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What Community Services Insurance Covers
Community services insurance covers the liability, the people, the buildings and the governance of organisations that serve the public: government contractors, not-for-profit organisations, community service providers, and schools and education providers. They work with employees, students, clients, volunteers and the public every day, and the duty of care runs in every direction.
A student, a client or a visitor falls or is injured on the premises. A volunteer is hurt on a program. A participant alleges harm. The organisation holds personal, student and health information, and a breach interrupts the service and brings the regulator in. Fire, storm or water damages the hall, the classrooms or the equipment, and the service stops while the committee works out who pays.
Schools and services working with children carry child safety obligations and need a wording that responds to abuse allegations, which many standard policies exclude. Government contracts set minimum insurance requirements and ask for a certificate of currency for public liability insurance before work starts. Committee members and directors of a not-for-profit carry personal exposure that management liability insurance is built for.
Fortis Risk Solutions arranges community services insurance for organisations across Australia from offices in Box Hill and Hawthorn, as part of our business insurance range. We look at the programs, the client group, the volunteers and the funding contracts before approaching insurers. Churches, charities and community groups have a dedicated package in faith and not-for-profit organisations insurance.
Who this covers
Public and not-for-profit organisations serve people, and the duty of care runs in every direction. The notes below set out each type.
Government contractors
Services delivered under contract to councils, agencies and departments. Public liability and professional indemnity at the limits the contract sets, certificates of currency for each, workers compensation, and cyber requirements that are now standard in government contracts.
Not-for-profit organisations
Committees, volunteers and the people they serve. Public liability, volunteer personal accident, property for the premises, association or management liability for the committee, and fidelity for fundraising and grant money. See the faith and not-for-profit organisations insurance page.
Community services
Programs for the vulnerable, often funded by government. Public liability and professional indemnity written for care and support work, abuse liability, volunteer cover, and the funding agreement read for the minimum limits it requires.
Schools and education providers
Students on site, on excursions and on placement. Public liability for students, professional indemnity for teaching, abuse liability written to respond, property for the buildings and the records, cyber for student data and management liability for the board.
Community Services Insurance: Cover Sections and Benefits
Community Services Insurance FAQs
Public liability for the people it serves and the places it uses. Volunteer personal accident, because volunteers are not covered by workers compensation. A business insurance package for the premises and the equipment, with business interruption insurance for the funding that stops after damage. Management liability, often called association liability for incorporated bodies, for the committee and for employment claims. Organisations working with children add abuse liability, and most funding agreements set the minimum limits.
Not by workers compensation, which covers employees only. A volunteer personal accident section pays medical and out of pocket costs and, where selected, a weekly benefit after a volunteer is injured on an authorised activity, regardless of fault. Public liability answers a claim by the volunteer against the organisation for negligence, but it does not pay the volunteer's own costs without that claim.
Public liability covering students on site, on excursions and at placements. Professional indemnity for teaching and advice. Abuse liability written to respond, not excluded. Property cover for the buildings, the equipment and the records. Cyber insurance for student and family data. Management liability for the board and the principal. Government and independent schools carry different arrangements, and we check which applies before placing cover.
A public liability limit, commonly ten or twenty million dollars, professional indemnity where services or advice are delivered, workers compensation, and a certificate of currency for each before the contract starts and at every renewal. Some contracts also require the principal to be noted on the policy or indemnified, which has to be arranged with the insurer rather than assumed. Cyber requirements are becoming standard.
Committee members, board members and officers of a not-for-profit can be held personally liable for decisions of the organisation, for employment matters and for breaches of the laws that govern associations and charities. Management liability insurance pays their defence costs and any settlement, along with regulatory investigation costs and employment practices claims, and most organisations hold it to recruit a board at all.
Not-for-profit and education wordings turn on the client group, abuse liability, volunteer definitions, excursion and off-site cover and the limits funders require. FRS helps you disclose the programs and the people accurately, structure limits to meet every funding agreement, compare insurers who write community risk and act as your advocate when a claim or an investigation arrives.
Related pages
Dedicated pages in this group: Childcare Centre and Kindergarten Insurance
Related industry groups: Health and Care Services Insurance, Events and Entertainment Insurance, High Value and Complex Business Insurance
Talk to a broker about Community, Education and Public Sector Insurance
Call 03 7046 3766 on weekdays between 9:30am and 6pm, email admin@fortisrisksolutions.com.au, or send an enquiry and a broker from our Box Hill or Hawthorn office will come back to you about community, education and public sector insurance. Tell us what the business does and what the lease or contract asks for, and we take it from there.