What we have seen in June renewals
Renewals should be assessed across property, business interruption, public liability, abuse cover, management liability, employment practices liability, cyber, motor and workplace risk. Operators with multiple sites and strong governance are better placed to extract value from competition. The market remains selective, and insurers are asking more questions than ever about how operators manage safeguarding risk.
The childcare liability and abuse market is expected to remain broadly stable throughout the remainder of 2026, though it will continue to favour operators who can demonstrate a genuine commitment to child safety. Insurers are becoming more sophisticated in how they assess this risk, and the gap between well-prepared and underprepared operators is likely to widen.
Premium pricing trends
Pricing varies by class. Property and business interruption remains soft with insurers chasing premiums, whilst childcare liability and abuse cover remains flat for well-performing risks. Abuse, employment practices and regulatory exposures remain more cautious. Pricing is selectively soft only for the best operators. Expect flat to +5% for strong risks and +10% to +20% where governance, training, supervision or incident history is weak.
Insurer behaviour
Insurers respond favourably when presented with a mature safeguarding story. Where submissions are generic, insurers tend to apply broad caution. Insurers are not simply chasing childcare premium because reputational severity and abuse-related exposure can overwhelm the account economics.
Claims are increasingly multi-line: a single incident may involve liability, abuse, management liability, employment practices liability (EPL), cyber/privacy and crisis response. Key claims themes are abuse allegations, negligent hiring, supervision failures, employment disputes, privacy incidents, regulatory investigations and crisis response costs.
Staffing risk remains one of the most consistent claims trends in the sector. High staff turnover continues to drive frequency across employment practices liability policies, with unfair dismissal, general protections and discrimination claims all featuring regularly.
Cyber risk remains a significant and growing concern, with the education sector continuing to rank among the highest for reported cyber security incidents in Australia. Operators hold a variety of sensitive data including children’s personal and medical information and family records and must ensure this is protected.
Recent data on sexual abuse claims in childcare suggests incidents are most commonly perpetrated by men, with casual employees who rotate across multiple locations posing the greatest risk. Bellrock observes that even unsubstantiated allegations have exclusively targeted male educators. Implementing measures such as CCTV can help both protect children and safeguard staff against false claims.
Legal and regulatory developments
The regulatory environment is becoming more prescriptive. The February 2026 reforms, commencing 27 February and reinforced by the NSW child safety reforms of 24 April, carry major implications for operators, introducing new obligations and critically a ban on insurance covering financial penalties from; national law, national regulation and NSW regulations leaving this uninsurable for childcare’s natural persons and office holders. Approved providers and services should review operations immediately to ensure compliance with the new requirements. State-based child safe standards, institutional abuse liability developments and mandatory reporting obligations remain central. The legal landscape continues to expand the expectations placed on operators and boards. See further commentary on risk mitigation and regulatory compliance for childcare centres here.
AI and technology impact
Technology creates both control and exposure: CCTV, parent portals, child records, access systems and digital communications create privacy and cyber risk as well as evidentiary trails. Digital enrolment, payment systems, parent communications and child data records make cyber and privacy part of the core childcare risk profile.
What policyholders should do now
Review abuse cover, management liability, EPL, cyber/privacy, incident response, crisis communications and board reporting together. Prepare a whole-of-business risk pack that evidences governance, safeguarding, staff screening, supervision, complaints handling, data security and crisis response. Following an event, operators should assume that documentation, training, incident reporting and escalation processes will be scrutinised.
The following areas are of greatest focus when underwriters are assessing safeguarding risk:
- Screening and selection: Rigorous pre-employment screening of all educators and staff who have contact with children.
- Ongoing Training: Structured, documented and recurring training programmes for all staff.
- Policies and Procedures: Formal documents and enforced policies that demonstrate a proactive safeguarding culture.
- Incident Reporting: A clear, well-communicated incident reporting framework.
In summary, better submissions should translate into better insurer engagement.
Continue reading our full range of market updates:
- Insurance Market Overview: July 2026
- Claims
- Workplace Risk
- Corporate and Multinational Risk
- Construction, Property and Development
- Financial Lines
