Mutual Groups

Therefore mutual (and/or purchasing) groups should be the ideal vehicle to help set up a schools’ staff absence mutual scheme. Let’s see why that is…

• Schools cannot do anything individually. They do not have the resources, the experience, or the critical mass on their own.
• Local authorities have the capability to make these schemes work well but they need the right people, with the right motivation, with the right resources and the right backing to make it happen. Sometimes they do, but very often one or more of these factors is missing because
  • Local authorities have to put themselves before schools and mutual schemes are a non-essential service.
  • Local authorities need to ensure that it does not cost them money or incur additional unnecessary risk.
  • It is easier for them to abandon non-essential services and concentrate on core public services.
  • They may deem it essential to make money from non-essential services and therefore set excessive administration charges.
  • They believe they do not have the experience and resources.
• Mutual groups however, already have the key components, it is part of why they were established in the first place, and Esphera can supply the missing components.

We know that staff absence schemes make perfect sense, if they are run correctly. The partnering of a mutual group with Esphera’s knowledge of these schemes and our technical tools means that we create the perfect storm to combat the excessive cost of staff absence insurance. Between us we can configure a scheme with the ideal terms and conditions, accurate history analysis and rating factors leading to the lowest possible realistic contribution levels and lowest feasible administration costs. It should be impossible to do more for less.

In order to establish an optimised and highly efficient scheme you need the following

• An organisation trusted by schools able to bring schools together collectively into a scheme and set the ball rolling
• An organisation capable of defining the ideal mutual scheme design and rules
• An organisation capable of analysing historical absence patterns and staffing levels to determine correct absence rates
• An organisation capable of providing illustrations to schools and calculating annual fund contributions for different benefit levels
• An organisation capable of acting as administrators dealing  with the day-to-day management and absence processing without excessive charges
• An organisation with the specialised software tools to enable the above to happen effectively and efficiently
• An organisation willing and trusted to hold the mutual fund, receive payments and make payments as decided by the administrators

Esphera Solutions are arguably the most experienced at everything except the first and last items above. As an organisation working for schools’ collective benefit you are ideally placed and arguably the best to do the first item and can probably easily organise the final item. So between us we have all the components necessary.