Staff Absence Insurance

What is staff absence insurance?

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.

Do I need staff absence insurance?

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.

We can manage staff absence internally to a point, is there a policy that’s suitable for me?

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.

My school have had absences in the past, will we be penalised if need to be off again?

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.

I’m part of a multi-academy trust, is there anything you can do for me or the trust as a whole?

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.