They are a vital part of the community and offer an incredible service to people of all ages and backgrounds. While community centres are popular with their visitors and members, running a community centre is challenging. There are lots of aspects to consider and many things that could go wrong. When the budget is tight, it can be tempting to scrimp. However, one aspect you should never cut from your budget is community centre insurance.
A community centre needs to be run like a normal business, with the same operations to consider. When you start thinking of the community centre as a business, you can begin to see the necessity of community centre insurance. A successful business needs financial protection that insurance can provide. When your community centre often operates on a shoestring budget, financial security becomes a necessity.
So to keep your community centre viable for the future, community centre insurance can encompass a range of different protection, but what does your centre need?
For all businesses, employer’s liability insurance is a legal requirement. Even if your community centre operates with just part-time staff, you still need insurance. Employer’s liability insurance helps to protect your workforce should they suffer an injury or their property is damaged as a result of the centre. You may expect an event never to happen, or your staff not to claim, but you must comply with the law.
As well as protecting your staff, you need to protect any visitors and members of the public that may be affected by injury or property damage as a result of the community centre. If anyone suffers an injury or their property has been damaged because of your community centre they may make a compensation claim.
When you have a small budget, paying hefty legal bills and compensation claims can be completely unfeasible. Public liability insurance will be there to help you cover the costs of any claim and your legal bills too. Many people believe that public services and non-for-profit companies will not suffer from compensation claims. However, if someone suffers financial loss as a result of the community centre, there is no exemption, and you will have to pay what the courts think is fair. With horror stories of compensation claims running into millions of pounds, you need public liability insurance to protect your finances.
To keep providing a valuable service to your community, your community centre needs to be in good condition. Buildings insurance can help to make sure you can pay for any repair works should the property suffer any damage. Contents insurance can help to compensate should items be stolen, vandalised or damaged.
Buildings and contents insurance can help to make sure the community centre can open as quickly as possible after unexpected events such as fires, floods or storms. Furthermore, it can help to keep the financial impact to a minimum.