Insurance for work experience

Snapper_Five

Hi,


My daughter needs to get work experience in quite a specific area of the veterinary industry, but most of the people she needs work experience with are 'one man bands' working self-employed and they don't want the bother of getting insurance to cover her.


Does anyone know if it's possible to get insurance for her to cover her when she's working with these people? She would be under supervision, but untrained. She would mainly be working with horses.


Thanks for your help,
S5

Guest101

Presumebly the 'one man band' have their own ltd company, which has public liability insurance.


Wouldn't even need to add her on to anything in 9/10 cases

unforeseen

It's employer liability insurance that will be needed. A one man band will neither have nor require that insurance so it will be an additional cost for them.

https://www.abi.org.uk/Insurance-and-savings/Products/Business-insurance/Liability-insurance/Employers-liability-insurance/Work-experience-students

Snapper_Five

Thanks, I saw that link when I was researching it, but that's from the employer's perspective. Do you know if an insurance company will insure her directly, i.e. so she has her own public liability insurance independent of the employer?
Thanks,
S5

unforeseen

They might but it doesn't get around the employer liability issue. She will be considered as an employee so the insurance is a mandatory requirement for the employer.

Would you be willing to pay the employer costs for getting this insurance?

Snapper_Five

Yes, I would, but it would probably be multiple employers as she will need to work with three or four different people, i.e. three or four different self-employed individuals to get the work experience she needs.

Undervalued

Guest101 wrote: »

Presumebly the 'one man band' have their own ltd company, which has public liability insurance.


Wouldn't even need to add her on to anything in 9/10 cases

Actually a vet is quite unlikely to be a limited company.

In any case public liability insurance would not cover employees and a person volunteering to gain work experience would be considered an employee for insurance purposes.

This cannot be a unique situation, can the RCVS not offer any advice as to how this is usually resolved?

Undervalued

Snapper_Five wrote: »

Thanks, I saw that link when I was researching it, but that's from the employer's perspective. Do you know if an insurance company will insure her directly, i.e. so she has her own public liability insurance independent of the employer?
Thanks,
S5

She could as a self employed "vet's assistant" I suppose, despite the fact she is not getting paid, but I rather suspect we are reinventing the wheel here!

Guest101

Undervalued wrote: »

Actually a vet is quite unlikely to be a limited company.

In any case public liability insurance would not cover employees and a person volunteering to gain work experience would be considered an employee for insurance purposes.

This cannot be a unique situation, can the RCVS not offer any advice as to how this is usually resolved?

I guess my experience has been with small independent vets, but all have been companies, usually with atleast one employee - such as a PA or Assistant

bingo_bango

No idea on the one man band operational side, but I used to deal with requests for work placements for a large central Government organisation.

We just got the school to indemnify us. They already have insurance which covers outside excursions, so it really shouldn't be an issue for them. A simple one page form was all that was required. Perhaps check with the school whether or not this is an option?

Snapper_Five

Thanks everyone, there are some good ideas here that I will follow up.