Water Damage Awareness Day

Course Background

On average £1b is spent annually on flood or wet peril related claims by UK insurers with a rise to £3b last year due to the well reported surge. Although dealing with water damage claims on a daily basis, many office based claim handling professionals have never witnessed a "Flood Event" and as a result are unfamiliar with what a claimant is experiencing.

In response, the National Flood School created the 'Water Damage Awareness' course for Claims Handlers. This one day course allows each Claims Handler to experience first hand a major flood in a controlled environment and get directly involved in the methods and techniques used in assessment, control and drying. This course is designed specifically to give practical experience to those in the claim process who rarely get to see the "sharp" end of flood restoration.

The aims of the course are:

To give Claims Handlers the experience of an actual "flood" event including the widespread damage to building and contents.

To give Claims Handlers an understanding of the capabilities, methods and techniques used by restorers.

To increase knowledge through first hand experience thus providing the insurer competitive advantage through service differentiation.

Benefits to our customers:

Greater staff awareness and empathy when dealing with the insured.

The ability to question the methods and processes of restorative drying professionals - with knowledge.

This unique one day course has been structured around an actual loss scenario and through the use of both classroom training and hands on activities a student will experience all aspects of a loss from initial flooding, policy holder claim registration, through to water extraction, cleaning, and drying.

The hands on activities are carried out in a unique floodable training facility. This facility, constructed of 60 common household building materials forms the basis of a fully functional house. The "Flood House" is the only one in Europe and consists of a usable kitchen, bathroom, study, lounge and two bedrooms. For the purpose of the demonstrations 8000 litres of water are pumped into the 'Flood House', thus simulating a major top down pipe leak. This fully controlled and safe environment allows each student to experience first hand, the devastation of flood damage and witness how restorative drying techniques can facilitate a quick and inexpensive return to pre-loss condition.

Constructive feedback is extremely important to us as it helps us continually develop our course material to meet the growing and changing needs of the industry. The feedback that we have received to date tells us that we are delivering over and above our customers expectations. Attendee benefits include, a greater confidence in knowing that claims costs are right, swifter claims processing and settlement, reduced claims leakage and secondary losses, faster identification of fraudulent claims, a more distinctive and competitive service and an overall improvement in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

An FCII qualified, Chartered Insurer, who attended the course, gave us the following feedback:

"This unique course offers a remarkable insight into the science and efficacy of restoration. It revealed an embarrassing eye-opener for both claims directors and procurement managers into the true impact on claims service and particularly, the excessive cost penalties experienced by insurers, contributing to significant and unnecessary claims leakage. This course is a revelation, and provides a deep understanding of restoration best practice."

Other endorsements we have received about the best things of the Course include:

 • "The course was excellent and I can already see a change in my staff. We are in an increasingly competitive environment, the skills of our people will be our biggest differentiator so we must ensure they are the right people with the right training."

 • "Very interesting and thoroughly enjoyable course, I think everyone in the insurance industry would benefit from attending this course."

Availability & Attendees

The Technical Water Damage Awareness Days are being run throughout the year, however due to a huge demand some dates have already been reserved for private course bookings. We have limited the course to 16 people per day to allow for the full experience and quality of service to be maintained. Each attendee will receive a certificate of attendance.

Pricing & Payment

We aim to charge our customers a fair price for a quality service.

Our current rate per attendee is: £295 + VAT (includes course attendance, lunch and refreshments throughout the day)

Payment can be made via cheque or credit/debit card. Please indicate how you would like to pay on the booking form.

Booking & Terms & Conditions

Booking could not be easier...

• Call us on 01420 559955, or
• Download and complete the booking form
  and then
• email to: information@nationalfloodschool.co.uk, or
• post to: The National Flood School, Valori House, 1 Omega Park, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 2QE

We will confirm your booking in writing as soon as payment has been received and we have verified your information and requested dates.

For our full Terms & Conditions, please refer to the booking form.

Agenda

09.30 Arrival and Registration

09.45 Introduction to the day

10.15 Flood House
- Experience the house being 'Flooded'

10.30 Meeting your objectives

10.45 First Notification of Loss (FNoL)
- Asking the right questions

11.00 Flood House
- Extraction of carpets and surfaces

11.30 Break

11.45 Principles of Drying (part one)
- Levels of moisture
- Phases of Drying
- Drying Equipment
- Psychrometry and Drying Physics

13.00 Loss Assessment of Flood House

13.15 Lunch Break

13.45 Principles of Drying (part two)
- BSI PAS 64
- 7 Steps to Restorative Drying
- ISD (Intelligent Systemised Drying) Approach
- Quality and Customer Care

14.45 Flood House- Monitor drying of Flood House

16.00 Interpretation of collected readings

16.15 Questions and Answers

16.45 Close