Financial and Legal Insurance (FLI) has launched a specialist legal expenses insurance product for foster carers, distributed via London market broker Circle Insurance Services to their client, Gloucester-based broker Cass-Stephens.
The product and provides legal expenses cover in the event carers are subject to complaints relating to the foster care, as well as loss of earnings cover for the foster parents.
Ian Kember, FLI’s business development lead at FLI, said his personal knowledge of the sector as an adoptive parent was a key factor behind FLI entering this line of business.
“Fostering children is a high-pressure job and carers who receive complaints face significant reputational risk, as well as loss of earnings,” Kember said. “Circle came to us asking for help to develop a product that, as well as covering legal expenses, also protected agency members against loss of earnings.”
According to FLI, the product is the first in this specialist field to include cover for loss of earnings.
From 2019 to 2020, there were almost 2,500 complaints made against foster carers, 63% of which were made by fostered children against their foster carers, Kember said. This is roughly the same proportion as 2018 to 2019 at 65%. Kember said that there is a 20% chance that a foster carer will get a complaint during their career.
“The cover will be moulded into a package of products and offered to agency members via monthly subscription,” said Nicola Bradshaw, account handler at Circle Insurance. “They expect to see 90% take-up of this insurance among their members, and will use it to attract new members to the agency. The FLI team really understood what was required and that experience has enabled us to provide our client a product which they believe will help improve the chances of bringing candidates to do this socially essential role.”
