Having adequate insurance cover is vital for all farmers, gardeners and growers, whether you are providing care services, inviting visitors onto your site or organising volunteer work days and other events.
Suitable cover protects both the organisation and individuals from potentially very expensive liability claims if something goes wrong.
The types of cover needed will depend on the activities your group carries out, and a few different examples of how types of cover might be applied are given below.Insurance is not a substitute for good risk management practices.
For SF&G members, useful guides on site health and safety, risk assessments and safeguarding can be found at www.farmgarden.org.uk/resources
Where should you buy insurance?
We are working with an independent broker that specialises in insurance for both the voluntary and rural sectors. Their dedicated team understand the work of SF&G members and will provide you with a complimentary review of coverage, discuss your specific requirements and provide a policy tailored to your needs. In addition, they have agreed exclusive rates for our members.
- If your organisation is already a member of SF&G, please login to find out more details about this scheme.
- If your organisation is not already a member you can click here to join.
- If you are not sure whether your organisation is already a member, we can check for you. Please contact us and we can check email or tel. 0117 9231 800.
What type of cover do we need?
Below are a few examples of incidents and what type of insurance would cover this incident:
| Incident | Type of cover |
| Vandals set fire to the compost toilet | Building cover |
| Someone using a public access footpath across the site at night injures themselves on a piece of equipment | Landlord’s liability/ Public liability |
| You have to cancel an event due to bad weather losing deposits on, for example, marquees or entertainment | Event insurance |
| A visitor on an open day is injured by, for example a falling branch | Public liability |
| Equipment is stolen from a shed on-site | Equipment cover |
| A volunteer injures themselves with a gardening implement | Employers liability |
| A customer falls ill after eating produce that was grown in the garden | Products liability |
| You give out poor advice on a tree pruning workshop which results in the participants killing their trees | Professional Indemnity |
| Charity Commission investigates trustees, alleging non-compliance with charity law | Trustee Indemnity |
| Fire in a community café leading to loss of revenue | Loss of Revenue |