Cybercrime and under-insurance in social care are common trends: Jonathan Copley

It is wrongly assumed that their domiciliary care or care home policy will adequately cover them, which is simply not the case. This means, in the event of a cyber incident, you could be faced with costs for IT specialists, legal costs and more.

Underinsurance occurs when you insure your buildings and/or contents for less than what it would cost to reinstate them. The property market value is often insured instead of the rebuild valuation amount.

Getting it wrong can be disastrous as the ‘condition of average clause’ within your insurance policy would then apply.

This means the claim settlement you will be paid by insurers in the event of a total loss is reduced by the same percentage by which you are underinsured, leaving you to make up the remaining amount or unable to rebuild your business.

Launched earlier this month, the charity we’ve partnered with, Yorkshire Care Alliance (YCA), was set up to help support those who work in the care sector.

It was started by learning disability nurse, Angela Fletcher. Angela has worked in the care sector all her career and for the past 10 years has run Happy Future Support Specialists, in Scarborough, to support individuals with complex care needs and severe autism.

We met Angela at the Great British Care Awards in 2021, where Happy Futures won regional awards for Innovation and The Covid Team Award, and Angela won the Regional Award for Outstanding Contribution to Social Care.

We realised we share a common goal – to help improve the care sector with our combined knowledge and experience.

McClarrons’ specialist division in social care means we’ve been supporting those in the care sector for many years and understand its challenges and risks.

Working as an independent insurance broker, we specialise in working with care homes and domiciliary care providers. We’ve just hosted an event with the YCA about the specific insurance needs of those in the care sector.

The two areas highlighted above often go unaddressed so we’d encourage anyone with responsibility for running a care company to watch the recording of the event to ensure they have the information they need to best protect their business now and into the future.

Our event was part of a series of six free workshops that the YCA is running across the region for people who work in care. The other sessions will cover the CQC, workforce, and the law, and a special performance of ‘Fighting for Life’, a play about the care sector by the playwright Brian Daniels.

We’re in good company, with others who want to help improve the care sector by sharing our knowledge and expertise. We hope that everyone can take something away from our event because it’s not just care businesses that are at risk, it’s employees and, ultimately, those receiving care.

Jonathan Copley is Head of Care & Social Welfare at McClarrons