New for 2025!

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Background

Schools have always had and always will have staff absence and they need a way to mitigate the costs that result from that absence in exceptional years.

There have been several methods to alleviate this. First there was staff absence insurance where commercial insurers would cover the absences with a policy that paid out on absence.

It soon became apparent that there were many overheads e.g. Broker profit, Underwriter profit, Insurance Premium Tax which significantly increased the costs, so local authorities set up their own mutual funds to do the same without the sizeable overheads. Sadly, not all were good at this and many schemes either failed to offer value and schools left or some just failed and closed.

In 2004 Esphera became the first organisation to partner with local authorities to optimise and provide a means of effectively operating these schemes with minimal overheads keeping costs low for schools. We have been successfully continuing even since refining our methodology and improving our software to provide unrivalled highly efficient schemes.

More recently as Local Authorities continue to close schemes due to a lack of motivation many schools have been left with little choice, and we have seen the beginnings of commercial mutual schemes which whilst much preferable to insurance still have sizable overheads that we know from our extensive experience can be significantly reduced and save schools’ money.

2025 will see the launch of Esphera’s revolutionary MiniMAX Virtual Mutual. We’ve known for many years that we could provide the most efficient mutual scheme but concentrated on helping local authorities achieve this. Now with political pressure causing the demise of so many council operated schemes we’re moving the game on again to provide an even more efficient choice for all schools and academies, resulting in the least possible net costs and an improved cash flow throughout the period of risk.

How Esphera’s Virtual Mutual Works

  • With conventional insurance you pay an upfront premium, make claims throughout the year and for most schools end up seriously out of pocket (unless you are one of the few with very high claim levels).

  • With existing mutual schemes you make an upfront contribution, have multiple claims throughout the year, at the end of the year you may or may not get a low claims rebate, so depending on the operational skills of the organiser to keep overheads low it may or may not be good value.

  • With the Esphera miniMAX Virtual Mutual, there is no fund held by a third party (insurer or mutual provider), you are joining a voluntary discretionary arrangement between schools where they all are supporting the worst affected schools in the fairest manner

    • Prior to a cover period, you agree to a maximum potential outlay (what would ordinarily be your contribution) based on your chosen benefit levels, BUT you do not pay it, it exists only on paper (in your virtual record).

    • Throughout the period you may make multiple requests for reimbursement as absences occur throughout the year, BUT you receive nothing (unless you exceed your agreed outlay), these are offset virtually.

    • At the end of the year we aggregate all the agreed outlays and requests, use our equaliser to calculate rebates/equalisation transfers and then tell all schools to either pay another school or that they will receive a net payment from another school. No money between schools moves until the period has finished.

    • Esphera are paid a small administration fee to work all this out, to ensure that every school is treated equally so that schools who experience a high absence level are reimbursed and those who make few claims pay just a little to reflect that and do not pay over the odds.

    • The end result is the same as being in one of our local authority mutuals, except most schools will make just one payment rather than have multiple transfers back and forth throughout the year, and rather than one huge sum paid into a fund at the start, there will be a smaller fee due when the period ends.

    • The entire process occurs online to minimise overheads and ensure you pay the least for the protection level that best suits you.
See a worked example

What you need to do

Everything we do is processed online to keep costs low. We have no sales team to call you so in order to join you must complete each online form when required. Currently we are collating the list of schools who wish to join.

Timescales for April 2025 Joiners

  • Pre 2025: Express Interest to Join – Complete Expression of Interest Form Here
  • Jan 2025: Provide absence history (link to form provided once form above has been completed)
  • Feb 2025: Request Quotations for inclusion in scheme (link to form provided once form above has been completed)
  • Feb 2025: Accept memorandum of participation
  • Mar 2025: Provide staff details (link to form provided once acceptance has been received)
  • Apr 2025 – Mar 2026: Request reimbursement for absences via online claim form (link to form provided once acceptance has been received)
  • Apr 2026: Equalisation adjustments/payments and net positions calculated – transfer payments advised to schools
  • May 2026: Schools pay each other

What you can expect

  • The widest choices of daily benefits to suit different staff categories
  • The widest range of excess days
  • Reimbursement for
    • Illness and Accidental Injury
    • Stress and Related Illnesses
    • Pregnancy Related Illnesses
    • Phased Returns to Work
    • Ongoing Absences at Inception
    • Re-occuring Illnesses
    • Injuries at Work
    • Organ Donation
    • Paternity Leave
    • Optional Maternity Leave/Adoption Leave
    • No age restrictions
    • For full details see miniMAX Details
See details

Advantages

  • Lowest possible Net Cost
  • Improved Cashflow
  • Reduced Paperwork
  • Guaranteed Best Value – All money except our 7.5% management fee stays with schools (92.5% efficient)
  • Comprehensively Equitable across all schools
  • High claimers receive payments
  • Low claimers receive equalisation rebate and pay a fraction of that initially agreed
  • Individual school efficiency fluctuates year-on-year but all schools constantly moving towards long term 92.5% efficiency.
  • Completely Transparent – Virtual Balance in the Scheme always available to view.
  • It is the most mutual of mutual schemes, all schools rely on each other and reimburse each other.
  • We receive a fixed fee so have no ulterior motive other than ensuring your best value. We have no need to hang onto funds or to reduce/restrict payouts unnecessarily.
See how this happens

Why Esphera

  • No one has worked with more mutual funds, large and small, and seen the good and bad.
  • No one comes close to our experience of scheme optimisation (20+ years).
  • Proven mutual management methodology.
  • We power the most efficient local authority mutual schemes (most money returned to schools=least net cost) and now bring that expertise directly to schools.
  • Our unique software refined on multiple local authority schemes to keep overheads to the absolute minimum.
  • Novel virtual mechanism to make the outcome the same but reduce cash movements and keep funds in schools’ pockets.
  • Benefits/options and rules at least as good as any other mutual scheme.
  • Every other alternative option is at least 3x more expensive.
  • We hold no funds and receive no money except our minimal management fee.
  • Ultimately the cost to schools is the cost of the overheads; we do not have a sales team, we do not advertise or pay for recommendations or commissions or have fancy offices and company cars; we just use statistics and online technology to produce unbeatable results for schools year after year.