New Insurance Service arrangement for Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City Councils

Since 1^st April, Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City Councils have entered into a shared Insurance Service arrangement to support insurance provision for Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council being the lead Authority. Based in the Finance section at Woodhill House, the Insurance team is responsible for co-ordinating the insurance requirements and maximising the efficacy of both Council’s insurance arrangements.

Following the recent tender process, both Councils have retained their own insurers (Risk Management Partners (RMP) for Aberdeenshire, Zurich Municipal (ZM) for Aberdeen City) and over the next 12 months the team will be cross skilled to enable them to handle and understand each Council’s risk portfolio. Training will be undertaken in various areas and will be supported by our external partners to ensure that we deliver a prompt, accurate and efficient service to both Councils.

The team consists of:

Ruth Kydd, Senior Insurance Officer: tel 01224 664554

Susan Mellis, Insurance Officer: Tel 01224 664141

Rachel Pawsey, Corporate Finance Assistant: Tel 01224 665268

There are two email addresses set up to receive your enquiries, claims or correspondence:

Insurance@aberdeenshire.gov.uk for Aberdeenshire Council queries or claims

Insurancecity@aberdeenshire.gov.uk for Aberdeen City Council queries or claims

Wherever possible, the team would appreciate claims correspondence or insurance enquiries by email to ensure prompt action can be taken to minimise the loss to the Council(s).

Garry Stevens, Financial Services Manager, Aberdeen City Council will still retain responsibility for Insurance matters for the City, and through a Service Level Agreement will have regular contact and meetings with the Senior Insurance Officer.

Policy summaries will also shortly be available on Arcadia (Aberdeenshire Council) and The Zone (Aberdeen City) to ensure that you have an overview of the Council(s) cover for each class of policy.

Ruth Kydd, Senior Insurance Officer, comments “Since I started two months ago, I’ve been on a steep learning curve, ably supported by my colleagues, to learn and understand the insurance requirements of both Councils.  I’m looking forward to the next few years of improvements and challenges ahead as we will be identifying opportunities and using best practice to streamline the processes we follow (wherever appropriate), to improve on our claims experience as well as deliver the best possible insurance cover for both Councils”.

A series of roadshows to highlight what the Insurance Team requires from each Service and what the Services can expect from us will be taking place over the next few months.  These are planned to be informal sessions to highlight to each Service where improvements could be made to ensure the swift reporting of claims and ensuring that our insurance cover is at the correct level for each of the risks we are involved in.