Some local authorities have doubled the required level of insurance cover, for Forest School practitioners, from £5m to £10m. Naturally, this results in a significant increase in insurance premiums for affected practitioners. The FSA understands that this is a result of local authority officers applying a blanket requirement that was originally intended to cover capital works. We have been working very closely with Birnbeck Insurance, the FSA’s insurer, on this. While it may indeed be necessary to hold a higher level of insurance cover in some circumstances – particularly urban areas – the general advice is that you may want to consider challenging the requirement. In up to 9 out of 10 cases such a challenge has been successful. The FSA has worked with Birnbeck Insurance to produce a letter, coming from Birnbeck, that our members can use to help challenge such a requirement. It it has been placed in the members only library and can be found through the link below.

Forest School Scheme Liability Letter