Staff Absence Insurance

If a member of staff is unable to work, there can be unexpected costs. Supply cover can be an unforeseen expense for long periods and often isn’t budgeted for. Having an insurance policy is like having a safety net. Staff Absence Insurance helps to protect you from these unplanned expenses by paying you a benefit, allowing you to budget more accurately.

All of our policies have the option to include maternity, paternity and adoption leave cover. These are all different so that you can choose the right level of cover for your school’s requirements.

Our School Assist policy provides protection for sickness and accident*, bereavement, compassionate leave, phased returns to work, jury service, suspension, Long Covid, religious observance days (2 per insured person per period), training days (1 per insured person per period) and pregnancy related illness until 20 weeks before the expected due date. Stress cover and maternity/paternity cover can also be added to our School Safe policy if you require either of them.

*conditions that caused an absence of 5 continuous days or more in the 12 months prior to cover starting are excluded.

Our School Safe policy offers one of the widest covers on the market. In addition to all the benefits of our School Assist policy, it also covers pre-existing conditions, pre-planned operations, pregnancy related illness cover up to 28 days before the expected due date, enhanced suspension cover and stress related bereavement absences.

Furthermore, both of our policies include access to our market leading Health and Wellbeing Hub that can support your school in managing and reducing absence.

When you take out a policy with us, you'll be entitled to our Health & Wellbeing Hub. It’s designed to proactively maintain or improve the health of your staff, reducing the likelihood of absence.

Every case is different so please contact us to chat through your circumstances with a member of our team.

Yes. You can cover staff such as administrative staff, support staff and caretakers. Simply choose the staff categories you want to be covered. Part-time staff can also be covered, with the benefit proportionate to the hours worked.

All claims are handled by our in house claims department. You will be given your own claims handler who will be able to answer any questions you have. Remember, you need to make us aware of an absence within 30 days from the end of the month in which the absence occurs for a valid claim.

The sooner you make your claim, the sooner we'll be able to pay you. We’ve made it easy for you to log a claim with a number of ways to contact us. For more information on the claims process visit our claims with our client portal although you can also phone or email us if you prefer.

If there are staff changes, it’s important to let us know as soon as possible so that your policy is kept up to date – this helps us to pay your claims promptly. Making a staff change is easy and can be done at any time. Simply contact our team or login to our portal. 

This policy does not cover:

• Any absence due to any accidental bodily injury (however, these can be considered upon request), sickness or stress commencing prior to the policy start day, unless the Insured Person has returned to work from that absence for a period of 20 consecutive working days
• Any claim due to pregnancy or childbirth occurring any time after the 28th day before the expected due date
• Inset days, special leave days or holiday periods (including statutory bank holidays)
• Claims due to or consequent upon treatment or surgery which is not medically necessary to sustain or maintain quality of life

Yes. You can cover staff such as administrative staff, support staff and caretakers. Simply choose the staff categories you want to be covered.

Part-time staff can also be covered, with the benefit proportionate to the hours worked.