School insurance

onomatopoeia99

steven2022 said:

Sorry for the random question here, but any knowledgeable people on here know if primary schools need to let there insurers know that they allow parents dogs on in school playgrounds for school drop offs/pick ups? 

If they did let insurers a know would this increase premiums? 

It's a commercial contract of insurance so both parties must inform the other of anything that materially affects risk without having to ask specific questions.  The insurer will then make a decision on premium based on the information it has.   The guiding case law for commercial insurance contracts (and consumer insurance contracts until around a decade ago when the law was changed) is Carter v Boehm.  Put that into google and you will find multiple articles explaining it and the concept of utmost good faith / uberrami fides that governs commerical insurance, unlike all other contracts.

It seems likely that the LEA would negotiate insurance for all its schools rather than leaving it to individual schools to negotiate when the school is unlikely to employ anyone with the knowledge and skills to negotiate liability insurance, so you could ask them. 

Not entirely sure why if you're unhappy with school policy on dogs you dress it up as an insurance question then drip feed extra information laced with exciteable comments using lots of bold and exclamation marks later on, rather than just going in with the whole story at the start.

sheramber

Any insurqance the school had would apply to  any damage/injury by school property.

Therapy pets  normally have their own insurance. 

A parent's dog is not the school's responsibility. It is the responsibility of the owner  and any complaint should be directed to them.

If someone takes a  dog into a dog friendly shop or pub and it bites someone it is not the premises owner's  responsibility. 

 If a dog bit someone in the vet's waiting room it not the vet's responsibility.

Whether the school should prohibit dogs in the playground should  be directed to  the local education authority/council.   
Many councils do prohibit dogs in the school playground or tied up at school gates.

T.T.D

Absolutely no dogs except guide dogs are allowed in our local authority controlled schools, not just for attacks but for injury to animal if it got hurt onsite and dog fouling.

Criminally the dog owner get prosecuted if there is evidence of a dangerous dog attack happing in school site.  

Civilly schools liability insurance covers anything else. 

Dogs permitted on site even under certain disclaimers contracts may not waive a school of liability either. 

If the school new a certain dog had been problematic at the school for E.G the dog fouled onsite and a kid caught infection or worse blinded for E.G  the school failed to act on reports or complaints then a school would and or failed in its duty of care to protect the student or other parents from those risks and would be liable. 

But the saying goes “you can sue anyone you want, a judge decides whether you have a merited case”.

To answer the question an authority controlled school liability insurance would not cover parents bringing onsite dogs or other animals, guide dogs and therapy dogs tend to have their own public liability insurance covered by the owner and one would presume the school would be asking for said insurance policy before any would be permitted onsite. 

I would asked the Local Education Authorities legal team for clarification on the matter if the onsite health and safety co-ordinator is unsure. 

If private again the schools own public liability 

Insurance would probably exclude animals onsite due to risks and would refer to guide dogs etc as exceptions.

I doubt there’s specific insurance. 

elsien

onomatopoeia99 said:

steven2022 said:

Sorry for the random question here, but any knowledgeable people on here know if primary schools need to let there insurers know that they allow parents dogs on in school playgrounds for school drop offs/pick ups? 

If they did let insurers a know would this increase premiums? 

…….

Not entirely sure why if you're unhappy with school policy on dogs you dress it up as an insurance question then drip feed extra information laced with exciteable comments using lots of bold and exclamation marks later on, rather than just going in with the whole story at the start.

Best guess would be a relative of the child who was mouthed (I’m not saying bitten as a bite breaks the skin) and either quite rightly angry at the school’s response, looking for compensation, or both. 

I agree though, the full story would be easier to make sense of. 

sheramber

We also have no idea what the child did that resulted in a ‘bite’.


I had a friendly Dalmatian who was guilty of giving a paw to the person. 

Due to his size that paw would be a face level of a child.

A girl approached intending to pet him. She did not ask if she could pet him, but I stopped her when she approached and put her hand out. I told her not to  as he could  hurt her. 

She stopped and turned away.

Later, when  I looked away to talk to someone she approached and did pet him and  he  raised his paw , which contacted her face leaving a red mark.

She knew she should have listened to what I said as she did not say anything to me  but returned quietly to her mother who did not mention it either.

I would add they were dog owner,

maman

Schools used to be insured by Local Authorities. This still applies in many cases but, since the introduction of Academies (outside the control of LAs), they would have to make individual arrangements. 

Personally, if it was my school, I'd have a ban on dogs (assistance dogs excepted) and/or make any dogs the parents' responsibility. 

steven2022

The child was simply walking past the dog in the school playground and the dog jumped forward and bit his arm. The owner was too slow to react to pull the dogs leash as she was doing something on her mobile phone. The family are only requesting for a dog ban for parents bringing dogs on school grounds with the exception of assistance dogs. 

elsien

Is it a local authority school or an academy? 

silvercar

sheramber said:

We also have no idea what the child did that resulted in a ‘bite’.


I had a friendly Dalmatian who was guilty of giving a paw to the person. 

Due to his size that paw would be a face level of a child.

A girl approached intending to pet him. She did not ask if she could pet him, but I stopped her when she approached and put her hand out. I told her not to  as he could  hurt her. 

She stopped and turned away.

Later, when  I looked away to talk to someone she approached and did pet him and  he  raised his paw , which contacted her face leaving a red mark.

She knew she should have listened to what I said as she did not say anything to me  but returned quietly to her mother who did not mention it either.

I would add they were dog owner,

So you were distracted and not in full control of your dog, having deliberately brought him to a place where there are young children roaming and expect that young children should obey a single warning. Literally an accident waiting to happen, to the extent that you had already needed to give a warning. That warning to that child aside, it could have been another child that approached.

saajan_12

The insurance point here is irrelevant. Insurance just pays out the intersection of what the policy covers AND what the company is responsible for. Not everything has to be insured. 

The point is really

1) Is the school responsible for injuries to its students / visitors on its grounds but around pick up time (so does it switch to the parents responsibility, same as if this was on the street?). 
2) If yes, then is that responsibility enough to warrant a stronger action such as banning dogs (vs say communicating rules to keep dogs leashed)