Care Home Insurance Advice - your top questions answered
Organising insurance for your care home can be a long and confusing process. It can often be difficult to decipher the policy wordings to find out exactly what you are and aren’t covered for. You may need advice on the right cover for your specific operating model, or guidance on how your CQC rating may affect you when obtaining insurance.
Whilst every care home is unique, we do get asked similar questions by many of our care home clients when looking to secure their insurance solution.
Our care home specialist, Luke Green, shares below some of the most common questions that he’s asked by care home owners before they partner with us.
Care Home Insurance advice from an expert
Q1. Can you cover care home businesses that have a CQC rating of ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’?
We have built strong relationships with an extensive panel of A rated insurers, who specialise in Care Home Insurance packages and some of our providers can offer insurance to care homes with a ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ rating. Luke has worked with clients whose rating is either ‘requires improvements’ or ‘inadequate’ and has successfully obtained terms and helped them to secure their insurance. This meant that they could continue to operate with the peace of mind that their business is protected.
We helped a care home owner find the right insurance for his business, which had been rated ‘inadequate’ by the CQC. His incumbent insurer was unwilling to offer new policy terms and he already had an extension to his policy, which was just about to expire. Unless he could find cover at the right level and fast, he faced potentially having to close the care home. Find out how we helped secure care home insurance by reading our case study.
Q2. Does my package include legal cover?
When you manage a care home, you must consider all the possible risks to your business, including the possibility of an employee or third party pursuing litigation. As a care home business you may be faced with legal fees from incidents like disputes with employees or other contractors, allegations of abuse or maltreatment, or legal cases brought about by organisations like HMRC. These expenses can result in a financial burden on your business, which may be difficult to recover from.
That’s why we offer Legal Expenses cover as standard within all the policies we offer. You won’t have to purchase two separate policies, and everything will come under one premium. This means you will have less admin work each year you renew with us, so you can focus on doing what you do best, providing care to your residents.
Q3. Can you cover care homes that operate in a listed building?
When you have a building that is listed it can be very difficult to find cover. This is because listed building insurance is insurance that is specifically tailored to the unique nature of listed buildings and the techniques and materials required to repair them. Listed buildings are usually much older than standard buildings, so they’re often considered to be higher risk by insurers.
We have access to two insurance markets that can cover listed care homes and have already provided cover for a grade II listed care home.
Q4. Does the policy include business interruption and loss of registration cover?
Our care home packages include Business Interruption cover on a 24 month basis as standard. This means that if you need to close your business for a short period of time or reduce your usual operating levels as you recover from an incident, any consequential financial losses that your business may sustain during that period will be covered, whilst you rebuild or relocate.
Loss of registration cover is also included within our standard cover. This means that should the worst happen, and you lose your registration, you will still be financially protected during your indemnity period.
Q5. Will I have one point of contact?
When you partner with Barnes Commercial you can rest assured that we are here to support you, whenever you need us. You will work directly with Luke, as your dedicated point of contact, who will be with you every step of the way. He will always be on hand to answer any questions you might have and put your worries at ease so if the unexpected happens, you will be able to arrive at a swift solution together.
Speaking to an experienced adviser who has in depth knowledge of your sector and can provide care home insurance advice, will bring you peace of mind, and ensure that you have the right cover in place for your specific needs.
If you would like to speak to Luke about your care home cover or would like to ask a question (or two!), he would be more than happy to help. You can reach Luke on 01480 278535 or at luke.green@barnesinsurancebroker.co.uk
