Staff of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) travelling to help visit funded programmes and projects in war torn areas of Ukraine have been given extra protection against the risks they face there, thanks to a business in our region.
East Anglian firm Scrutton Bland is best known for the professional services it provides to local businesses and individuals such as tax advice, insurance, accountancy and audit. Within its insurance team it has a thriving charity insurance broking service, providing professional advice to charitable organisations, such as the Disasters Emergency Committee who coordinate the UK public’s response to disasters, such as the conflict in the Ukraine and the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
Richard Atkinson is an Executive in Scrutton Bland’s charity insurance team and has been working with Disasters Emergency Committee to help ensure the people they send to visit programmes of work are protected whilst working in conflict zones. “We are used to arranging group insurance for people going overseas to do charity work and have recently worked with the Disasters Emergency Committee to arrange cover for their work with the civilian population in the Ukraine. I have had to work with insurers in New York to set up appropriate insurance, which has meant dealing with different time zones on top of the complex insurance requirements for people working in extremely risky situations overseas.”
Richard continues: “When you think of people going overseas into major crisis situations you often think of the physical equipment they need, such as medical supplies. But it is vital to ensure the people themselves have as much protection as possible, as there are unusual and very high-risk situations that they will have to face. War and complicated geopolitics create dangers that a traditional group insurance policy won’t cover, so we have had to work hard to source appropriate insurance for them.”
Tim Mulley, Scrutton Bland Insurance Brokers Ltd’s Joint Managing Director, said: “Whilst most insurance policies deal with protecting businesses and individuals against common risks such as fire, flood or theft, there are a number of circumstances where specialist advice is needed. We are fortunate to have highly experienced and knowledgeable people in our charity team at Scrutton Bland who can help organisations, whatever the risks they face. We are so pleased to work with Disasters Emergency Committee to ensure their people are able to carry out their important work.”