Contractors – Insurance and Contract Arrangements

Policy

The purpose of this policy is to outline requirements relating to insurance and contract arrangements when school councils engage contractors.

Details

School councils sometimes need to engage contractors to provide goods or services to the school. This policy outlines insurance and contract arrangements for these engagements. School councils are also responsible for the management of workplace health and safety when engaging contractors. For policy, information and advice on health and safety obligations for contractors. Refer to Contractor OHS Management.

Insurance requirements

This information describes the indemnity and insurance requirements that must be written into all contracts.

Indemnity

Contracts must contain the following clause:

'The contractor hereby indemnifies the State of Victoria its employees, servants and agents and the school council and its employees, servants and agents against all claims, liability or expenses (including legal costs) relating to any injury to persons or any loss or damage to any property caused (or to the extent contributed) by any act or omission of the contractor or its employees, servants or agents, except to the extent that the loss is directly attributable to the negligence of the State of Victoria, the school council or their employees, servants or agents.

It is not necessary for the State of Victoria or school council to incur expense or make payment before enforcing a right of indemnity conferred by this contract.'

Public liability insurance

All contractors must have current workers compensation and public liability insurance (the Department’s stipulated minimum cover for public liability is $10 million).

Professional indemnity insurance

Contractors supplying advice, for example, architects or engineers must:

• supply evidence of professional indemnity insurance in an amount of no less than $5 million per any one event and in the aggregate
• produce evidence from their insurer showing that the insurance is current and covers the professional services being supplied

Standard contracts

School councils should use the Department's standard-form contracts which ensure schools are compliant with the law and that the inherent risks of contracting with third parties is mitigated as much as possible. These standard contracts cover the following:

• gardening, maintenance or painting services
• cleaning services
• school canteen licence
• hiring school premises by third parties
• personnel, financial and administration services and student and curriculum services
• school uniforms
• pre-school licence

See the Resources tab for access to these contracts.

Related policies

• Fundraising Activities (including fetes)
• Insurance for Schools

Relevant legislation

• Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) — section 21

Guidance

There is no further guidance for this topic. For more information, refer to Resources tab.

Resources

The following resources are available for Victorian government schools and school councils to use when engaging contractors.

Access to all resources requires a login and password.

Information sheets

The Information Sheet – Contracts 101 (PDF) (staff login required) provides guidance to school councils when negotiating and entering into contracts for procurements.

School council contracts

• School council purchase order – sample template (DOCX) (staff login required)
• School council purchase order terms and conditions – goods and services up to $2,500 (DOCX) (staff login required)
• School council short form goods contract (DOCX) (staff login required)
• School council short form services contract (DOCX) (staff login required)
• School council agreement for the provision of services (DOCX) (staff login required)
• School council agreement for the provision of services – amusement devices (DOCX) (staff login required)
• School council agreement for the supply of goods (DOCX) (staff login required)
• School council agreement for the purchase of school uniforms for sale by school (DOCX) (staff login required)
• School council appointment of school uniform supplier – non-school premises (DOCX) (staff login required)