PTA resignation and insurance

[anxiousatnight]

I joined our school's PTA as vice treasurer towards the end of the last academic year. I am minutes as an official committee member in the AGM.

I am struggling with some mental health issues and behave decided to resign. I have let the chair, secretary and treasurer know.

I am worried about the insurance aspect and am concerned that the PTA may not be suitably covered. I am worried that if something bad were to happen, I could be liable. It is not a particularly well run committee.

How can I deal with this situation. I am going to write an official letter of resignation to the secretary and chair. Will that be sufficient? Is there anything else I can do?

If you are a Trustee, make sure you tell HMRC as well. If not, a letter is fine. Maybe an email with the school cc'ed too, to be doublely sure.

Do you mean you're a trustee (assuming the PTA is a registered charity)? That's the only legal connection really. Make sure the Charities Commission is updated. The Secretary or Treasurer should do that. But otherwise not sure what you're worrying about, just walk away.

It's not a registered charity. I'm just minutes in the AGM as being vice treasurer.

I'm worried that if the PTA hold an event and something happens, that a parent could sue the PTA and I could be personally liable if they aren't properly insured.

*minuted

Once you've resigned, you would have no link and no responsibilities.

Ok, thank you.

I'm aware this probably sounds totally bonkers. Like I said, I'm struggling with mental health and anxiety at the moment which I'm dealing with via my GP and talking therapies, but sadly it's the way my mind is working at the moment.

If they aren't properly insured now then remind them of their responsibilities in your resignation letter. This will show you informed them before you left and then it's out of your hands.

@InterFactual that's a good idea, thank you

You’re massively overthinking this. It’s the PTA!

@Andanotherone01 I know, I know.

But for example, they are planning a disco in the village hall (because the head doesn't want discos in the school hall anymore). They haven't really looked into the insurance of the hall, whether that covers the PTA, ratios etc. I brought these issues up, no one really had much to say about it and that's when I decided I needed to leave for my own mental health.

Now, what if something happened to a child at that disco? If the PTA haven't taken out suitable insurance, who is liable? Do the PTA committee members become personally liable?

Once you resign you are no longer liable.

In terms of future events, it depends on where an event is held. I know our local scouts hires out their venue. Businesses need their own public liability insurance however certain events (private hirers for things like children's birthday parties) are covered under the public liability insurance for the general cover of the building.

It is possible that PTA events are covered under the school's insurance if they are on school premises. BUT it would depend on the policy - some events might not be included anyway.

It's a 'check the small print' issue.

But you aren't liable once you resign.

@anxiousatnight apologies - I didn’t mean to be snappy. If I were you I would do what another poster suggested and put in your resignation letter that you have raised the issue of insurance for events and felt that you weren’t being listened to. Make sure your resignation letter is copied to the chair, headteacher and the chair of governors - that will make sure all your bases are covered. They can either decide to act on your concerns or not

You need to check what the public liability for the village hall covers.

As per my previous post, it may actually cover you.

I think such an event would be covered under the building liability for our scout building. But I'm not 100% on that.

They need to check. But it might well be completely fine and you are overthinking it.

Thanks @RedToothBrush that's very helpful. You have pretty much outlined my concern.

I suspect that the events held on school premises are insured under the school's insurance, so I'm not worried about that. It's things like this disco in the village hall, where they are planning to do the music themselves so no third party involved, that I'm worried about. The hall will have insurance of course, but I want to be sure that this would cover the PTA given that they are charging people to come in (rather than it being a kids birthday party for example). The fact that they are charging people to come into the event makes it different to if it was being hired for a birthday party for example - like you say, the small print.

I will put this in my resignation letter.

Thinking back to where did this, we paid a subscription to some kind of association which includes insurance?
But in answer to your question, highlight it in your resignation and then it's not your issue.
Will you still send your own kids to events though if you're worried they're uninsured and not being run correctly?

@Beamur not sure, that's a worry for another day!

https://www.pta.co.uk/events/planning/event-planning-checklist/

It also talks about whether volunteers have DBs checks too.

The secretary is quite involved with another association that deals with groups of children (dramatic/musical type group), so she probably is more aware than I think. She's also extremely busy though, so I just worry that this might slip through.

I know I'm probably hugely overthinking, but these things do happen. I know I've got some issues to deal with personally which I am doing, but I don't think my worries are completely unfounded.

Our PTA is a member of ParentKind and they provide insurance aimed at PTAs as part of that. It's paid automatically with an annual fee.

Both PTAs I have been involved with have been insured this way too.