Schools – Drive down your costs
Most schools have never heard of Esphera because most schools do not go looking for mutual optimisation services, they go looking for cheaper and cheaper insurance. Most schools do however, want to get the best possible financial outcome to offset their staff absence costs and Esphera can help whoever runs the mutual scheme achieve that outcome for the majority of schools. So how do we do that? Basically by optimising mutual funds, making them work efficiently, and we do that by making them commercially sustainable, providing a high level of service benefits for the least possible costs.
If you are considering your options for renewal time, then why not have a read of our Schools’ Renewal Consideration Guide – just click the button below
.Mitigating Staff Absence Costs – Your Choices
What is the answer?
For Larger Schools
They can normally cover staff absence with other staff, so for short term absence they could self-finance, however it makes sense to cover long term absences with some form of contingency measure as these are the absences that really hit budgets for six. Therefore join a scheme where you can choose a high number of excess days, that way you’ll be covered when you need it most, but will keep your contributions to a minimum.
For Smaller Schools
For smaller schools who find it difficult to cover absences themselves, membership of a contingency facility of some description is the sensible and practical order of the day. Clearly the best option is to be in a mutual fund but it must be well managed and appropriately risk assessed like a commercial fund otherwise the scheme will eventually fail or offer poor value.
Understanding Why Mutuals Really Are Your Best Choice
If you cannot self-finance, we know with our years of experience that without a shadow of doubt mutual staff absence schemes are the most efficient and cost effective option for most schools. But you may need some convincing
Sometimes mutuals do not work well and there are reasons , but we will enable a mutual scheme to overcome these problems so that it is absolutely the first choice.
So now you know that a mutual will work for you, you’ll want the best possible mutual and that will be an Esphera controlled mutual.
Now you understand and want to join a mutual scheme – Your Options
- Join it if it is competitive compared with commercial providers.
- If it is not competitive encourage the scheme administrators at your authority to use our specialist Absence and Claims Management System to lower the costs, lower the risk, increase scheme stability and longevity.
- Your authority will probably never go looking for a system such as this because they do not realise they need one, or are too busy to think they could run their existing scheme more effectively. Your current scheme may run well, i.e be in surplus, as this is the normal measure of success for local authorities .However, you should be aware that it can normally be managed for a lower overall cost with an improved level of service if that is important to you.
- Get together with other schools and encourage your local authority to start a scheme. They may resist as there are costs involved and they may not have the necessary actuarial experience. If that is the case they can use our system to alleviate these problems and it will allow them to run a scheme for you as efficiently as possible. We are constantly assisting local authorities set up new schemes so that the rules, benefits and contributions are ideally formulated to make the scheme an obvious choice for all. Your savings will more than cover the costs of them running a scheme.
- If your authority has absolutely no intention of running a scheme or they have barred you (some schemes exclude academies for example), then perhaps you have or could form a schools’ mutual organisation or utilise a purchasing consortium (if available) and we can then help that organisation operate a staff absence scheme. These “group mutuals” are the ideal means of setting up a scheme as their sole focus is in providing better service and value to schools whereas other bodies may have a conflict of interest and need to reward themselves as well.
- Alternatively, we can offer a shared service centre option whereby we run your scheme for you with the help of other parties to safeguard your money. This normally costs slightly more than getting your authority to run a scheme but it is still an extremely cost effective means of saving you money overall and ensures you have back up for the time when you need it most. We do not act as an insurer but purely as an administrator of your scheme so your funds stay entirely within the control of a trusted third party. Please contact us for further details.
- Lastly if, no one is prepared to set up a scheme for you then join our MiniMAX Mutual scheme. It’s hard to beat with 90% efficiency and “Equalised” contribution levels so no one loses out big time.
How Esphera Can Help You
Or you could join our MiniMAX Mutual scheme. It’s hard to beat with 90% efficiency and “Equalised” contribution levels so no one loses out.