Rescue Training Providers Insurance
Rescue training is practical by necessity. Delegates wear breathing apparatus in smoke filled chambers, hang in harnesses on rope systems, wade into moving water and recover casualties from tanks and manholes. Those exercises are controlled, but the hazards being simulated are real, and a delegate can be hurt during a course in ways that classroom training rarely produces.
The second exposure arrives later and elsewhere. A person trained by the provider is called on in a real emergency, the rescue fails, and the inquiry asks whether they were properly taught and assessed. The employer of the injured or deceased person, or their family, may claim that the training was negligent or that a certificate of competence should never have been issued.
Accreditation shapes both. Many courses lead to qualifications from awarding organisations such as City & Guilds or to industry recognised certificates, and the provider must meet their requirements for instructors, assessment and records. For first aid at work, the HSE no longer approves training providers, so employers are expected to check a provider's competence themselves, which puts more weight on the provider's own standards and evidence.
We can advise rescue training organisations on public liability for practical courses, professional indemnity for instruction and assessment, and the equipment, venue and client site exposures that go with them.
Common claims and risk exposures
The exposures that produce claims in this trade, rather than a generic list.
Delegate injury during practical exercises
Falls during rope and work at height scenarios, heat stress in breathing apparatus, cold water immersion, crush injuries during casualty extraction or back injuries from manual handling. Delegates are usually not your employees, so these are public liability claims, and the injuries can be serious.
Negligent instruction or assessment
A delegate passes a course and later fails in a real incident. If it is alleged that the content was wrong, the assessment was not rigorous or competence was certified without being demonstrated, the provider can face a professional liability claim with very serious consequences behind it.
Training equipment failure
Harnesses, ropes, tripods, winches, breathing apparatus and gas detectors used on courses. Equipment for lifting people typically requires thorough examination under LOLER, and a failure on a course leads straight to the inspection and maintenance records.
Training at client sites
Courses run in a client's own tanks, sewers, plant or buildings to make them realistic. That brings damage to client property, interference with live operations and reliance on the client's permits and isolations into the provider's risk.
Freelance instructors
Many providers use self employed instructors. Their competence, their own insurance and whether they would be treated as employees for liability purposes all affect who pays if something goes wrong on their course.
The cover we arrange
We arrange professional indemnity and related insurance around the services you provide, the clients you work with and the contractual requirements you face. The appropriate cover and limits will depend on your individual activities and the terms available from insurers.
Public liability
Injury to delegates and others during training, and damage to third party property including client sites and hired venues. The policy needs to know the practical activities involved rather than describing classroom training.
- Delegate injury during exercises
- Confined space, height and water scenarios
- Damage at client sites and venues
- Limit set against client contracts
Professional indemnity
Claims that instruction, course content, assessment or certification was negligent, including claims following a real incident involving someone the provider trained.
- Negligent instruction
- Assessment and certification
- Course content and materials
- Bodily injury arising from advice checked
Employers' liability
Injury to your own instructors and staff, who are often exposed during demonstrations and while acting as casualties or safety cover. Employers' liability is legally required once you employ people and can be arranged where required, subject to the policy terms.
- Employed instructors
- Labour only freelancers where applicable
- Instructors acting as casualties
- Subject to the policy terms
Equipment and training facilities
Cover for training rigs, confined space simulators, rescue equipment, breathing apparatus and mobile training units, at your premises, in transit and on client sites.
- Training rigs and simulators
- Rescue and BA equipment
- Goods in transit to sites
- Hired in equipment
Equipment hired to clients
Where the provider also hires or sells rescue equipment to clients, the product and hire exposures need declaring, because a failure in a real rescue is a different claim from a failure on a course.
- Hire and sale declared separately
- Inspection records on hire
- Product liability position
- Instructions supplied with equipment
What an underwriter will ask
Having these to hand shortens the process considerably, and usually improves the terms.
- Course types delivered, with confined space, rope and work at height, water and flood rescue, breathing apparatus and first aid stated separately
- Number of delegates per year and typical ratio of instructors to delegates on practical courses
- Awarding organisations and accreditation bodies the provider works with
- Whether training takes place at your own facility, hired venues, open water or client sites
- How training equipment is inspected, examined and recorded, including LOLER examinations where applicable
- Use of freelance instructors and whether they hold their own insurance
- Whether equipment is hired or sold to clients, or rescue cover is provided on live jobs
- Accidents, claims and notified circumstances over the last five years
What affects the cost of your insurance?
The main factors insurers consider when assessing the premium.
Practical content
The proportion of courses involving live height, water, confined space or breathing apparatus exercises is a central rating factor, because that is where serious delegate injuries happen.
Safety management on courses
Instructor ratios, dedicated safety cover during exercises, written course risk assessments and abort procedures are all things underwriters look for.
Equipment controls
Inspection regimes, examination records and retirement of equipment by date or use show that a failure on a course is less likely and more defensible.
Assessment and records
Recorded practical assessments and retained evidence of each delegate's competence support the defence of negligent training claims that may arrive years later.
Conditions and exclusions to consider
Terms vary between insurers, so treat these as the questions to ask rather than a description of any one policy.
Undeclared activities
A provider declared for first aid and classroom safety courses that adds water rescue or confined space entry has changed its risk materially. Each practical discipline needs disclosing before courses are delivered.
Providing live rescue cover
Standing by as a rescue team on a client's real job is contracting, not training. Insurers rate it very differently, and it may be excluded unless declared.
Deliberate departures from standards
Certifying delegates who did not complete or pass the assessment, or running practical exercises without the required safety cover, can undermine both the defence and the policy.
Fines and penalties
Fines following a prosecution are generally uninsurable. Some liability policies include legal defence costs for health and safety proceedings, which is worth checking given the nature of the work.
Common questions
A delegate was injured during a rope rescue exercise. Is that public liability?
Usually, because delegates are typically not your employees. Notify your insurer straight away and preserve the course risk assessment, equipment records and instructor notes. The claim will turn on whether the exercise was properly planned, supervised and stopped when it should have been.
Could we be sued if someone we trained fails in a real rescue?
It is possible, which is why professional indemnity matters for rescue training. The question will be whether your content, instruction and assessment met a reasonable standard. Retained assessment records and clear statements of what the certificate does and does not show are your best evidence.
Do we need employers' liability if all our instructors are freelance?
Possibly. Self employed instructors who work under your direction, use your equipment and follow your course plans may be treated as employees for liability purposes. It is worth talking through how they work with you, and employers' liability can be arranged where required, subject to the policy terms.
We run courses in a client's own confined spaces. What should we check?
Who controls the permit, isolations and gas testing, what the client expects you to indemnify, and whether your public liability limit meets their requirements. Damage to their plant and injury during the exercise are both possible, so the contract terms matter as much as the policy.
We sometimes provide standby rescue teams as well. Is that covered?
Not automatically. Standby rescue on a live job is a contracting activity with a different risk from training. It needs to be declared and underwritten on its own, and may need a different policy structure.
How do I get a quote from True Risk Solutions?
Call 01304 262880 and speak to a broker, or email info@truerisksolutions.co.uk with what you do, what you need cover for and a phone number with the best time to call, and a broker will call you back. We need a phone number to quote, because the cover and the price depend on questions that are quicker to answer on a call than by email.
Speak to a specialist who understands your industry
Tell us about your business and the work you undertake, and we will come back to you with cover options built around it. Call 01304 262880, or email us with a phone number and the best time to call and a broker will ring you back.