republic of Ireland in order to remain eligible.

There are limitations on cover for liability claims that arise in the USA or Canada.

Your insurance with Swim England or Institute of Swimming does not include travel insurance which you will need to arrange separately. This will cover you should you incur medical expenses, lose your passport or experience disruption to your travel while abroad.

For more information please contact 0121 698 8160 or email [email protected]

Yes, however the insurance included in Swim England Coach or Institute of Swimming Teacher membership applies to teaching/coaching activities only.

If you own the pool, you must arrange for pool owner liability and property damage cover, as well as notify your home insurance provide advising them you will be using it to teach/coach.

In cases where an incident has caused you to lose income, you are covered by the following:

  • Personal Accident Insurance gives you a weekly benefit if you are unable to teach/coach as a result of an injury
  • Loss of Revenue insurance will cover you if the pool you teach or coach at is damaged and you are unable to work there

Private medical and sickness benefits are not covered in your membership Insurance.

Yes, both Swim England and Institute of Swimming best practice guidance requires you to have a lifeguard present at all teaching/coaching sessions.

If you are the only teacher/coach at poolside, it is essential that you hold the appropriate lifeguarding qualification. If there is a qualified lifeguard present from the venue responsible for your session, you do not need to hold a lifeguarding qualification.

Institute of Swimming guidance advises that you should not be both teaching/coaching and be the lifeguard where more than two teaching sessions are taking place. You need to assess the risk for ability to both monitor the teaching/coaching session and the lifesaving responsibilities. It is also essential to record both the assessment and the risk management solutions.

You are not eligible to teach/coach unsupervised until you reach your level 2 qualification or are a certified Swim England Coach. An Swim England Coach or Institute of Swimming Teacher member can teach/coach within their level of qualification, and will be insured for public liability and professional indemnity sections of the liability insurance.

You should refer to Swim England for guidance on the appropriate qualifications needed to teach unsupervised.

You should refer to Swim England for guidance on teaching/coaching children with medical conditions. You can also access additional support and training for teaching individuals with certain medical conditions within a CPD course if you are level 2 qualified. In these cases, you will need to undertake and record a risk assessment.

It is essential that you undertake regular risk assessments for your teaching/coaching activity. You owe a duty of care to those around you and if an allegation for negligence is made against you, a risk assessment may be used to establish that you done everything reasonable to prevent an incident occurring.

If you have a swim school or coaching business and employ other people to run sessions or are a limited company or trading as such, you will need to purchase separate insurance to meet your business needs. You can contact Howden to arrange this.

If your swim school is already insured by Howden and you have a query, please get in touch with us on 0121 698 8050.

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