News

Fears that hundreds of children's homes could close because insurance firms are refusing their business were sparked this week after a private provider was 24 hours from shutting down its homes because it could not get public liability cover.

Tony Harris, director of SES Care, which runs homes for some of the country's most vulnerable young people, including those on secure orders, was preparing to close the homes because insurers said they were no longer taking "high risk" contracts.

But the homes were saved after a last-minute u-turn by the company's original insurers which decided not to terminate the contract because Harris had run homes for 25 years without any problems.

Harris said: "It was definitely touch and go and we are really angry about it." He added that his unblemished record had persuaded the insurance company to renew the contract but he predicted that homes which had experienced trouble would have difficulty getting insurance.

In the past fortnight he said he had spoken to around 30 private providers, one of which was a national company with 50 homes, that were experiencing the same problems.

Secretary of the National Association of Independent Resources for Children, Joan Jerrett, said: "We have received a lot of calls from people who have been having trouble getting insurance. We have been especially busy over the last few weeks because many homes' policies are up for renewal."

One member was given 10 days' notice by her insurance company that it intended to end its contract and "although she eventually found a company, it was a bit hairy" said Jerrett.

Later this month NAIRC plans to address the problem at a board meeting.

Meanwhile, providers now aim to set up a consortium to tackle the issue and are calling on the National Care Standards Commission to take action on their behalf.

But a spokesperson for the commission said that although it was aware of cases where providers had experienced difficulties getting insurance, it did not yet view the problem as serious. She conceded that the three-month-old body might find that as it carried out more inspections it became a bigger issue. "If it does become a problem then we will raise it as part of our first year of operation meeting with the government," she added.