August 2013 review
Legal and Insurance Services – Strategy Document
1. Introduction
This document sets out the strategy for Legal and Insurance Services from 1 January
2012. It will be reviewed and updated as required at the beginning of each new
Academic Year. Detailed business plans for each area of service will also be put in
place.
2. Aims and objectives
Legal and Insurance Services have developed joint aims and objectives which can be
summarised as follows:

To be the key contact point for legal matters, insurance cover and business continuity
planning

To generate cost savings and other benefits by handling legal queries, ensuring that
appropriate insurance cover is in place and building resilience against unplanned
events

To promote best practice in managing risk relating to legal matters, insurance cover
and unplanned events

To provide training and updates on educational matters and key risk issues
3. Team structure
The team is comprised of Legal Services (which includes Academic Contracts Services)
and Insurance and Business Continuity Services. A structure chart is set out at Appendix
1.
4. Contributing to University’s key strategies
Legal and Insurance Services will provide support to all Colleges and Professional
Services in their work to deliver the University’s key strategic priorities1:

Education
The Academic Contracts team within Legal Services has been established to
ensure that education related contracts are treated with the same priority and
importance as research or commercial contracts and to reflect the recent growth
of work in this area. The team will review and negotiate a wide range of academic
1
Our Vision, Our Strategy, p7
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/webteam/shared/contentimages/strategicplan/Strategic_
Plan_2015.pdf
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related contracts, including Doctoral Training Centre agreements, provision
agreements with private providers and other international universities, student
exchange and work placement agreements. A new Contracts Officer (Education)
has been recruited in order to meet this increasing demand.
The Insurance team offers undergraduate travel insurance for field trips and
study abroad.
Legal and Insurance Services support the Student Complaints and Student
Welfare teams in Academic Services in dealing with complex student related
issues. They also support Campus Services teams dealing with facilities and
other operational student-related issues.
The insurance team offers advice on operational risk management in connection
with activities on or off campus involving students, for example, fieldtrips and
work placements.

Research and Knowledge Transfer
The Academic Contracts team provide a full negotiation service for research
related contracts and extensive support to the RKT office. We have a joint post
covering research and IP contracts and members of the team regularly ‘hot-desk’
in RKT. A member of the Legal Services team is now on the RKT Project Board
and several members of the team have been heavily involved in the development
of the RKT website portal. The RKT IP Manager regularly spends at least 1 day
per week working in Legal Services and members of the Contract Research team
also regularly hot-desk in the Contracts office.
The Insurance team provide advice on issues relating to research projects.
Through ‘management of outcomes’ they provide risk analysis assistance to
Colleges to simplify the risk process associated with research projects.
Research funders are increasingly asking for evidence that the recipients of the
funding have undertaken business continuity planning. Legal & Insurance
Services provide advice to Colleges and Services to assist them in the
preparation of their business continuity plans for research.
The legal team are also involved in advising EDS on legal issues relating to infrastructure projects to support research – such as the Living Systems Building and
the planned new science building for Cornwall.

Internationalisation
The Insurance team manages the web-enabled process whereby staff and
postgraduate students record details of their overseas trips for travel insurance
purposes. This process is largely automated and includes the travel itinerary
being registered on the red24 ‘Travel Tracker’ system, funded by the International
Office. Travel Tracker is an externally hosted database system that can be used
to quickly locate travellers who may be affected by unplanned events overseas..
This system not only enhances the University’s ability to meet its duty of care, it
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is also a valuable knowledge base that can be interpreted to help understand the
University’s travel pattern.
The team provides simple and effective risk analysis tools to assist travellers in
assessing the risks presented for their trip overseas. Access is provided to the
University travel insurer’s webpages where advice and information on countries
throughout the world is available.
Legal Services provide on-going support to the International Office on
international contracts, including MOUs, Student Exchange and Agency
Agreements. Also in relation to the University’s legal relationship with its partner,
INTO.

