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Parent, baby, and toddler groups play an important role in bringing families together, offering safe, supportive environments for early learning, play and development. Whether you run sensory sessions, messy play, music classes or stay and play groups, organising activities for young children comes with responsibilities and risk.
With specialist cover tailored to community-run and not-for-profit groups, Markel Direct helps to ensure you, your volunteers and your organisation can focus on delivering enjoyable sessions, confident that you are protected if something does not go to plan.
Our specialist insurance offers expert cover for a whole host of parent, baby, and toddler groups–from messy play and sensory through to music and sports.
Cover at a glance:
- Public liability cover up to £10m
- Employers’ liability for volunteers and helpers
- Trustee indemnity for group organisers
- Cover for toys, equipment and venue hire
- Optional personal accident cover for children and adults
What is parent, baby and toddler group insurance?
Parent, baby, and toddler group insurance refers to a specialist group of insurance covers designed to protect groups that bring parents, carers, and young children together for organised activities. This includes sessions such as baby sensory, messy play, music classes, stay-and-play groups, and toddler exercise. These groups often operate in hired venues, such as church halls or community centres, and may be run by volunteers, committees, or small charities.
Policies typically include covers such as public liability, employers’ liability (where volunteers or staff are involved), and professional indemnity for groups offering instruction or advice.
Cover starting at
£3 a month
Why do I need parent, baby and toddler group insurance?
Running a parent, baby or toddler group carries a duty of care to children, parents, volunteers, and venue providers. Even with careful planning and supervision, accidents can still happen – a baby could be injured by equipment, a parent could trip in a shared space, or a claim could arise following an allegation of unprofessional behaviour.
Without insurance, defending a claim and covering legal costs or compensation could place significant financial strain on a group or its organisers. Some venues, local authorities, and funders may also require proof of insurance before allowing sessions to take place.
Example policy documents
If you have an existing policy with us, please sign in to view your policy documents.
Below you will find examples of the documents provided.
Insurance covers for parent, baby and toddler groups
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Public liability insurance and employers' liability insurance
To ensure comprehensive protection against claims, we group our public liability insurance and employers' liability insurance together.
Public liability insurance covers the cost of defending your baby and toddler group if someone is injured, or their property damaged, due to your negligence. For example, if a baby were to be injured by a toy or a visitor were to trip over a loose playmat, they could take legal action against you. Public liability insurance can protect against these scenarios, covering the legal fees and compensation payments. Cover for £5m.
Employers' liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ staff or volunteers. It covers against allegations of injury or illness suffered by staff during their employment. If your baby and toddler group has any volunteers or employees, regardless of how many hours they work, this cover is essential. Cover for £10m.
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Professional indemnity insurance and trustee indemnity insurance
To ensure comprehensive protection against claims, we group our professional indemnity insurance and trustee liability insurance together.
Professional indemnity insurance covers the cost of defending your baby and toddler group against allegations of professional negligence. An example of a claim would be if your group teaches children certain skills, a parent alleges that their child has failed to progress to an acceptable standard and takes action against you seeking compensation. It covers the legal fees, as well as any compensation that may be payable. Cover from £250k to £1m.
Trustee indemnity insurance (also known as trustee liability insurance) covers the legal costs and expenses of defending against disqualification as a trustee, investigations or extradition proceedings. If your group is registered as a charity or has trustees, you should give serious consideration to trustee indemnity insurance. Cover from £250k to £1m.
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Legal representation and employment disputes insurance
Legal representation and employment disputes protects your group against employment disputes, official investigations and other serious matters, including crisis management, identity fraud, official investigations (excluding HMRC), corporate manslaughter, pollution and data protection issues. Cover for £100,000.
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Property damage insurance
Property damage insurance covers:
- your buildings
- general contents (including stock)
- computer equipment
- tenant improvements and glass (for which you are responsible) against accidental damage (including theft) while on your group’s premises.
You can also choose to insure your group’s equipment, such as laptops and mobile phones, on a worldwide basis. In addition, you can insure against additional trading expenses following an interruption, for example, a flood that means your group has to operate from other premises.
