nanny liability insurance for employer?

[chandellina]

Hi, I'm confused on nanny insurance. I asked my insurer about it and they said I have £3,000 on my policy to cover her medical bills if she is hurt in my home. (which could be unnecessary what with the NHS and all, but it's with an American insurer and it's included in my policy.)

Is there some other liability insurance I'm meant to have though? Or is it something the nanny has and we then pay for when it comes up for renewal? She is Ofsted registered and is planning to use her own car for any outings (and said she's insured to use it for her work).

thanks for any advice.

nanny insurance includes things like if your nanny damages something you own or if your child has an accident while in his/her care- so they are not liable out of their own personal finances. The former may also be covered in your home insurance in a section mentioning domestic staff.

The nanny would also have a legal team to help defend them/their insurers if necessary. Like if you worked for a company and in the course of your job lost them money, damaged a computer by spilling coffee on it or knocked over a vase at someone's house, it would be covered by the company's insurance and not you personally.

Good employers would pay nanny insurance along this with ofsted registration when needed but not all are prepared to do this.

No - Oligo - if the employers pay for the nanny's own liability insurance it invalidates it - conflict of interest. It is the only bit of the Ofsted outlay that the nanny must really appear to pay for herself. (Obviously some employers will find a way of reimbursing the equivalent amount through a float or whatever, but really the insurance premium must strictly be paid by the nanny.)

Chandellina - your household insurance is likely to cover things that happen to your nanny (or anyone else) in your home. The nanny's liability insurance is to cover situations where you might sue her (or, more practically, where your insurer requires you to sue her insurer).

oh! right thanks for letting me know Bink. clearly i'm confused on nanny insurance too!

It makes sense being conflict of interest too but how about when you damage stuff at work/company- this was the example always given to me. Though if the nanny is sued for anything and can't afford to pay parents might have an interst in having ensured the nanny has insurance? or not?

thanks for the info. but what does that really mean that home insurance covers what happens to someone in your home? My insurer only mentioned coverage for medical bills. I don't think I'm protected if someone wanted to sue me for having somehow contributed to the injury.

The scope of home insurance coverage varies Chandellina - it just depends what you have paid for as part of your policy. It is often the case that there is coverage for domestic employees etc. (there is in ours) - but there may not be. Only your insurer can actually confirm - and if it's not covered, you could ask what more you might need to pay to include it.

The parallel is all those travel insurance policies, some of which will cover winter sports, some won't; some of which will pay new-for-old for your lost camera, some won't. All depends on the level of cover paid for.

Oligo, yes some super-careful parents always have asked for nannies to be insured (even before Ofsted required it) but it wasn't very common.

If you look at the Morton Michel site it does clarify things - linking to that not because of any personal interest, they're just the market leader in nanny insurance at the moment.

As employer you need to decide on what you require insurance for... what you want to help protect yourself against.

For example: Injury to your employee caused by your negligence. Bodily injury cased on your premises.

Hello,

I have been looking on the internet for employer liability for my nanny as my house insurer doesn't cover it anymore (they say it's to do with a new legal rule or something) and after a few phone calls found out that morton michel sell a policy just for employer liability as well as house insurance with employer liability added in. just thought i would let people know as it is very hard to find anywhere that seems to sell it from just looking on google but this thread comes up 3rd on my search.

HTH :)