Staff enablement
Legal Services provide legal advice to HR on complex staff-related legal issues.
Legal and Insurance Services are committed to Customer First and Investors in
People.
The team took part in a charity volunteering day at Hospiscare in 2012 and will
hold a staff development ‘away day’ in November 2013.

Campus environments and facilities
Legal and Insurance Services work regularly with the Estate Development and
Campus Services teams on legal, insurance and business continuity issues
arising from those areas. We aim to provide commercially aware advice, taking
into account the risks associated with new facilities, buildings and new third party
ventures.

Financial resources
Legal and Insurance Services manage the budgets for external legal advice and
for insurance premiums and broker fees. All external advisor appointments are
tendered through open competition every 4 years to ensure that the University
obtains the best possible rates. We work hard to obtain maximum added value
from all our external advisors, including free training sessions, initial free advice
and research time. We also monitor all external expenditure closely and negotiate
on fees and premiums wherever possible.
5. Key internal objectives
a. Service levels and KPIs
Legal and Insurance Services have agreed service level statements for key
internal customers and with the University’s associated companies. Key
performance indicators are measured on a monthly basis and demonstrate
how the teams align to the University’s KPIs and other Campus Services
objectives. Over the next 12 months these SLA will be reviewed and renewed
with key customers.
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b. Budgets
Legal and Insurance Services are responsible for managing the budgets for
external legal spend and for the University’s insurance programme. Value for
money is achieved through competitive tender processes, and in the case of
legal costs, through close monitoring of invoice and negotiation of legal fees.
Legal Services have developed a clear External Costs policy to ensure that
where legal expenditure benefits a particular budget centre that costs are met
by that Centre.
c. Recruitment
Legal and Insurance Services comply with University recruitment policies and
procedures and try to be creative and flexible with resource. Legal Services
was an early pioneer of the University’s student internship scheme and has
had several short-term secondment arrangements with panel law firms.
d. Matter management
Insurance and Business Continuity Services use a bespoke database (“ACT”)
to track and register all queries, cases and claims. Each is allocated an
individual reference number to facilitate effective case handling. ACT allows a
number of reports to be generated allowing cross-team working and KPI
reporting.
In 2013 Legal Services purchased and introduced the ‘Proclaim’ matter
management system for the effective recording and management of all
queries and projects. Every client and matter has an individual matter number
and the whole team has access to all matters, enabling cross-team working
and making the service much more robust in terms of record keeping. Going
forward the system will be further developed to provide detailed management
information on matters dealt with across the institution.
e. Quality
Legal and Insurance Services has developed a Quality Policy which details
how internal and external quality is assured.
Legal Services is working towards the Law Society Quality Standard “Lexcel”.
Legal Services was audited in July 2013 and obtained a level of ‘substantial
assurance’ with just two minor recommendations for improvement.
During 2013 Legal Services was named “In-House Team of the Year” at the
national Halsbury legal awards and the Business Continuity team were
shortlisted for “Business Continuity Team of the Year” at the national CIR
awards.
Two members of Legal and Insurance Services were nominated as part of
teams in the Professional Services awards and were successful in the
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category of “Outstanding Value for Money Award”. The Business Continuity
team were part of the Campus Services Emergency Planning and Response
Team which was awarded the Chief Operating Officer Award.
f.
CPD and training
Legal and Insurance Services are committed to the PDR process which
identifies staff training and development needs.
All staff are encouraged to undertake regular training courses in their areas of
expertise. All solicitors comply with annual Law Society CPD requirements.
Legal Services undertakes a number of training events each year with its
panel firms, which are provided free of charge under the framework
arrangement and are open to University staff in a wide number of areas. This
enables the broadest number of people possible to benefit from added value
from the legal panel.
6. Managing risk
Legal and Insurance Services plays a key role in managing the University’s risk both at a
strategic and operational level. We believe this will be an area of increasing importance
to the University in the new fees environment and with the increased involvement of third
parties in service provision.
Strategically, we have responsibility for the ‘Major Incident’ risk on the University’s
register of fundamental risks and provide regular updates to the Risk Management
Committee. We also report regularly on risks identified during the course of our work with
Services and Colleges. We work closely with other Services with responsibility for risk
(such as Health and Safety, HR and EDS) to ensure a consistent and joined-up
approach.
At an operational level, we have developed a risk analysis tool for the assessment of all
legal matters (which is built into the Proclaim matter management system) and outsource
work on this basis to manage those matters assessed as high risk for reasons of either
