What are the insurance considerations you need to keep in mind when taking on a student on placement?
Insurance considerations for the private practitioner
All placement providers are responsible for the safety of their student while on placement, meaning that any injuries a student may sustain while on placement as a result of negligence, must be covered. For most providers this is covered by their Employers’ Liability Insurance (ELI) which is legal requirement for all employers.
Sole practitioners who host a student for practice placement would not normally purchase ELI. This was seen a major barrier. To address this, the Public Liability of the CSP Professional Liability Insurance (PLI) scheme has been extended to ensure cover:
It is hereby noted that Section 2 includes injury to any individual undertaking study or practice placement while under the supervision of the Policyholder providing, they are not working under a contract of employment.
This ensures that students who undertake placements with sole practitioners, adequate insurances in place to comply with regulatory, legal, and safe practice protocols.
The public liability indemnity limit is £10 million. Full details of the cover can be found here.
Just for the sake of clarity, if the host company or if the host already has employees, then they should already hold Employers Liability Insurance and it normally would automatically extend to students on practice placement or at the very worst the host just needs to check this with their own insurance providers.
Insurance considerations for the student
All students going on placement with sole practitioner physiotherapists should have their own medical malpractice cover in place to cover any scenario where a patient brings a claim directly against the student as well as, or instead of, against the registered physiotherapist. We advise all our sole practitioners to make sure potential students have their own medical malpractice cover in place.
Medical malpractice indemnity cover is provided to all CSP student members under the CSP PLI scheme, subject to policy terms and conditions. The main requirements are that the supervisor is appropriately registered and that the student tis supervised at al times.