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Insurance for Private Tutors: What You Need to Know
'Everything you need to know about taking out insurance as a private tutor, including the types of insurance you need and what to look for in a tutoring insurance policy.'
As with any self-employed occupation, it’s important to know what your options are when it comes to insurance. Despite your best intentions, insurance claims can arise from the most unlikely of circumstances and at the most unexpected moments. Should such a claim occur, a good insurance policy can save you a significant amount of money in the long-term. We should say that The Tutor Website isn’t affiliated with any insurance providers and tutors should always shop around for quotes from a variety of providers.
Generally speaking, there are two types of insurance that tutors tend to have:
- Public liability insurance
- Professional indemnity insurance
Now, there’s no legal obligation for you to have insurance as a tutor and a lot don’t. However, far from it being our job to scaremonger tutors, if you plan to make a full-time career out of the profession, we’d suggest that it’s worth thinking about.
Public Liability Insurance for Private Tutors
Whether you tutor at your home or at the homes of students, public liability insurance protects you against legal liability following an injury to a student (through a trip or fall, for example) or damage to third party property (spilt coffee on a laptop, for example).
If an incident does occur and you find yourself subject to a claim for compensation, public liability insurance would cover the costs in defending these claims. It would also cover the cost of any legal fees or compensation that you would have to pay in the event that your defence was unsuccessful.
Professional Indemnity Insurance for Private Tutors
Professional indemnity insurance covers you against any claims that you made a mistake in your work, or failed to provide an adequate service. For example, you may be working with a student to help them achieve a Grade A pass to enable them entry into university. If the student didn’t achieve the grade and the parents were unhappy with your service, you could be subject to a claim.
Professional indemnity insurance would cover the costs of defending your claim and like public liability insurance, would cover the cost of any compensation you’d have to pay if your defence was unsuccessful.
How Much Does Insurance for Tutors Cost?
We’d always advise shopping around for the best deal, but in general, you could find public liability and professional indemnity insurance for less than £10 per month each, with potential discounted rates for taking both together.
In recent years, more and more insurance companies have started offering insurance specifically for tutors, Hiscox and Endsleigh are among two companies that have dedicated tutor insurance packages.
The Tutor’s Association has also negotiated discounted insurance rates with the Alan Boswell Group for their members, which could be worth considering.
What to Look For in a Tutoring Insurance Policy
With public liability insurance, it's important to know what level of cover you have. Most small business insurance insurance policies have you covered up to £1 million, which should be more than sufficient. You should check what your level of excess is as a cheap insurance policy may look good on the surface but expect you to meet huge outlays on each claim. You should also check what business activities you're covered for to make sure that 'teaching' is actually listed on the policy.
For professional indemnity insurance, you should check that you're covered against damages like errors and omissions as well as failure to meet deadlines. Your professional indemnity insurance policy should also clearly explain the procedure, should a claim arise and map out exactly what the insurer will do.
In summary, it's important that you take the time to consider whether you feel that you should take out public liability or private indemnity insurance as a tutor. If you decide to take out a policy, make sure that you do some shopping around and get at least 3 quotes from reputable companies.
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