expertise, value, reputation or timing. Risk is also a key issue in connection with
research projects due to the nature of some of the projects, the partners involved and the
large number of projects undertaken every year. Academic Contracts Service focuses on
issues of risk and liability within the contractual document but wider risks in the project
are identified and work is undertaken with the Colleges and the Insurance team to
appropriately manage these.
The Insurance team have developed the ‘Management of Outcomes’ process which
provides valuable support to Colleges and Services to identify generic risks and
mitigation opportunities.
When assisting customers with business continuity planning, consideration is given as to
whether the impact of an adverse incident may be lessened through improved risk
mitigation (i.e. proactive approach rather than purely a reactive approach). This ensures
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that a holistic approach is taken and that risk management and business continuity
planning are not seen as unrelated activities.
A proactive approach is taken to managing insurance claims with the insurance team
working with the Health & Safety Office to investigate accidents. There is a feedback
loop so that lessons learned may be captured to improve the University safety record.
7. External advisors
External legal advice is obtained through a panel of solicitors and was re-tendered in
2012. Legal Services has clear processes for the allocation of work to panel firms and
complies with the University’s Purchase Order procedures. A risk analysis of matters is
undertaken before work is sent externally.
Insurance matters are dealt with through the University’s insurance brokers (currently
Henderson) who were appointed during 2012.
The services of a business continuity consultant are engaged from time to time, for
example to act as an independent observer when undertaking the annual incident
response team (Gold) exercise.
8. Key priorities from Legal and Insurance Services Business Plans for 2013/14
a. Legal
i. Lexcel
Over the past 12 months Legal Services has continued to review and
improve policies and procedures with the ambition of achieving the Law
Society ‘Lexcel’ quality standard. The introduction of the Proclaim matter
management system has made these much more streamlined. If Legal
Services can obtain this standard it will provide the University with
reassurance that our systems and procedures are comparable to those
of an external law firm. This is a demanding standard which is held by
large number of legal practices. It is hoped that we will be able to seek
accreditation during 2014.
ii. External networks
Legal Services will seek to further develop links with external
organisations such as the Association of University Legal Practitioners,
Devon & Somerset Law Society (In-house lawyers group) and through
the GW4 group. We will continue to build on the strong links made with
the Met Office legal team, to ensure that we are viewed as key players
in the national and local in-house legal worlds, building upon the
exposure given to us through the Halsbury award and Claire Turner’s
interview with The Lawyer.
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iii. KPIs
Legal Services will review its Service Level Agreements with internal
clients, seek customer feedback and also review internal performance
measures to ensure that we are providing the level and quality of
service that the University requires.
b
Academic contracts
In addition to assisting with the priorities for Legal Services, the Academic
Contracts Service will focus on:
i.
Team development
Following on from the recruitment of two new members of the team,
ACS will continue to embed the team and ensure consistent
approaches and procedures in relation to contract negotiation.
Connected with this will be engaging with customers to enhance their
awareness of the service that is provided and how we relate to other
sections of the University. A briefing sheet and enhanced sections of
the website are key parts of this.
ii.
Reporting
With the rapid growth in team members and range of activities that
ACS is becoming involved in there is an increasing need for detailed
reporting: both internally within Legal and Insurance Services and to
wider Professional Services and Colleges. The Proclaim system will
continue to be developed to assist with this and ACS Manager will
create templates and pull information together.
iii.
Precedent Review
ACS will review the precedent agreements and processes which are
currently in place for activities where the University is experiencing
rapid growth in volume. The precedents will be reviewed to confirm if
they are fit for purpose and the procedure will be reviewed for
duplication and for ascertaining whether the work is being conducted
at the correct level. The two processes which have been chosen for
review over the next 12 months are PhD Studentships and Work
Placements.
iv.
Signatories
The current volume of contracts requires at least 3 trips a week to
RKT to collect authorised signatures and there is a delay in getting
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contracts signed when the limited signatories are unavailable. The
signatory authority levels will be reviewed to establish whether the
number of authorised signatories can be increased and what the level
of authority will be.
c.
Insurance
i.
Control of insurance costs
The University has historically proven an excellent risk for insurers
and this was reflected in the securing of highly competitive premiums
during the tender exercise in 2011. Notwithstanding this, there has
been a deterioration in the claims experience (the ratio of claims
payments to premiums) in the short term and it is important that this
does not become a trend. It is important to control claims costs for
two reasons:


