''BAN ON SCHOOL CAKE SALES?''

This was the headlines in last week's Times Educational Supplement following a letter SPTC sent to all local authorities about public liability insurance for the new parent councils.

Dear "Director's name"

Parent Councils and Public Liability

As you are doubtless aware, school boards were deemed to be agents of the local authority as regards their relations with third parties. This was seen as a way of dealing with their public liability and meant that local authorities, not school boards themselves, carried the liability for any damages arising from their negligence. However, no comparable provision has been included in the Parental Involvement Act and the parent councils will themselves be fully liable for their own acts and decisions. In order to protect the individuals who serve on the parent council from any financial claims arising from this, it will be necessary for the parent councils to have public liability insurance cover. We would like to suggest that, as an interim solution, the policy which SPTC currently operates as part of its membership scheme for PTAs is well suited to provide the necessary cover for parent councils.

The benefits of the SPTC scheme

1) Cost
Parent councils could, each and separately, take out their own public liability insurance with a reliable company. However, this is a very costly process with reported premiums of over £600 for one single event. The maximum charge under SPTC’s membership scheme is currently £92 for a whole year and this covers as many events as a PTA may wish to hold. The reason for the low cost is that we operate a group scheme for around 1,450 members. Moreover, we are linked into the scheme run by the National Confederation of PTAs in England and Wales; they have 13,000 members and their size helps contribute to our economies of scale.

2) Scope
Because the SPTC scheme has been designed to meet the needs of parents’ groups in school, it not only provides cover for the whole range of normal activities including school fetes (with/without pony rides, bouncy castles etc.) and dances, it also provides personal accident insurance for officials and helpers, fidelity guarantee in case the treasurer or a committee member defrauds the organisation of money, money insurance for cash that has been raised on a Friday/Saturday and is held in someone’s house over the weekend, and employer’s liability where the group employs someone to run a football club or similar.

3) Clear separation from the local authority
It would be possible for the local authority to extend its own public liability cover to include parent councils. However, there would then be no clear separation between those things that the authority was responsible for and those that fell to the parent council. For example, the provision of food is often a very sensitive matter for local authorities, particularly since the various cases of e-coli. Many local authorities are nervous about letting school groups provide food, even homemade cakes, in case they result in cases of food poisoning for which the authority is then held liable. However, if the parent council is separately insured, it is much clearer that it is responsible for its own actions and is quite separate from the local authority. Indeed, on the matter of food poisoning, the current policy that is part of our PTA membership scheme makes it quite clear that this is covered.
Moreover, many local authorities have high excess levels – we heard recently from a PTA, who had sought to have a piece of equipment insured by the local authority, that the excess was £2,500 or five times the value of the piece of equipment that the PTA wanted to insure.

4) Front line service and support
Perhaps the biggest benefit of using our scheme is that SPTC has great experience in managing it. We are able to answer most routine questions whether these relate to the provision of food, the use of bouncy castles or of hired-in discos. Any complex questions are referred directly to our brokers, Adams Tingle Risk Solutions Ltd. The policy itself is with Allianz Cornhill and has an indemnity limit of £10,000,000 for any one claim.

Seminars
If there is enough demand, we will set up one or more seminar(s) to explain the system in detail and answer any questions. To give us an indication of demand, please will you let me know by 31st August if you think you would like to be represented at such an event.

Yours sincerely

Judith Gillespie
Development Manager

PTC has serious concerns that members of the new parent councils may be left personally liable for accidents, financial loss and other damages (like food poisoning), if new arrangements are not reached on public liability insurance. The legislation does not address this issue.

Judith Gillespie told the Times Educational Supplement: "Many local authorities are nervous about letting school groups provide food, even home-made cakes, in case they result in cases of food poisoning for which the authority is then held liable. However, if the parent council is separately insured, it is much clearer that it is responsible for its own actions and is quite separate from the local authority.
"Indeed, on the matter of food poisoning, the current policy that is part of our PTA membership scheme makes it quite clear that this is covered.

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