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Grow with Towergate Gardening Competition
Our 'Grow with Towergate' competition was launched to help share the joys and benefits of gardening to schools, foster carers and nurseries. Congratulations to Jan, Dolphin...
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Staff absence can have a huge impact on the running of your school, that’s where we come in.
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Towergate are the longest standing provider of staff absence insurance in the UK, protecting hundreds of schools since starting in 1991. We are delighted that from 2017, we are now proudly partnered with A-rated insurer Ageas to bring you a flexible policy exclusive to Towergate. View the list of absences we can provide cover for.
We are able to insure federations and trusts individually or on a group basis regardless of whether you pay out for substitute teachers or over-time for staff cover – simply speak to one of our team for a tailored quote and we’ll base it around how you’re structured. Should you need an in-depth requirement review, we are happy to come and visit you face to face to understand more about your specific requirements.
Every single policy comes with a market-leading health and wellbeing service which includes up to 8 sessions of face to face counselling per person, every year – this is more than any other provider in the market. We also include a 1 day stress intervention service, 24/7 telephone counselling for your staff, an online health portal, and a GP call back and medical advice service.
Our research of 1,000 teachers nationwide found that almost three quarters believe it is more stressful to be a teacher today than it was when they first started. As covered by the Times, it’s been shown that over a quarter of a million school days were lost due to teacher stress over 2015/16. While this is clearly not sustainable it does highlight the importance of staff absence insurance in the modern world.
| Suspension cover | • |
| Jury service | • |
| Bereavement | • |
| Pregnancy related illness | • |
| Chronic conditions | • |
| Health Assist | • |
| Personal accident cover up to £10k | • |
| Medical expenses benefit | • |
| Re-occurring absences (continuous policy) | • |
| Stress | Optional |
| Maternity cover | Optional |
Our in-house school staff absence insurance claims handlers are available Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm to support you. Furthermore, if you have a more urgent concern, we offer a 24-hour helpline.
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Read more of our guides, articles and infographics on staff absence insurance and the wider care industry.
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Our 'Grow with Towergate' competition was launched to help share the joys and benefits of gardening to schools, foster carers and nurseries. Congratulations to Jan, Dolphin...
View article
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This year, the Towergate Care Awards shone the light on care communities across the UK, celebrating those who often do not receive the recognition they deserve for the hard work and dedication they put in day in, day out, to make a difference to the lives of those they care for. We invited nominations for caring professionals, from teachers to home carers and presented three finalists per category to a public vote. Meet the 2018 Towergate Care Awards winners and find out about their stories.
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Teachers in the UK are more stressed than ever. What are the factors behind this, and how can you manage staff absence?
Staff absence insurance, also known as, school staff insurance, covers you against the increased cost of working as a result of a staff absence. A claim can cover you for the costs of things like calling in a substitute teacher and sickness pay.
For a busy school, academy or college, staff absence insurance provides protection against costs should you be left with an absence in your work force, be that one staff member, or your entire faculty. This level of protection is very important in a high paced environment, where you are striving to meet your duty of care to your students.
With our policy, you can choose the excess/deferment period that best suits your situation. So if you could cope with staff absence for 2 weeks without too much issue, you can choose a 10 day excess/deferment period. That way the first 10 days won’t be claimable, but alternatively, if you could only manage for a few days, you could choose a 3 day option. The higher your excess/deferment period is, the cheaper your premium will be – so we would always advise you to think about how insurance can sit alongside the school’s contingency plans.
At Towergate, unlike many other providers, our policy does not exclude individuals with known chronic conditions. We only exclude medical conditions that have caused 10 or more consecutive days absence from insured staff, in the 12 months prior to cover inception. Furthermore, this exclusion is dropped after the first year.
Depending on how you manage staff absence across your multi-academy trust, we will be able to find a solution for you. If each academy within the trust arranges their own insurance, we can talk to you about how to ensure the policy you get meets your exact requirements, both from an excess and benefit amount perspective; and also who you want to cover within your academy. Alternatively, if you choose to manage absence across your trust, that is absolutely no problem. We can come and speak to you face to face, talking to as many people as we need to put your minds at ease and help you to get the solution you need that works for the trust as a whole and every academy within it.