The next tender is in 2015 and the claims experience will be a
major factor in the rating of premiums.
Meanwhile, should the number and/or value of claims continue
to increase, our insurers have the right to review the rates they
charge at each renewal. Although the University uses ‘Long
Term Agreements’ with insurers to effectively ‘fix’ rates
between tenders, these agreements are subject to there being
no significant changes in the risk being insured, including
where the claims experience deteriorates significantly. Indeed,
at the 2013 renewal, Zurich Municipal increased the rate
applied to property (buildings and contents) by 30% to reflect
the worsening claims experience for this category of insurance
cover. This equates to just under £45,000 additional annual
premium,
Two approaches have been adopted to control the number and value
of claims:
a) Direct:
 Producing a ‘insurance risk universe’ – mapping each type of
insurance cover and the controls (risk mitigation) that would be
expected to be in place. The risk universe then determines a
system to ‘audit’ processes in place to determine if suitable risk
controls are operating and, if not, recommend actions to
improve the way the risk is controlled. This will include the
inspection of physical risks - e.g. paths, roadways and property
as well as reviewing controls within processes such as
recruitment (e.g. uptake of references for financial positions
[Crime insurance cover]) and health surveillance of vocational
drivers Additionally, processes to address the risks associated
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with research projects and related activities will be reviewed in
a similar manner.

Reviewing claims of a significant value or where trends appear
and making recommendations for more effective controls - e.g.
driver training if motor claims were to increase.
b) Indirect:
 Working with Colleges and Professional Services to improve
the degree to which a robust system for assessing risk is
applied at the planning stage of a project and activity. This
includes the provision of group and individual training
sessions, for example, training is to be provided by the
insurance team as part of the new ILM accredited ‘Health and
Safety for Managers’ course offered by the Safety and
Occupational Health Office.
 Closer working relationships are being formed with the Safety
and Occupational Health Office to promote good practice.
ii.
Budget control
Improved budget forecasting and monitoring has recently been
introduced and this will enhance the forecasting of premiums in the
future. With gross insurance spend exceeding £700,000, and the
University continuing to grow, it is important to understand current
spend and likely developments in order to forecast future premium
costs.
iii.
Team efficiencies
The insurance team have seen a significant increase in the number of
enquiries, in line with the growth of the University. It is of particular
note that the type of enquiry has become more complex as the
University develops further the areas of research in which it
participates. To ensure that the team continues to provide a first class
service whilst maintaining its key performance indicators, there is a
culture of continuous improvement promoted within the team to help
ensure that work is being completed in the most effective way.
iv.
Insurance and risk ‘Centre of Excellence’
Building on the success of the PENCON meetings, it is intended to
develop a network for in-house insurance advisers and risk managers
based in the south-west peninsula. It is envisaged that this will
comprise six-monthly meetings with speakers from insurance
companies and associated industries such as risk management, legal
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firms, loss adjusters and internal audit. The intention is to enable the
sharing of best practice.
A closer working relationship is also being formed with the members
of staff with responsibility for insurance and health and safety at
Falmouth University. This will enhance the insurance service provided
to Falmouth Exeter Plus because it will help ensure the insurance and
business continuity team are even better informed about activities
undertaken at the Penryn campus. Looking to the future, the
possibility of joint tendering for insurance services, for example, may
bring benefits to all three institutions.
a. Business continuity
The Business Continuity strategy can be divided into three strands:
i.
Oversee the development of business continuity plans across the
University, focussing on:
 key operational areas identified by senior management and
stated in the Incident Response Team and Business Continuity
Plan (Gold). Completion of these plans was also identified as
high priority in an Internal Audit review undertaken in May 2013.
 College activities
ii.
Maintain existing plans through:
 Periodic reviews of the plans to capture changes in processes,
priorities, business activities etc. The frequency of these reviews
will reflect the priority of the services provided/functions
performed. In most cases, reviews will take place annually.
 Testing the effectiveness of plans through a variety of exercises
from desktop reviews through to simulated incidents. The
frequency of these exercises will again be determined by the
priority of the service provided. The Business Continuity Plan
(Gold) will be exercised on an annual basis.
iii.
Development of the knowledge base including:
 Provision of internal training sessions and networking events
(PENCON)
 Attendance at networking events such as HEBCON, Business
Continuity Institute and Local Responders Forum
 Developing a close working relationship with University
stakeholders including Falmouth Exeter Plus.
9. The future
Analysing the pattern of enquiries received by the insurance team, two themes have
been identified:

