As one of The CIA Group’s key strategic partners, to aid their consultants, we have worked to source and develop an affordable and simple insurance solution for Care Quality Consultants.
We are pleased to announce that we can now direct care quality consultants to obtain a quotation for their insurances with Markel Direct, an insurer that prides themselves on providing specialty insurance coverage to their customers.
Here, we outline some of the insurance covers you should consider in your role as a care quality consultant and which Markel Direct can provide coverage for.
What type of insurance does a Care Quality Consultant require?
Understanding what insurance you require as a self-employed Care Quality Consultant is very important in protecting you and your business. Naturally, you will strive to provide your clients with the best possible service but if things go wrong or a claim is made against you for inaccurate advice, it pays to be properly insured.
As a minimum, you should consider 3 areas of cover – Professional Indemnity, Public Liability and Legal Expenses, which we discuss below.
Professional Indemnity Insurance
Professional Indemnity Insurance (also known as PI insurance) is designed to protect you if you make a mistake in a piece of work for a client that causes them a financial loss. These mistakes can cost your clients time and money, and as such, they may choose to take legal action against you to recover their costs. Professional Indemnity can pay the legal costs in defending you, as well as any compensation payments that may be due to your client as a result of your mistake.
Even if you have done nothing wrong, if your client makes an unfounded or false claim against you, it can cost significant sums of money to defend yourself.
Professional Indemnity can cover you against:
- Professional negligence – making a mistake in a piece of work or giving your client poor or inaccurate advice
- Unintentional breach of confidentiality – sharing sensitive client information without permission
- Unintentional breach of copyright – using an image on your website without permission
- Defamation and libel –making false comments about a competitor or client that damages their reputation
- Loss of documents or data
- Loss of money or goods (for which you are responsible)
Public Liability Insurance
Public Liability Insurance is designed to protect you against compensation claims should a third party be injured or their property be damaged because of the actions of your business.
If someone is hurt or their property is damaged due to your business activities, you could be liable for legal and compensation costs.
Public Liability can cover you against:
- Personal injury claims, such as slips, trips and falls – for example, a resident tripping over your laptop power wire
- Property Damage claims – for example, if you were to spill a coffee over a client’s laptop whilst on site
- Legal Protection – covers the legal costs associated with defending a claim brought against you
- Medical expenses – if an injured party holds you liable for out-of-pocket expenses, such as medical fees, the costs of medicines and medical equipment, rehabilitation bills and more.
Legal Expenses
Legal Expenses insurance can protect your business against a wide range of legal costs, including contract disputes (which could include recovering debts owed to you by your clients), tax enquiries, jury service attendance, Criminal Defence, Health & Safety investigations and Employment Disputes (if you employ someone).
Here are some examples of where legal expenses could benefit your business:
- To pursue a client where they have breached a contract or to defend you against an unfounded allegation of you being in breach
- Providing representation should HMRC investigate your business tax affairs
- Providing representation should you be required to attend a police interview under caution concerning an alleged criminal matter that took place in connection with your business
- To cover expenses if you are required to attend jury service
- To help defend yourself against an allegation by a former employee.
With Markel Direct insurance, you also receive access to a 24-hour legal advice helpline made up of a team of qualified solicitors, at no additional cost, as well as online resources of legal and business guides, templates and content written and created by teams of expert solicitors.
Additional Covers
The above are the core areas of insurance you should consider as a Care Quality Consultant but cover is also available for:
- Employers’ Liability – this is a legal requirement if your business has employees. It covers your business against claims of injury or illness suffered by employees arising from their employment. If you employ other consultants in your business, you are likely to need this cover.
- Directors and Officers – covers the costs of defending you as a director or officer of your company against allegations of wrongful acts and any damages subsequently awarded against you. Cover is also provided in respect of the legal costs and expenses of defending actions for disqualification as a director, investigations, and extradition proceedings.
- Office – cover for any office buildings you may have, their contents and your computer equipment, against accidental damage (including theft) whilst on your business premises. You can also choose to cover your business equipment (such as laptops and mobile phones) on a worldwide basis and insure your business against loss of income and/or additional trading expenses following events such as damage to your property.
- Occupational Personal Accident – provides a weekly payment if you are unable to work due to temporary total disablement (subject to a 14-day deferment period). In the event of loss of limbs, sight, speech, hearing, permanent total disablement or death, a lump sum would be paid out.
- Cyber and Data Risk – pays the costs of restoring data and equipment, informing clients, meeting ransom demands and loss of your net profit following a cyber-attack. It also pays your legal defence costs and damages you may legally be liable to pay to other parties. If you hold confidential information about your clients and their projects on computers and other internet connected devices, you should consider this cover.
We have worked in conjunction with Markel Direct and The CIA Group to provide a tailored insurance product to cover Care Quality Consultants’ insurance needs under one, all-encompassing policy.
To get your insurance quotation today via a dedicated, fast, easy online quotation system, please click here and get an instant quote in just 90 seconds. Alternatively, if you’d like to read more, see our webpage all about our care quality consultancy offering here.
Source: Health & Social Care consultant Insurance | Markel Direct UK (markeluk.com) and general Markel Direct website.
