Daniel Weir, research analyst at childcare sector insurance firm Morton Michel outlines
some of the pressures facing the industry and why looking after your workforce is crucial.

Nothing is more important to a nursery than its people. All nursery managers knows that without their staff, their setting is no more than a lifeless box. Parents know it too. While, of course, surroundings are important, knowing that their child is in the hands of the best, most committed, most amazing people is what enables them to trust you with the most important person in their lives. In business terms, your staff are an asset, and one that you need to protect.

This means it’s important to bear your people in mind when you consider whether you are taking out the right insurance policy. This begins with your Employer’s Liability Insurance (ELI), which has been a legal requirement for almost all employers since 1969.

The reason for this is that all employers have a duty of care to their employees to ensure that they are able to meet their liabilities towards them. Put another way, in the event something happens to an employee for which the employer is responsible, they deserve the certainty that they will receive proper compensation. The law takes this very seriously, and employers found without proper ELI can face hefty fines of up to £2,500 for every day they were without appropriate insurance. This means, however big or small your business, if you have staff, it’s critical to avoid gaps in your cover.

There are other ways your insurance may help you to look after your staff. Not every injury that can happen to staff will be covered by ELI. In the case of a true accident, where there was no negligence, there is no liability, but that might not be much comfort to a member of staff who got hurt. Specialist insurance policies such as Morton Michel’s can include personal accident cover too. This enables payments to be made to staff where they are injured.

In some cases it can even cover incidents that take place outside working hours. As always, you should carefully check the terms of your policy to understand precisely what is covered. Of course, prevention is better than cure and many accidents can be avoided through thoughtful and thorough training.

As an insurance broker, it made sense for us to invest in giving all of our customers free licences to online staff training from Flick Learning. Not only does this save our customers money that they can invest elsewhere, but training improves people’s confidence, reducing the stress and pressure they feel at work.

This in turn reduces the risk of workplace problems even further, as people who feel comfortable and happy are less likely to make mistakes. In a similar vein, beyond insurance itself, you may want to consider what other benefits you can make available to your staff. One example is an employee
benefits package. These can be seen as a further investment in your staff, giving them access to discounts at retailers and service providers, enabling them to stretch their salary further. There are several of these on the market, including PIB Employee Benefits, which Morton Michel makes available free to our nursery customers.

Encouraging your staff to get into the habit of using them may not only improve their wellbeing, but also make them more likely to stick with you in the long term. Insurance, ultimately, is about protecting your business and managing your risk, and that means much more than just the bricks and mortar or the numbers on a spreadsheet. I know from talking to our customers, and others out in the sector, just how proud nursery managers are of their amazing teams.

Every nursery is reliant on its people, and factoring that into every business decision, including insurance, can only make your setting stronger.