BMC Archives - Charity Insurance Blog

31 January, 2014

Safeguarding Policies for Your Church

When was your Church Safeguarding policy last reviewed?

In a busy church life, it is easy to forget about the need to regularly review and update your Safeguarding policies. Circumstances can quickly change within a church, whether through new activities, meeting facilities or people for example, leaving some safeguarding issues unaddressed.

By keeping Child and Vulnerable Protection policies regularly updated, not only helps to protect these individuals and the staff and volunteers that work with them, it fulfils insurer requirements in respect of the churches duty of care.

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31 January, 2014

Running a Social Action Project?

Woman's hand holding symbol - red heart. Against blue background

Loving a City with Acts of Kindness

Demonstrating love for no reason, with no agenda is rare in society. But that’s exactly what The City Church in Canterbury and Whitstable sought to do one summer weekend, to be a blessing to the local community.

Over two days, teams of hundreds of volunteers went out into Wincheap area of Canterbury in bright red ‘Love Canterbury’ T-shirts responding to appeals for help. While one team cleaned the streets of litter, the other team visited the homes of those wanting help with painting, gardening and rubbish clearing – acts of kindness. Along the way, others stepped in to help them. The local B&Q store donated supplies so that one elderly man could have his home painted.

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31 January, 2014

Do you have Pastoral Care Insurance?

What you may not know about Pastoral care

It is vital to get specialist advice to ensure that you are fully protected for the spiritual and emotional advice you provide. Whilst liability insurance can be purchased through numerous suppliers, some insurance policies will not extend to include pastoral care.

Pastoral care would include befriending, encouraging, listening and supporting both the church congregation and members of the public. It is used to help individuals through any season in their lives but should not be confused with counselling.

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28 February, 2013

Health and Safety for Churches

Businessman about to slip and fall on a banana skin

Why is Health and Safety Important?

Sometimes Health and Safety is seen as a taboo subject as the importance of it is not seen until there is an accident. It is important to have robust policies and procedures in place as the following details of one of our clients illustrates:

The problem started with a leak in the church roof. The church, a converted warehouse had damp patches on a suspended ceiling. After discussions between the Pastor and the Assistant Pastor, the Assistant Pastor went on the roof to identify the source. The leak was caused by deterioration of plastic around the screw heads holding the roof tiles in place. The Assistant Pastor climbed on the roof again a few weeks later to fix the leak. Whilst up there he stood on a skylight which he had thought to be just another roofing tile, the skylight gave way and he fell through the roof. He had no safety equipment and no risk assessment was performed for the job. He suffered a serious back injury and is now a paraplegic and dependent on a wheelchair.

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28 February, 2013

Saving money on Church Insurance

Male hand putting coin into a piggy bank

How can your church save money on church insurance?

Over the past few years, we have witnessed parishes outgrowing their premises and have needed to move to more permanent locations. In line with the vision of many churches looking to extend their ministries to multi sites, you can read our case study on how we can help churches that are extending, buying or refurbishing their place of worship.

If you are renting your place of worship from a landlord, you may be required to contribute toward insurance costs associated to rebuild the property. In cases where the church is the sole occupant of the property, you may be permitted by your lease to outsource buildings insurance elsewhere whilst ensuring that any “interested parties” are noted in the insurance.

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28 February, 2013

How can your Parish save money on church insurance?

Over the past few years, we have witnessed parishes outgrowing their premises and have needed to move to more permanent locations. It is the clear the vision of the RCCG church to plant churches within five minutes walking distance in every city and town of developing countries and within five minutes driving distance in every city and town of developed countries. Read our case study on how we can help churches that are extending, buying or refurbishing their place of worship.

If you are renting your place of worship from a landlord, you may be required to contribute toward insurance costs associated to rebuild the property. In cases where the church is the sole occupant of the property, you may be permitted by your lease to outsource buildings insurance elsewhere whilst ensuring that any “interested parties” are noted in the insurance.

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