Public Liability Insurance for Sports Clubs
Sports and social clubs, or any type of club such as these must have adequate liability insurance cover. Even if you think your club is perfectly safe, it needs to be insured in case a member or a visitor happens to injure themselves and chooses to claim compensation from you. Helping to protect your sports club from a claim, or even prosecution, should not be treated lightly.
Slips, Trips and Falls
This is the most common form of accident at clubs, occurring following spills, wet floors, potholes, poor lighting and uneven surfaces.
Liability Insurance for Special Circumstances
If your building happens to be holding an event of some kind, then this is the type of scenario when it is good to pay special attention to the risks involved. It is always wise to carry out a thorough risk assessment before hosting an outdoor event, for instance. If you are holding a fireworks display, then it is advisable to have a trained person in charge of the event and keep observers at a safe distance.
If you are holding a BBQ, you might think this is quite a harmless event, but it is important to make sure bystanders, particularly children, are kept a safe distance away. Bouncy castles should be checked for insurance, if hired and supervised at all times too.
Letting of Premises
When hiring out part of your club or similar, it is always advisable to use a formal contract to highlight to those hiring that they must report any incidents to the club and whether or not they are expected to take out insurance and also produce evidence of it.
Protecting Your Club
Risk assessments are basic ways of protecting a sports club liability and yet can save a lot of hassle. To guard against claims and reduce the risk of accidents happening, a risk assessment would always be a priority, especially before holding an event on the premises. Any action to be taken should be communicated to the necessary people. For example, if there was a spillage, it should be reported and cleaned up before anyone was shown to that area.
Other areas to be aware of are:
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Any outside paths or steps |
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Outside lighting |
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Steps inside should be free from defects |
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Food hygiene (if applicable) – this is a very serious matter for liability and there are many strict regulations that must be followed |
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Action of employees – Make sure employees are well trained on the risks and avoiding them |
Fire Safety
Fire safety is hugely important, but particularly in clubs where there are likely to be a lot of people all gathered around for an event and so the risks involved should be assessed and minimised. Fire marshals should be appointed, an evacuation plan prepared and the installation of fire equipment.
In the unfortunate event of an accident
Nobody wants an accident to happen, but it is always best to be prepared in case it does. This means making steps as quickly as possible to prevent the incident from getting any worse, such as recording the incident and taking the injured person's details, calling a first aider, etc. If any correspondence is received following the event from the injured party or somebody acting on their behalf, forward it to your insurance representative immediately.
How can Public Liability Insurance help?
Having public liability insurance protects against incidents involving visitors and covers the costs of claims. It isn't a legal requirement, but without it a large claim could potentially put you out of business. This could be especially harmful to your sports club's revenue and reputation, resulting in loss of business, which is something not covered by insurance.
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