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Personal Accident Insurance for School Players

Sun 4th Sep 2011

Circular 5 (Personal Accident Insurance for School Players)

 

1. We receive regular enquiries about the implication of injuries sustained by students either in playing in representative games for their schools, or in preparation and training for such games. Our understanding in Colaisti Uladh is as follows:            (NB: this is our personal and unofficial understanding; you are advised to check and verify details with professionals in this field)

 

• It appears that many team coaches (and Headteachers) are under the impression that the schools’ Public Liability Insurance acts as Personal Accident Insurance or as an Injury Scheme for players. This is not the case.

 

1)      Public Liability Insurance

• All schools have a duty of care to their students which arises under common law and statute, and any liability attaching to a school arising from a breach of their duty of care (i.e. negligence) is protected under  Public Liability Insurance which covers the school’s “legal liability to their students for accidental bodily injury arising from a school related activity”
• Students can therefore recover expenses or damages where there has been a breach of duty on the part of the school.

 

2)   Pupil Personal Accident Insurance/Cover (Southern Schools)

• There is no obligation on a school, legal or otherwise, to provide Personal Accident Cover for Pupils. Personal Accident Insurance is a form of accident insurance which provides defined benefits (including medical expenses) in specific circumstance viz. where an insured suffers an injury caused by “accidental, violent, external and visible means.”
• Many schools in the South of Ireland take out such cover for their students; the premium is typically E8.00 per pupil per annum, and the cover is for 24 hours per day every day of the calendar year. Industry sources in Dublin state that there is no demand or appetite for such cover in Northern Ireland because the NHS here provides free medical care. (www.allianz.ie)
• Please note that this Personal Accident Cover does not even provide benefits in every injury scenario; as stated earlier, this cover responds in specific circumstances i.e. “bodily injury caused by accidental, violent, external and visible means” e.g. an injury such as a broken leg would meet the criteria for Accidental Bodily Injury in nearly all situations; however, there may be other injuries which might not meet these criteria.

 

Of course every eventuality would be covered if the victim had Private Health Care Cover (e.g. BUPA in the North, and Quinn, Hibernia Aviva, VHI in the South); this is, of course, not a matter for schools; it is a lifestyle choice for parents and families.

 

• Accidents do happen, and parents need to realise that if they want Personal Accident Insurance for their footballing and/or hurling sons, then it is up to themselves to provide it.

 

2)      Fortunately, the GAA does have its own GAA Injury Scheme. However, there has been virtually no uptake of the scheme in the 2nd Level Schools sector.

      Teams registered in GAA Injury Scheme in 2010:

                    Adult teams:     4100

                      U21 teams:     1400

             Underage teams:   14,300 (i.e. underage club teams)

     Primary & 2nd Level school teams:  61 (F) and 42 (H) = 123 (mostly primary)

 

There are disappointingly few 2nd Level schools registered in the scheme. One example of  a school which is covered is St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon. They fielded 15 different teams on 2010 / 11, and played over 60 games in all competitions. All of those players were covered under the GAA Injury Scheme not only for the actual games, but for all training sessions and challenge games   –  and all for a total outlay to the school of E300.

                                

 

 So in 2009, almost 20,000 teams were registered in the GAA Injury Scheme, but disappointingly few of these was from  2nd level schools!  Implications? Many schools in the South do have the Pupil Personal Accident Cover referred to above, but the vast majority of schools in Northern Ireland seem to be totally reliant on their Public Liability Insurance.

 

There are now over 50 schools affiliated to Ulster Colleges, and between them they field in the region of 350 different teams across our 38 competitions, and play about 1500 games per school year, with  tens of thousands of additional hours training and preparation. There is obviously considerable potential for injury in these circumstances.

 

In the coming year, the cost of affiliation to the GAA Injury Scheme has again been set to a maximum of E300 per school  regardless of the number of teams involved; the majority of our affiliated schools field at least 10 teams.

 

The GAA Scheme operates on the 1st Jan – 31st Dec cycle rather than per school year; however, this is not an issue because the coverage is per team, not per individual; this means that a school simply declares a team on the application form, not a list of individuals e.g. the Armagh MacRory Cup team would be covered from 1st Jan 2011 until 31st Dec 2011 even though the composition of the squad would alter significantly over the 2 school years involved.

 

• Fees (E200 per team up to a max of E300 per school) should be submitted to Sinead Quinn at Croke Park.
• Schools do not even need to submit applications forms as clubs do; a letter  from the school specifying which teams are to be covered is sufficient; there is, therefore, no laborious secretarial work.        

The information in this circular has been compiled in response to enquiries from a number of schools, and, as stated earlier, you are advised to check and verify      details with the relevant experts in this field
      

                                                                          Seamus Woods (Runai) (03/09/11)

Submitted by: Mark Grogan