Sexual abuse and misconduct (SAM)

Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse. Other forms of child abuse include neglect, physical abuse, and emotional abuse. Child […]

Claim

A claim is the term used to trigger a ‘claims made’ policy.   To trigger means the coverage is triggered and loss will […]

Circumstance

Claims made insurance policies are usually triggered when the insured first receives a written demand for damages. It is quite common, however, […]

Vulnerable adult

A vulnerable adult is a person who has reached the age of majority but who is unable to protect themselves from sexual […]

Minor

A minor is a person who has not reached the age of majority.

Captive Insurance

A captive is an insurance company that is wholly owned and controlled by its insured or insureds. Its primary purpose is to […]

SAM risk management

Tougher SAM risk management standards might make people feel better but they won’t make children safer

We all agree children need to be safer from sexual abuse than they are today but mandatory SAM risk management standards are not the answer to making children safer.

Mandatory standards provide a safe harbour for minimum standards and organizations determined to adopt minimum standards rarely even achieve those.

Fortunately SAM is rare but organizations are under more extreme time and resource pressure than ever.

This means they need greater incentives than compliance with minimum standards or to make rare events even rarer to invest in better SAM risk management.