Schools insurance & services

Whether you’re an academy, multi-academy trust, SEND or local authority school, we understand your challenges

We'll make it easy to protect your school

Providing a safe learning environment for pupils and staff is one of many challenges schools face. Along with robust risk management processes, you’ll want to consider commercial insurance to protect your school's finances and reputation if the unexpected happens. 

We’ll take a flexible approach to protecting your school and everyone in it. With decades of experience in the education sector, we cover over 1,000 UK schools, colleges, and universities with insurance for a wide range of exposures. We also offer specialist wellbeing services that are modular, so you can choose what’s right for your school's needs and budget.

And as your risk management partner, we're ready to help you achieve safety and compliance – and uphold your school’s reputation as a safe place to be.

What is schools insurance?

Insurance for schools includes a range of commercial cover to help protect your school if things go wrong. That’s insurance to mitigate the risks faced by all types of schools, including academies, local authority schools, multi-academy trusts, and special educational needs schools. 

When you buy insurance through us, you’ll have a dedicated account executive who's experienced and knowledgeable in your sector. They'll help review your existing cover and identify any gaps, before creating an insurance package around your needs and budget. 

Download our brochure to find out more.

School pupils in uniform smiling and chatting

Commercial insurance for schools

We’re not tied to any one insurer, so our advice is truly independent. This means you can be confident we’ve chosen the most competitive and appropriate insurance we can find for your school.

Excursions don’t always go smoothly, so you’ll want a back-up plan. We offer travel insurance for groups of pupils, teachers, parents, and volunteers that covers, among other risks:

  • Lost, stolen, or damaged baggage and personal belongings, including passports and theft of money.
  • Emergency medical assistance and repatriation if someone on the trip is ill, injured or has an accident abroad.
  • Unexpected cancellation or trips cut short.

You may want this when trips aren’t booked with a tour operator where insurance is included. You don’t have to name each pupil, just the number going and one adult lead traveller (and you’ll need at least one adult per ten children). We provide school trip cover for trips lasting a maximum of 22 days.

From trips on cables to injuries from faulty equipment, plenty can go wrong on school grounds. Public liability insurance covers legal and compensation costs if someone is ill, injured, or dies, or their property is damaged, and your school is held responsible.

This includes claims from parents, pupils, visitors, and passers-by – but not employees.

This pays legal defence costs and court settlements if an employee has a work-related illness or injury and makes a claim against your school.

That could be claims from staff, governors, trustees, trainees, work experience staff, or even volunteers – part-time or full-time. It can also cover loss of income for each day you spend in court dealing with the claim.

If your school is accused of professional mistakes, this covers legal defence costs and any compensation awarded from a claim.

From aggrieved parents to local authority action, claims could be for anything from teachers not following the syllabus leading to bad grades to failure of duty of care for an individual pupil. The type of risks it covers include accusations of: 

  • Negligence
  • Misrepresentation
  • Defamation
  • Breach of confidentiality
  • Data loss
  • Intellectual property infringements

Key figures such as members of the school board, trustees, and officers can be accused of wrongful acts. These can include neglect, errors, and misleading statements, as well as breach of duty and trust. This could be poor hiring decisions, not using school funds well, or wrongful dismissal, for example.

If claims are made against them (perhaps by the regulator, donors, or parents), D&O covers the cost of legal and investigation costs and any compensation awarded. Bear in mind this is protection for named key individuals; it doesn’t cover every staff member.  

This covers the cost of rebuild, repairs, or replacements after an unexpected event (such as a fire, flood, or storm) causes damage to your building and belongings. Buildings insurance is for the school’s physical structure, and contents insurance can cover anything from kitchen equipment to classroom furniture. 

Policies can also cover theft and malicious damage, accidental damage, and building subsidence. Key apparatus such as audio-visual equipment, computers, and office machinery can be included, alongside stock, fine arts, sports equipment, and musical instruments.

This offers protection against claims relating to building works under construction on your school’s premises. If something goes wrong, it can cover damage or loss of property and materials. 

This is cover for accidental damage or breakdown of machinery your school relies on, and any resulting business interruption. This includes moving equipment from one site or area to another, lifts, and plant equipment. It can also include statutory inspection services and paperwork.

This is cover for your school’s vehicles. So that’s coaches, vans, and grounds maintenance or agricultural vehicles, for example. It can also include occasional business use for staff using their own vehicles on school business.

It’s available on an any driver basis, which means any staff with the correct driving licence can be covered, though limitations around age and experience usually apply. You can also choose optional add-ons, such as breakdown cover. 

If an unexpected event stops your school from functioning as usual, this covers lost revenue and increased expenses until you’re back up and running. 

The events this covers usually includes:

  • Extreme weather events, such as storms and floods
  • Cyber attacks
  • Fire
  • Electrical failure or equipment breakdown
  • Denial of access to school premises
  • Events nearby impacting fee-payer interest
  • Failure of utilities, telecommunications, and internet service providers
  • Death or criminal investigation of a trustee

Extra expenses it could cover includes replacing equipment, training staff, and hiring other premises. 

You’ll have a specific length of time your insurer will support you for a covered event (indemnity period), which is typically one to three years. It’s important not to underestimate how long you’d need to return to business as usual if the worst happens. We can help you choose the right indemnity period.

Cybercrime such as ransomware attacks and phishing can wreak havoc on a school’s systems, finances, and reputation. And it can happen at any time. According to the UK government’s 2023 Cyber Security Breaches survey, 63% of secondary schools identified cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months.

