Can anyone tell me whether we need insurance for our playgroup? I recently joined the committee of our local mother and toddler group. It's a very informal group run by parents for other parents, and children are always accompanied by a parent or guardian. For the last few years we've been paying for insurance (about £60 a year) through the Pre School Alliance(?). Our only income is from the subs parents pay each week, and the bulk of this goes to pay for the hall-hire, so our resources are meagre to say the least (we rarely have any money in the bank to buy new toys or art supplies).
My question is whether we actually need this insurance. The hall is insured anyway against theft, fire etc. The children are each accompanied by their parent/guardian and we are not responsible for looking after them, so do we in fact have any liability should anything happen to any child at the playgroup? Could we instead ask parents to sign something accepting that their child's safety is their responsibility?
Obviously we don't want the group (or the committee as individuals) to be sued by the parent of any child falling off a trike or something more serious, but at the same time the insurance money is our biggest one-off expense and if we saved that money, we could provide better equipment for the children.
Any advice?