To safeguard your members, your club must be properly insured. The insurance cover that your club will need will depend on your club’s size, the activities that members take part in and the club’s assets. Insurance is required to cover a range of scenarios from the loss of equipment through to serious personal injury, fire damage or a break in. Therefore whatever the size or type of club it is recommended that you seek professional advice from an insurance company or broker.
There is a useful booklet in the runningsports series on Managing the Risks which provides insurance guidelines for sports organisations, sportsmen and sportswomen (downloadable from Resources panel).
Many National Governing Bodies (NGB’s) and some clubs offer group insurance to provide personal accident cover for members and professional indemnity cover for qualified coaches and officials. Insurance premiums with many NGB’s are linked to membership or affiliation fees. For example: UK Athletics incorporate the following public liability and third party insurance benefits for coaches on behalf of an affiliated club ororganisation when involved in athletic activities.
- Cover of up to £10,000,000 for any one incident; in the case of property damage the first £500 of any claim is not covered
- In the case of negligent advice, the cover is £500,000
They also offer Personal Accident Insurance and Travel Insurance. However, you should note that personal accident insurance (e.g. to protect a member who becomes injured whilst playing the sport, is often very expensive).
Most NGB’s request that this affiliation is paid individually and not via the club affiliation. As all NGB’s have differing regulations and insurance policy’s it is vital that you check!
If your NGB does not provide insurance cover:
Insurance can be taken out with a private insurance company. Alternatively, sportscoach UK (scUK) offer good insurance cover as part of their membership benefits:
- Coaches Liability Insurance – up to £5,000,000 indemnity in respect of your legal liability to others for death, injury or illness and loss/damage to third party property arising from your coaching activities. No distinction is made whether you are paid for your coaching or working in a voluntary capacity.
- Personal Accident Insurance - a basic personal accident scheme is included providing cover for death £100,000; permanent disablement up to £100,000; dental and optical treatment up to £500.
- Coaches Liability Insurance while Officiating – coaches who are officiating as an integral part of their coaching session have the same cover as above. Coaches who are qualified officials have the same cover as above while officiating.
- Legal Advice: 24 hour advice line for members, assistance with any legal issue.
Individual insurance may be available through the normal household contents insurance. Most policies will cover (automatically or supplementary) sports equipment and personal liability. However it is worth checking the following;
- Sports equipment
- Personal liability
- Personal accident
- Soft tissue insurance
- Private medical insurance
- Professional indemnity
- Public Liability
- Motor insurance
Many volunteers use their own cars for travelling to and from matches, training sessions, meetings and often they carry passengers. This may be identified by insurers as association business use and therefore it is worth clarifying this with the insurance company, particularly if the volunteer is paid some sort of expenses for using their cars.
Insuring volunteers
All volunteers should be insured when carrying out their work within your organisation. Insurance cover is the main financial provision in the event of accidents to, or by volunteers in the course of their voluntary work. Clubs should:
- Make volunteers aware of the type of insurance in place and what this covers, including any restrictions.
- Ensure that volunteers understand and work within their task description and that the insurance company has details of all the volunteer roles.
- If you have volunteer drivers, confirm that their car insurance covers them when using their car for this purpose. If volunteers are driving vehicles owned by the club, check that there is appropriate insurance cover.
- Regularly update your insurance details, adding any changes.
- Check out if there are age restrictions for volunteers with your insurance.