A cyber insurance policy can be an important part of your cyber resilience strategy. It offers financial protection and incident response for cyber events. You can also access legal advice and a team of experts to help minimise the financial and reputational damage. 

Typical costs covered include:

  • Cyber incident response costs: IT forensics, legal, breach notifications, and crisis communications.
  • Network security and privacy liability: for management liability in cyber events, regulatory fines, and penalties.
  • System damage and business interruption: full data re-creation, income loss, and extra expense.
  • Cybercrime: including social engineering, theft of personal funds, cyber extortion, and ransomware attacks.

Find out more about cyber security for schools, or get in touch with our team.

Running a business of any type creates a potential exposure to legal actions, and schools are no different. If you find yourself in need of legal help, such as for contract disputes, legal expenses insurance can cover the cost of legal representation and compensation made against you.  

This protects your school for financial losses caused by business-related crime committed by an employee. So that's crimes such as theft, fraudulently transferring funds, damage to property, and forging signatures on business accounts.

Children and teacher in a corridor

Pupil wellbeing services

Schools often want more accessible mental health support for young people in their care. Early intervention can be key to helping children and preventing issues like poor attendance. But it can be hard to provide support when the resources you need aren’t immediately available. 

That’s why we’ve developed a pupil assistance programme with independent health and wellbeing specialist, Health Assured. It’s modular, so you can choose what’s right for your school’s needs and budget. Choose from:

  • Mental health clinical support for pupils aged 11 to 18
  • 24/7 counselling helpline for pupils aged 16 to 18 
  • 24/7 caregiver helpline for teachers, pastoral staff, parents, and guardians
  • Certified youth mental health first-aid training for those who work with, or support young people
  • Digital cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) platform for caregivers and pupils

Learn more about our pupil assistance programme.

Taking care of your staff

We can also help you show commitment to your staff’s wellbeing. Our employee benefits can help them look after their financial, mental, and physical health. They can also make your school more attractive to prospective employees, and even help reduce staff absence. From dental insurance to group income protection, our consultants can build a programme around your school’s culture and existing benefits.

Expert risk management support

Managing a school’s complex risks can be daunting and time-consuming. That’s why risk management services come as standard with our cover. Our risk team is ready to help you manage your risks in compliance with the relevant legislation. This can include acting annually as one of your competent persons. 

We can help enhance and continually improve your safety management systems through:

  • Risk consultancy surveys, including an overall ‘health check’, health and safety audit, fire risk assessment, and physical security audit.
  • Policy document creation, including health and safety, fire, and security risk assessment documents.
  • Online compliance tool to manage your estates and assets, statutory reporting, and staff training. Also includes a contractor area so you can track external suppliers.

Along with making your school a safe, compliant space, having a formalised risk strategy is a step towards preventing situations that lead to insurance claims. It could also help reduce your insurance premiums.

Learn more about our risk management services.

Professional people chatting in hall
The service we have received from Scott has been excellent in helping ensure our health and safety plans, processes and practices are fit for purpose and kept up to date.
Jon, Reach Cambridge
Three pupils walking together and smiling

What can we do to support young people's mental health?

In this webinar, our panel offers expert insights into the most pressing concerns for young people's mental health. They also look at your duties to staff and pupils, and the benefits of taking a holistic approach to school wellbeing.

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Schools insurance FAQs

Cyber security is important for schools, as they tend to hold large volumes of sensitive student and parent data. This makes them vulnerable to a breaches.

A school has a responsibility to do everything in its power to prevent unauthorised access to devices and systems. Alongside this, cyber insurance can protect your school from the reputational and financial fallout of a data breach.

That’s protection against loss of income and any claims made against you following a data breach, as well as access to legal advice and a team of experts to help minimise the damage caused to your school.

Want to know more? Get in touch with our team.

Choosing the right insurance to cover your school’s risks is far from playground stuff. From increased accountability to complying with legislation, there’s a lot to think about. A reliable independent insurance broker:

  • Has expertise in the education sector and understands your day-to-day challenges.
  • Offers guidance on insurance you need to mitigate your risks, including complex risks.
  • Looks for cover from a range of insurers at competitive prices.
  • Acts as your risk partner, offering on-site audits and ongoing help with your all-important risk management processes. They can also keep you updated with legislation changes.
  • Saves you time on research and comparisons.

They should also be easy to work with and offer a streamlined claims process, with minimal impact on your school.

Yes. Whether it’s substantial maintenance work, renovations, extensions, or something completely new, if your school is carrying out building work, tell your insurer or broker before things get under way. That way they can make sure you’re properly covered for the extra risks. Contacting your insurer should be part of your overall risk assessment.

When you get cover through us, we can offer guidance on new building projects, including those based around sustainability, to address associated risks early on.

An effective system for managing safety and health risks can help avoid accidents, disruption losses, and damage to your school’s morale and reputation. It will also help your school comply with its duties under health and safety law. 

The legal responsibilities for effective risk management in schools are about the safety of pupils, staff, and visitors. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 says all employers should ensure the health and safety of employees and others, where practical. It’s also an integral part of the Ofsted and Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) framework.
 

From caterers to service engineers, contractors may occasionally visit or be a constant at your site. Schools must use these services safely. This includes making checks that contractors hold the relevant insurance for certain risks. This typically includes employers’ liability, public liability, and sometimes professional indemnity.