Enquiries often focus on whether insurance cover can be obtained for an activity
without the risks being presented in many cases – this means that a significant
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
number of enquiries need qualifying by the completion of a risk assessment
before they can be fully considered.
The timing of many enquiries, often at a late stage just before the activity takes
place, would suggest that risk assessments are not always formally considered
as part of the planning process.
Members of the insurance team spend a significant portion of their time promoting the
benefits of good risk management practice as opposed to providing pure advice on
insurance cover. It is expected that the majority of the annual business plan going
forward will be devoted to this task. Opportunities for cross team working with the Safety
and Occupational Health office are identified wherever possible; however, the insurance
team need to extend the areas of risk for which they provide advice beyond that of duty
of care – security of buildings, contractual liability and student complaints handling being
just three examples.
The promotion of robust operational risk management is linked to the desire to control
claims costs and so moving forward, the efforts of the insurance team will increasingly be
focused on providing advice and assistance on operational risk management, including
the completion of risk assessments. An essential part of this role will include the
monitoring of controls in place to mitigate risk.
It is envisaged that the areas of work handled by Legal and Insurance Services will
continue to be of importance to the University as it enters a new financial landscape. We
understand that University Council is to place increased emphasis on risk management
and we aim to be able to make a significant contribution to this process at both strategic
and operational level.
We will strive always to deliver a professional and efficient service to our internal
customers, that is focussed on their commercial requirements whilst taking into account
the broader risk picture, and which supports the University in delivering its key strategies.
Claire Turner
Director of Legal and Insurance Services
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Appendix 1 – Legal and Insurance Services Structure Chart
Director of Legal and Insurance
Services
Claire Turner
Insurance and Business
Continuity Manager
Academic Contracts Manager
Christine Hazell
Paul Hirst
Insurance and Risk Advisor
Business Continuity Advisor
Insurance Advisor
Contracts Support Administrator
Trudi Legge
Sue Dummett
Anne-Marie Hobley
Jenny Gay
Travel Advisor
Contracts Officer
Research
Paul Biddle
General Administrator
Frances Mathews
Rachel Sutton
(50% FTE)
(Temporary post)
Solicitor
Solicitor
Construction/
(Employment/ Student issues)
Commercial
Lydia Paish
Chrysten Cole
Solicitor (75% FTE)
Solicitor – (Property & Estates)
Contracts and IP Officer
Philippa Cobb
Hannah Haig
Solicitor (40% FTE)
Maternity leave until May 2014
Legal Services Assistant
Charlotte Verrier
)
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Contracts Officer
Education
Maggie Smith
Contracts Officer
Research
Duncan McFarlane (from Sep)