Insurance and professional-body membership: what exists and what to ask

Insurance and professional-body membership are two of the arrangements practitioners look at when setting up in private practice. This guide describes what exists in each area and the questions worth putting to the people qualified to answer them. It is not insurance advice. Advising on a specific policy is a regulated activity, and this guide does not recommend a provider, a product, a level of cover or an amount. Its purpose is to help you know what to ask and whom to ask.

Categories of cover that exist

It helps to know the broad categories of cover that come up in this context, described as neutral facts rather than as things you are being told to buy:

• Professional indemnity — cover concerned with claims arising from the professional service provided.
• Public liability — cover concerned with claims from third parties, such as injury or property damage connected with your premises or work.
• Membership-linked schemes — some professional bodies arrange or signpost insurance schemes for their members, sometimes bundling cover with membership.

Knowing that these categories exist is different from knowing which, if any, applies to your situation, at what level, or from which provider. Those are not questions a guide can answer, and it would be wrong to try.

Why this guide will not recommend a policy

There is a firm line here, and it is worth stating plainly. Advising on a specific insurance policy — recommending a particular product, provider or level of cover for your circumstances — is an activity regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and Faresay is not authorised to carry it out. So this guide stays at the level of describing that types of cover exist and listing the questions to ask. It does not tell you what to buy, how much to hold, or whether you need a particular policy at all.

Questions to take to your insurer, broker or professional body include:

• Which types of cover are relevant to a practice like mine?
• What would a given policy cover, and what would it exclude?
• What level or limit is appropriate for my circumstances?
• Does any cover I hold, or a scheme offered through membership, fit how I actually work?

Those "how much / which policy / do I need this" questions all belong with your insurer or broker and your professional body — people who can look at your specific situation and who are authorised to advise on it.

Checking an insurer's authorisation

One thing you can do yourself is check that a firm you are dealing with is authorised. The FCA maintains a public register, and you can look up an insurer or intermediary on the FCA register to check their authorisation. That is a factual check you can carry out — confirming a firm's status — and it is not the same as advice on which policy to choose, which remains a question for your insurer, broker and professional body.

Professional-body membership

Alongside insurance, many practitioners hold membership of a professional body. The bodies exist to set standards and support members, and they typically offer a range of member benefits — some of which bundle or signpost insurance schemes, which is why the two topics often come up together. The main bodies relevant to counselling and psychotherapy in the UK include BACP, UKCP, the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society and, for cognitive and behavioural practitioners, the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies.

This guide describes that these bodies exist and offer member benefits; it does not tell you which to join, or that you must be registered with any of them. Which body fits your training, your modality and your practice is a decision for you, and their own material and membership teams are the place to explore it.

What this guide deliberately does not do

To be explicit about the boundaries:

• It names no insurer or product and makes no comparison between them.
• It states no cover level and no figure — it does not say you need at least any particular amount.
• It does not tell you that you must hold a specific type of cover or a specific membership.
• It makes no claim about whether any cover applies to work with clients outside the UK — a point that, like the choice of policy, is for your insurer and professional body.

These are not gaps but the correct limits for a general guide. The landscape — the categories of cover, the register you can check, the bodies that exist — is something a guide can lay out. The decisions within it are yours, made with an authorised adviser and your professional body.

In short

There are recognised categories of cover — professional indemnity, public liability, and membership-linked schemes — and several professional bodies that set standards and offer member benefits, some including insurance. What a guide can do is name what exists and list the questions to ask; it cannot and should not recommend a policy, a level, a provider or a membership, because advising on insurance is FCA-regulated and Faresay is not authorised to do it. You can check a firm's authorisation on the FCA register yourself, and every "which one and how much" question belongs with your insurer or broker and your professional body.