Fact-finding · safety assessment · reporting
Professional indemnity – Youth care organisation
A youth care organisation writes reports on which judges and local authorities base decisions. An inaccuracy in them affects a family directly, and the claim is about that decision.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Beroepsaansprakelijkheid – Jeugdzorg Organisatie.
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In brief
The distinctive risk in youth care is that your judgement is itself the product that causes the loss. A safety assessment that underestimates the risk, fact-finding in which assumptions have been written down as facts, a report to the Raad voor de Kinderbescherming (the Dutch child protection board) that has not been verified: parents who lose contact or parental authority as a result hold the organisation liable under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code or for failing to perform the care agreement.
That loss is usually pure financial loss: legal costs, the cost of a fresh assessment, loss of income. Nothing is damaged and no one is physically injured, and for that very reason it falls outside the public and employers' liability insurance. Only professional liability cover picks this up, and then only if the policy does not exclude reporting and advice in the context of court-ordered measures. Check that word for word.
There is also a second strand: loss surrounding the young people themselves. A young person injured while in residential care or who causes damage to a third party, an incident in a group, aggression towards a member of staff. That is largely AVB territory, with employer's liability under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code as a separate section. How the products relate is explained on the hub page.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare professional indemnity insurance (BAV).
What actually goes wrong here
Four subjects that determine whether a claim is covered in youth care.
Facts, opinions and record-keeping
Most notices of liability from parents concern reports in which unverified information has been included as established fact, or in which their point of view is missing. Make sure sources, both sides of the story and the date of verification are visible in the file. Without that trail, defending such a claim is virtually impossible, even where the substantive judgement was correct.
Who is insured
The organisation is liable for its staff under Article 6:170 of the Dutch Civil Code, and for hired-in self-employed professionals Article 6:171 of the Dutch Civil Code can apply. Put self-employed youth care workers, seconded behavioural scientists and interns expressly in the class of insured persons, or require them to hold their own policy. Ask for proof every year. A lapsed policy held by a hired-in worker comes back to you.
Disciplinary law and complaints procedures
Youth care professionals are registered with the SKJ (the Dutch youth care professionals register) and are subject to their own disciplinary law. Such proceedings do not produce compensation and therefore fall outside liability cover in principle. Defence costs are only covered with a separate section for disciplinary law assistance, or through business legal expenses insurance.
Three exclusions to read in advance
Outside the cover are: intent and wilful recklessness under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code, including inappropriate conduct by a member of staff; administrative fines and penalty payments from an inspectorate or regulator; and liability you have accepted by contract in a framework agreement with a local authority and which would not exist without that contract.
What does your premium depend on?
- Turnover or volume of local authority budget: the common basis for the premium
- Number of care providers: including hired-in self-employed professionals and seconded staff
- Voluntary or compulsory framework: work for a certified institution weighs more heavily
- Residential care or outpatient support only: residential care brings risks of injury and of supervision
- Sum insured and excess: per claim and per insurance year
- Complaints and claims history: including current disciplinary and complaints proceedings
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A safety assessment underestimates the risk and the parents claim the cost of a fresh assessment | No | Yes |
| An application for an extension is filed too late, the measure lapses and the family incurs costs | No | Yes |
| A foster family accuses you of not sharing known behavioural problems during matching | No | Yes |
| A member of staff slips in the stairwell of your own building and breaks a wrist | Yes | No |
| A family guardian takes a young person to a hearing in her own car and causes a collision | No | No |
| The local authority reduces the payment because programmes did not start within the agreed period | No | No |
The AVB looks at what happened physically, the professional cover at what was in the file.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
Parents are holding us liable after a child was placed in care. Is that covered?
That depends on the policy wording. If the allegation concerns careless investigation or an incorrect report, that is a professional error with pure financial loss as a consequence. The court's decision itself is not your loss. Your part is the quality of the information you supplied. Report the claim at once, even if you are convinced you are right.
A young person damages someone else's property. Who pays?
In the first instance the young person or his legal representative. Your organisation comes into the picture if it is alleged that supervision fell short. That is business liability and runs through the AVB, not through the professional cover. Make sure the two policies fit together, because the allegations run into each other.
What if a member of staff is injured through aggression by a client?
Then it is a matter of employer's liability. Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code requires you to provide a safe working environment. In youth care that means an aggression protocol, a lone-working policy, training and follow-up of incident reports. Paragraph 4 of that article also applies to hired-in workers and interns. If there is no demonstrable policy, you are in principle liable.
What about privacy and young people's records?
Sharing information from a file without justification can produce a liability claim in its own right, quite apart from a fine from the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (the Dutch data protection authority). That fine is not insurable anywhere. The cost of investigation and recovery after a data breach belongs on a cyber insurance. Record internally who may share which data with which partner in the care chain.
Read more
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