Hiscox withdraws from the Care Home Insurance Market

Back in January we posted on the changes occurring in the Care Home Insurance market, following Ecclesiastical Insurance‘s decision to cease writing business within the sector.

The choice of insurance provider for businesses within the care sector has now been reduced further by Hiscox‘s announcement that they too are no longer offering terms to their Care Home Insurance policyholders.

Here at Cass-Stephens we have excellent relationships with leading care sector insurance underwriters, and I would like to repeat the advice that we gave in the post mentioned above, namely:

• Make sure the brokers you are speaking to have proven credentials in the care sector (find out more about ours here!)
• If you have had claims make sure that the insurers are fully aware of the positive steps you have taken to try to prevent similar incidents occurring in the future.
• Make sure that the new insurance company is fully aware of the range of services you offer, the types of service user you care for, their age ranges, whether any of them have a history of violence, arson, sexual offences or other challenging behaviours.
• If you are a registered with the Care Quality Commission then underwriters will look at the CQC reports. This should be a positive for your business if it shows you in a good light and highlights how responsive you were to comply with any recommendations or requirements that they may have had. Make sure the prospective insurers know exactly how good your policies, procedures and risk management measures are.
• If you are not CQC registered, for example if you are a Supported Living Provider, prospective insurers will need to know more details about your staff, how you vet, them, the training you provide for them, the duties they carry out etc.
• Never use more than two or three brokers. The market is limited and nothing turns off an underwriter’s interest like seeing the same risk in from a half dozen of more sources
• Start early!

Care Sector Insurance

The care sector insurance market is going to continue to be difficult for the foreseeable future. I hope these tips will make things slightly smoother for you and if you have any questions or concerns please do get it touch.