Professional Indemnity for Clinical Psychologists:
Do CPs who are wholly employed in the NHS or whose employer have their own collective insurance need their own indemnity policy?
A Statement from the Chair of ACP-UK

Recent developments with our recommended indemnity provider, Howdens, and our legal advisors, Fieldfisher, have prompted me to make the following statement on behalf of the Board:

NHS Trust employers indemnify CPs (along with other healthcare employees) working for them. This enables CPs to comply with the HCPC registration requirement to have a professional indemnity arrangement in place.  The problem is that it is quite possible that when complaints and litigation occur, the Trust will settle out of court to minimise their costs, leaving the CP’s reputation in tatters. It will invariably be the case that the CP is named in the action along with the Trust. The whole point of CPs taking out their own indemnity insurance is so that they can proceed with defending themselves and their reputation in court whatever the Trust decides to do. This is the advice that I have been giving numerous generations of trainees and newly qualified CPs throughout my 40 years in the profession.

However, it has now become apparent that indemnity insurers in litigation situations collude, and if one insurer (for the NHS Trust) concludes it is financially beneficial to settle out of court, another (for the individual CP) is likely to follow suit.

This means there is little point in wholly NHS employed CPs paying for insurance at all, at least as far as protection of one’s professional reputation in civil litigation is concerned.

I have made inquiries of medical colleagues in this regard, and exactly the same pertains to the medical defence unions.

However, there is another purpose of individual indemnity insurance, and that is for protection and legal representation of the CP if they find themselves in difficulty with the HCPC or their employer. Having supported a number of colleagues in these situations, I can tell you legal advice is essential.

There is an issue regarding whether the choice of legal representative can be influenced by either the CP or ACP-UK, specifically to ensure that the lawyer(s) have the appropriate expertise and are not simply selected on minimum cost grounds. At present, despite regulations which say the insured individual should be free to choose their own lawyer (at least once legal proceedings have been commenced) in reality there seems to be little flexibility and we are in discussion with Howdens and Fieldfisher to see if this can be changed.

In summary:

• Professional indemnity insurance for those already covered by corporate indemnity insurance (e.g. NHS) will not guarantee individual representation in any litigation implying professional incompetence
• For those already covered by corporate indemnity arrangements, the most important purpose of individual indemnity cover is to provide legal representation when in difficulty with either the HCPC or their employer

Mike Wang, Chair ACP-UK