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Unfortunately, negative publicity can emerge from nowhere and, whether justified or not, could cause significant and lasting damage to any business. Safety, safeguarding, regulatory or financial issues all have the potential to blow-up into local, regional or even national news stories and, in an age of ‘fake news’, trial by media, and viral social networks, quick, decisive action is essential.

Every month, it seems, a nursery or other childcare business is the subject of negative publicity and often the organisation’s communications and messaging could be greatly improved.

Communication benefits
As well as all of the support for legal and tax issues available in the Legal Expenses Insurance section of many of our policies, our legal protection partner ARAG also provides a Crisis Communication helpline, that offers the benefit of expert and timely guidance in the event that an insured business finds itself the subject of negative publicity.

There are so many demands placed upon childcare businesses, which are facing particular challenges at the moment. From managing rising costs to a very difficult recruitment environment, childminders and business owners have to be multi-skilled.

However, handling a PR crisis is a highly specialist job that calls for very specific skills and experience to navigate a situation in which one miss-step could only serve to make the problem worse.

The problem at hand
Inevitably, negative publicity often results from another event or problem to which the owners of the business really ought to be giving their undivided attention. Having experts available to take care of the communications, will allow child carers to focus on the primary problem at hand.

If the worst should happen, and your childcare business should find itself at the centre of a media firestorm, ARAG will pay up to £25,000 towards professional fees to provide expert advice and support, to help you to manage communications effectively in a time of crisis.

Such help could include drafting a suitable statement for distribution to the media as well as preparing suitable communications for staff, customers and suppliers.

Like most types of insurance, crisis communication cover protects your business against an event that you hope and expect you will never experience. If the worst should happen, however, this is one additional benefit that you will be very grateful you can call upon.

The Government’s focus is on economic growth, and the aim is to tackle the cost of living crisis by focusing on the “partnership” with businesses and working people. Labour has proposed draft Bills, which once passed through parliament, will lead to new legislation.

The King’s Speech touched briefly on these proposed legislative changes to Employment rights, stating that they are committed to “making work pay”, by seeking to “ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights” through the Employment Rights Bill. Race equality legislation will also be drafted to “enshrine” the legal right to equal pay.

The Prime Minister’s Briefing Notes
Official publication from the Prime Minister’s Public Office (which accompanied the King’s Speech) suggests that the Employment Rights Bill will be “the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation”.

The main focus on legislative reform in respect to Employment rights will be:

• Banning exploitative zero-hour contracts;
• Ending ‘fire and re-hire’ practices;
• Introducing employment rights from day one (including protection from unfair dismissal);
• Ensuring minimum wage is a genuine living wage, thus tackling the cost of living crisis;
• Race equality legislation enshrining the right to equal pay;
• Making flexible working the default position, with a requirement on employers to accommodate this as far as is reasonable; and
• Greater access to trade unions by ensuring that workers and union members have a reasonable right to access a union within the workplace.

Whilst the King’s Speech and accompanying Briefing Notes provide us with an indication as to the changes that are on the horizon we will need to wait until the draft Employment Rights Bill is produced and debated before Parliament before we can say for certain how these changes will operate on a practical level for employers and employees alike. One thing we can be certain of however is that change is coming and it is likely to be the biggest change we have seen to employment rights for quite some time.

With workplace stress becoming an all-too common experience for many employees, it’s important to understand how we can support and care for one another’s wellbeing. Knowing how to support a co-worker with stress could make a big difference to how they feel.

Our corporate mental health experts have shared how you can offer your colleagues support with stress, without becoming overburdened yourself.