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Money and personal assault insurance
Money and personal assault insurance covers loss of money for fixed limits up to a maximum of £250,000 for non-negotiable money such as crossed cheques and £2,500 for negotiable money. In addition, if you, or members of your family, or employees, or members of their family, are injured during a robbery or attempted robbery, we will pay you either £5,000 or £50 per week for 104 weeks - depending on the nature of the injury.
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Cyber and data risks insurance
Cyber and data risks insurance protects your group in the event of a targeted cyber attack. It pays the costs of restoring data and equipment, informing clients, meeting ransom demands and loss of your net profit. It also pays your legal defence costs and damages you are legally liable to pay to other parties. Cover from £50k to £250k.
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Fidelity insurance
Fidelity insurance protects your group against dishonesty or fraud by volunteers or employees. This could be, for example, if the volunteer who handles your accounts was found to have stolen money from the group’s funds for their own personal benefit. Cover for £50k.
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Occupational personal accident insurance
Occupational personal accident insurance helps your group’s volunteers and employees if they are accidentally injured in the course of your activities. It pays a weekly amount for temporary total disablement, or a lump sum if they suffer loss of limbs, sight, speech, hearing, permanent total disablement or death. Limits from £100 per week/£25k lump sum to £500/week/£100k lump sum.
How it works
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How much does parent, baby and toddler group insurance cost?
The cost of parent, baby and toddler group insurance can vary depending on:
- The size of your group
- The activities you run
- The level of cover you choose
At Markel Direct, you can secure parent, baby, and toddler group insurance from £3 per month*.
*£3 a month premium is based on a baby and toddler group requiring professional indemnity and trustees liability insurance with a limit of £250,000.
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Frequently asked questions
These frequently asked questions are designed to help you and include questions relating to policy cover, pricing and ‘technical’ terms.
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Am I covered to work with clients remotely?
Yes. Your insurance policy automatically provides cover for working with clients remotely, including using an audio or video service such as Zoom or Skype.
Many of our customers have begun doing this as a way of continuing business and retaining clients during the COVID-19 pandemic, and you do not need to contact us to include it on your policy.
Please note that your sessions/instruction must be done on a live basis and to your client (or clients, if part of a group session) only. Your policy does not provide cover for pre-recorded videos that are uploaded to a video platform (e.g. YouTube) for anyone to access.
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Can we get insurance if we’re not a registered club?
Yes – you don’t need to be a registered charity to get cover for your group. Many of our clients are small charities or community organisations that are new or are too small to be a registered charity.
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Does the policy cover volunteers?
Yes - the employers' liability and public liability section of the policy provides cover for your volunteers. As long as you purchase this section of cover from us, your volunteers will be covered.
To find out more on insurance for volunteers, read our article here.
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Does the insurance cover events?
Yes - the public liability section of the policy provides cover for charity events (such as fundraising) for up to 500 attendees.
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We don't have a regular meeting place - can you insure us?
Yes. We cover hundreds of small charities, community groups and clubs that don't have a regular meeting place and instead rotate between different venues, such as members' homes, village halls and community centres.
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Why should I insure with Markel?
Established over 25 years ago, we've gained an expert understanding of the risks facing small charities and community groups, and our policies are specially designed to protect you.
We actively support the third sector. Since 2008, we have donated more than £150,000 to our supported charity, Carers Trust, and have supported numerous charity awards including the Third Sector Excellence Awards and Britain's Best Volunteer in partnership with Small Charities Coalition.
We are a division of Markel International, a Lloyd’s and London market insurer that wrote gross premium totals of $2.4bn in 2023. Still not sure? Call us on 0800 640 6604 - one of our insurance experts will be more than happy to answer any questions you have and talk you through the insurance we offer so you can choose the right cover for your charity or group. Alternatively, get a quote now and call us later if anything needs clarifying.
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How are Markel Direct regulated?
Markel Direct is a trading name of Markel International Insurance Company Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Find out more on the Financial Services Register.
We are a division of Markel International, a Lloyd’s of London market insurer that wrote gross premium totals of £2.4bn in 2023
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