Hi all, cheers for all the advice, though it looks like your responses have been as varied and mixed as that of my insurance company. When I initially contacted my insurance company they said they appreciate that this is my first road incident and that they would be there to support me; for all intended purposes acting as a mediator between myself and the third party. However, having called them today they're making no such gestures. They have taken no action, nor have they contacted the other party, recommending that I sort it out personally.
Evidently, if you are third party, fire and theft only, even if the other party has accepted liability it is still for you to sort everything out. This has brought crushing clarity to my misconceptions regarding insurance parties in general- that being they have the clients' best interests at heart, and unfortunately it does seem that if they are not legally obligated to facilitate a claim or client as entailed in the contract, simply put it is not in their interest to do so!
I'll contact the third parties' insurance as soon as they open tomorrow and hope for a simple and speedy solution.
The whole thing does leave me wondering- have I been naive? Or just unrealistic in my expectations? In comparison, how do your own experiences and expectations of similar events compare? I'd be very interested to hear about them.