Reputation, reputation, reputation or anti-social media in the childcare sector

Authored by ARAG

The old adage that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” certainly isn’t true of businesses operating in the childcare sector, in which reputation is everything. Perhaps as much as almost any other profession, childcare depends upon a high degree of trust. After all, parents are leaving their children in the care of a nursery or childminder.

Unfortunately, negative publicity can emerge from nowhere and, whether justified or not, could cause significant and lasting damage to any business. Safety, safeguarding, regulatory or financial issues all have the potential to blow-up into local, regional or even national news stories and, in an age of ‘fake news’, trial by media, and viral social networks, quick, decisive action is essential.

Every month, it seems, a nursery or other childcare business is the subject of negative publicity and often the organisation’s communications and messaging could be greatly improved.

Communication benefits

As well as all of the support for legal and tax issues available in the Legal Expenses Insurance section of many of our policies, our legal protection partner ARAG also provides a Crisis Communication helpline, that offers the benefit of expert and timely guidance in the event that an insured business finds itself the subject of negative publicity.

There are so many demands placed upon childcare businesses, which are facing particular challenges at the moment. From managing rising costs to a very difficult recruitment environment, childminders and business owners have to be multi-skilled.

However, handling a PR crisis is a highly specialist job that calls for very specific skills and experience to navigate a situation in which one miss-step could only serve to make the problem worse.

The problem at hand

Inevitably, negative publicity often results from another event or problem to which the owners of the business really ought to be giving their undivided attention. Having experts available to take care of the communications, will allow child carers to focus on the primary problem at hand.

If the worst should happen, and your childcare business should find itself at the centre of a media firestorm, ARAG will pay up to £25,000 towards professional fees to provide expert advice and support, to help you to manage communications effectively in a time of crisis.

Such help could include drafting a suitable statement for distribution to the media as well as preparing suitable communications for staff, customers and suppliers.

Like most types of insurance, crisis communication cover protects your business against an event that you hope and expect you will never experience. If the worst should happen, however, this is one additional benefit that you will be very grateful you can call upon.