Liability insurance protects an individual, volunteer, or organisation if they are held legally liable for personal injury or damage to third-party property. Your church insurance policy includes employers’ liability, which protects your greatest asset, your people.
It is essential to review your church’s insurance policy to ensure that you have all the necessary cover in place.
Accidents and claims
If an accident results in an injury, there is a potential that the injured party will make a liability claim against the church. Protecting people in the first instance can help avoid accidents.
When church employees and volunteers are working on church premises, your church insurance policy will provide cover so long as the work is not of a hazardous or specialist nature.
Slips and trips
Accidents happen, and slips and trips are not uncommon.
Accidents can be reduced by carrying out regular maintenance of the church premises. Baptist Insurance provides slips and trips guidance to help you identify and address some of the common issues.
Falls
‘Work at height’ means work in any place where, if no precautions were in place, a person could fall and potentially become injured. Churches have a legal duty to protect employees and volunteers under their control. The use of ladders, for example, should be carried out with extra care to avoid injuries.
Some simple precautions can help you protect people from falls.
- Properly planning and organising the work taking place.
- Having the appropriate number of people present for a task, for example, someone to hold a ladder while it is in use.
- Make sure the person carrying out the work is competent or supervised by a competent person.
- Providing suitable work equipment.
Personal safety
A personal safety plan is written to cover employees and volunteers who are required to work alone or in vulnerable situations. The safety plan should address the unique hazards and considerations of each working environment and situation.
Creating a health and safety policy
If you are an employer and have five or more employees, you will need one in writing. Here, it must meet certain requirements. If you have fewer than five employees, you do not need to do this. However, you should still provide basic health and safety information for them. To help you get started, you can download our guide below, which includes a health and safety policy template.
If you have no employees, you are under no obligation to prepare a policy. However, you still have a ‘duty of care’ to protect others from danger. In such circumstances where there is an accident and a claim results, you may need to show that you have taken this seriously.