Insurance for students and practice placements

General requirements

Your Higher Education Institution (HEI) must arrange or approve all formal placements and confirm the insurance cover. You may also choose additional practice-based learning or work experience in your own time before completing your programme.

If you use the CSP PLI scheme for cover, your placement must be supervised and approved by a UK-registered healthcare professional or social worker. For example, supervision by a sports therapist or personal trainer is not sufficient for CSP cover.

Your work must be supervised at all times. The nature and degree of supervision will vary as you progress through your training.

How your placement provider covers their liability for any injury you cause your patients while on placement will depend on the placement setting.

If arranging your own placement:

• Whether in the UK or overseas, keep a clear record of your placement details and the name and role of your supervising physiotherapist (or other registered health professional).
• If a claim is made against you, you’ll need to prove you were properly supervised, so it's important to keep this information safe.

Supervision requirements for UK placements

The practice placement must be approved and overseen by a UK HEI Practice Educator who must themselves:

• Be a UK-registered health care professional or social worker.
• Hold their own indemnity, either individually or through an employer, for the students under their practice supervision.

Supervision requirements for overseas placements

Your overseas placement may not be formally assessed or examined, but it must be a compulsory part of your pre-registration programme and this means that we do expect the HEI to provide oversight of your overseas placement.

Other types of overseas 'placement' e.g. those that occur after programme completion but before graduation and/or your registration, or where your HEI provides no oversight, are not covered by the CSP PLI scheme and you will need separate insurance to undertake these opportunities.

Our scheme covers

• Supervised student placements, for physiotherapy practice, anywhere in the world (except the USA, Canada and Australia) up to 180 days duration.
• If you're planning a placement in the USA, Canada or Australia, you’ll need to arrange separate insurance, as the CSP scheme does not apply there.

It must meet these two conditions:

• Your placement must bea compulsory part of your pre-registration programme, formally approved and quality assured by your UK Higher Education Institution (HEI). Your university does not need to provide a practice educator for an overseas placement, but it must maintain academic governance and oversight responsibility for the experience.
• You must have a qualified physiotherapist supervising you on the ground. You must be supervised by a physiotherapist who is based in the placement territory and registered to practise physiotherapy in that country where local registration is required.

International students 

If you’re enrolled on a UK-based, HCPC-approved pre-registration physiotherapy programme, you are covered by the CSP PLI scheme during formal placements in your home country but not for the USA, Canada or Australia.

If you are an international student from USA, Canada or Australia you will need your own insurance to work in your home country while on placement.

If you're studying a post-registration master’s degree in the UK but have not yet registered with the HCPC, you are not covered by the CSP PLI scheme. This is because PLI cover only applies to HCPC-registered physiotherapists. You should speak to your university (HEI) to arrange appropriate insurance.

Insurance cover provided

Public Liability Insurance: This covers non-personal injury claims that are not associated with your student work under supervision e.g. slips, trips and falls of patients coming in and out of your practice placement environment.

Medical Malpractice Insurance: This covers claims that you have harmed a patient, for example, failing to assess or treat properly, or causing harm through your supervised treatment. How your placement provider covers the liability for any injury you cause your patients while on placement will depend on the placement setting and whether any other arrangements are in place. See our section below for how insurance varies according to the context of your placement.

Placement settings

NHS - All placements in any UK NHS setting covered by a state-backed NHS indemnity schemes.

Employers/large independent physiotherapy providers - All employers should have their own cover in place. Corporate insurance arrangements for the clinical negligence of company staff may also include students. You must check with the placement provider that they have appropriate cover in place. The CSP PLI scheme does not provide any cover for employers.

Football clubs - The CSP PLI scheme does not cover claims arising from the treatment of certain levels of male professional footballers. We understand that many clubs have their own medical malpractice schemes in place to cover their employees but we do not know if this covers students on placement. Where clubs choose not to include student placements within their corporate covers, students are restricted to working only with the players not affected by the CSP exclusion.

Ministry of Defence - We are aware that some military units ask students to sign documents that mean the student undertakes to insure the MOD for a wide range of employer obligations. You must be aware that the CSP PLI scheme does not provide any cover for employers.

Small independent physiotherapy providers - You must ensure you have your own individual insurance in place to cover your placement. The CSP PLI scheme will provide the cover you need subject to the terms and conditions of the policy. Your placement provider must also ensure they have appropriate cover in place to support practice placements. You will need to take out any additional insurance if you choose to do a placement that includes working with animals or some professional footballers, or other setting/activity that is not be covered by the CSP scheme.

Voluntary, community or social enterprise (VSCE) organisations - Where the VCSE organisation is also an employer, students on placements are likely to be covered by the employer’s scheme. However, some physiotherapists who work in this sector do so on a self-employed basis. You must ensure you have your own individual insurance in place to cover your placement. The CSP PLI scheme will provide the cover you need subject to the terms and conditions of the policy. Your placement provider must also ensure they have appropriate cover in place to support practice placements.

Gap placements

There is no cover for gap placements. You will need to obtain separate insurance to undertake these gap 'placements' and you cannot extend your student membership to seek to cover these activities when you have already completed your pre-registration programme.

Once you have completed your pre-registration programme you will automatically be moved to our 'graduate affiliate' (GA) membership category. HEIs notify the CSP of programme completion dates directly. You may 'complete' your programme sometime before the ceremonial event of 'graduation', depending on your HEI. Some members wish to undertake gap 'placements' abroad in the period between programme completion and graduating and/or starting work as a physiotherapist.

If you do not complete your programme on the date you originally expected to finish, please contact enquiries@csp.org.uk.

Unsupervised work

There is no cover for unsupervised work.

We know that many students undertake unsupervised work, which is often paid, in areas of practice that, in a different context, can also be considered physiotherapy practice e.g. sports massage and taping.  If you want to do this work, you must take out your own separate insurance for your work.