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Top Claim Types Tripping Up Care Homes
Top Claim Types Tripping Up Care Homes
The care sector is risky business. Not only are you managing some of the most vulnerable people in the country, but you’re doing so in a live-in environment presenting with numerous other risks.
Inevitably, sometimes things go wrong – but that’s where your insurance comes in. Provided you have robust, care-specific coverage, you should be able to return to business as usual fairly quickly after making a claim.
Still, it’s worth taking note of some of the more common types of claims seen in this industry. Being aware of the incidents tripping up other care organisations is an important exercise towards risk prevention and creating a safer environment for your residents and employees.
1. Slips, trips and falls
Did you know that slips, trip and falls are a top reason for claiming across industries? In fact, slips and trips account for 40% of all reported major injuries to employers or members of the public and are the most common reason for workplace injuries in the UK, costing employers over £500million every year.[1]
Care homes feature a disproportionately large number of slip, trip and fall hazards compared to other sectors, so it’s no surprise that this is one of the top reasons within the industry for claiming, most often caused by negligence.
2. Negligence
As mentioned above, negligence continues to account for a big portion of care claims. In particular, one of the incident types that keeps cropping up are those related to medication, for example missed or incorrectly dispensed medication.
What makes this type of incident particularly recurrent are staffing issues; for example, having just the one person being responsible for residents’ medication means that there’s no ‘audit’ in which medication dispensing errors can be caught. Similarly, overworked and overburdened staff may be more prone to mistakes.
3. Property damage
Property damage can encompass a wide range of incidents, from accidental damage to floods, storms and fires, with the cost of the claim varying wildly depending on the scale of the incident.
4. Staff injury
As we’ve already discussed, care homes are host to a great deal of risk, and it isn’t just residents who are vulnerable to these risks, but also the employees who look after them.
Compounding matters further is the fact that care workers are often stretched thin. Not only are their roles physically demanding, leading to lifting-related injuries and the like, but they may be overworked, which in turn increases the chance of a work-related injury. A high turnover of staff can also lead to ineffective training or even the record keeping of said training, which can help to defend a claim against you.
Defending your claim
No matter what you’re claiming for, if there’s one thing you can do to help yourself down the line, it’s good record-keeping.
Accurate and consistent record-keeping can not only be used to support your defence should your insurer need more information on a claim you’ve made, but it can also be used to defend you in the case that someone makes a claim against your organisation.
Things like care records, staff training plans, and risk assessments are vital to any defence, as are contemporaneous witness statements or images taken at the scene (or just after it).
Sources:
[1] www.rospa.com/health-and-safety-at-work/slips-trips-and-falls
Caring for carers; recent claims trends in care homes sector - Care and Nursing Essentials
Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems we recommend that professional advice be sought.
Date: September 18, 2025
Category: Care and Medical
