Perkins Slade's Richard Doubleday on insuring the future Team GB

Many voluntary sports clubs around the UK are now in high demand, having been inundated with youngsters determined to be the next Maddie Hinch, Adam Peaty or Nick Skelton and it is incumbent on National Governing Bodies and associations to ensure all those who take part in sport and recreation do so in a safe environment, taught by well-qualified and experienced coaches and presided over by qualified and experienced officials.

As National Governing Bodies have become more accountable, the need for better quality insurance products and coverage, and the ability to tackle risk management issues at grass roots level, has risen exponentially.

It is not just the flood of new participants that must be protected. Much of Team GB's success is attributable to the thousands of volunteers, the unpaid coaches and instructors, who give their own time to nurture future Olympians.

Though some volunteers may have been working for years with no change to what they do or the facilities in which they do it, the risk landscape in which they work most certainly has changed, and there is a gap in the understanding of this and in the provision of solutions, which we must work together to fill.

As success spreads, so too do expectations and many children and their parents, who do not make the grade in the future, will be left angry and frustrated because their hard work does not bring them the stardom they crave. The father of one 'failed' athlete has recently sued a governing body for over a £100m, because the shortcomings of the national coach did not make his son the international superstar he was expected to be. Other coaches have had similar allegations made against them.

The tide is changing. In the days of 'volenti non fit injuria', insurance for volunteers seemed almost irrelevant. However, now it has become more important and ways in which claims can be triggered are increasing.

The insurance industry has a responsibility to make sure that volunteers are properly protected if allegations of negligence are made against them. Let's do our part to ensure that volunteers are not put off by the tide of litigation, and that the medal count grows in 2020.