Overview
Over the last two years, some non-government organisations delivering out-of-home care services have reported difficulty in renewing or obtaining insurance policies with cover for physical and sexual abuse (PSA) claims, following commercial insurers withdrawing PSA cover from the market.
In response to this, the State Government established temporary indemnity arrangements for out-of-home care and youth homelessness accommodation service providers unable to obtain insurance for PSA claims.
These temporary arrangements have enabled the Department of Communities (Communities) contracted service providers to continue to deliver essential services to children and young people, experiencing homelessness or living in OOHC.
Progress towards a solution
Communities is working with other jurisdictions, an advisory group of non-government providers, representatives from the Insurance Commission WA (ICWA) and Department of Treasury (Treasury) to develop a long-term solution.
Communities is currently working with contracted OOHC and youth accommodation service providers to enable them to access temporary indemnity coverage for PSA, if required, for the 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 period.
Communities continues to participate in an Interjurisdictional Working Group (IJWG). The IJWG engaged Finity Consulting (Finity) to provide advice on the lack of available PSA insurance for OOHC and youth homelessness accommodation providers.
Informed by broad stakeholder consultation, Finity’s advice covered:
- potential long-term solutions to the lack of available PSA insurance, recommending state and territory governments provide insurance or indemnity to OOHC and youth homelessness service providers; and
- design and implementation recommendations for state and territory indemnity or insurance schemes for PSA claims.
Finity recommended design principles and components required to implement an indemnity or insurance scheme, including eligibility requirements, scope and limits of cover, claim deductibles and pricing structures.
While recommending national consistency across these components, it is acknowledged that flexibility is required to respond to the unique settings and requirements of each state and territory.
Communities continues to work alongside representatives from ICWA, Treasury and other key sector stakeholders, to develop the most suitable and sustainable long-term solution for the WA context.
Updates regarding the development of the long-term solution for WA will be provided when available.
Visit NGO physical and sexual abuse insurance: IJWG for more information.
Eligibility
Eligibility of the temporary indemnity cover is limited to non-government organisations contracted by Communities to deliver out-of-home care and/or services for youth accommodation, including homelessness, and who have been unable to obtain insurance cover for PSA claims.
Accessing the Indemnity
WA State Government contracted out-of-home care and youth accommodation services that wish to access the indemnity cover for PSA claims for the first time, or those wishing to continue access to the indemnity cover are required to provide a current uninsurable risk notice. Once this is received, a Deed of Indemnity is prepared and sent to those organisations for signing.
Following the recent extension to the indemnity arrangements until 30 June 2024, contracted organisations were requested to provide advice to the Department of Communities on:
- whether their organisation requires PSA indemnity cover for the new period
- if so, provision of an uninsurable risk notice
- If indemnity cover is not required, a request to provide the expiry date of their current PSA insurance cover.
Out-of-home care and youth accommodation providers are requested to provide this information to: communitiescontracting@communities.wa.gov.au
Accessing the State Government temporary indemnity arrangements is voluntary. Service providers are advised to consider the 2023/2024 WA State Government Deed of Indemnity for Physical and Sexual Abuse (download below) to determine if the cover offered is appropriate for their organisation.
Organisations should contact their relevant contract manager at Communities with any queries regarding the current indemnity arrangements including access.
Why are only out-of-home care and youth homelessness accommodation providers able to access the scheme?
The WA temporary indemnity arrangements were established as a short-term measure in response to the withdrawal of commercial insurers from providing PSA cover for OOHC and youth homelessness accommodation services.
It is understood there is concern about the market failure regarding PSA insurance impacting on other sectors.
The Inter-jurisdictional Working Group is expected to consider emerging PSA insurance issues impacting government funded NGOs.
Communities is seeking to collect information regarding other services experiencing difficulties in relation to access to insurance coverage for PSA claims. If your organisation is impacted, please email information to PSAindemnity@communities.wa.gov.au
Non-Government Organisations are encouraged to discuss any concerns with Communities directly.
