A decade after the first Farm Safety Week campaign, agriculture continues to have the poorest safety record in the UK and Ireland according to Stephanie Berkeley, Farm Safety Foundation manager.

Stephanie, from the Yellow Wellies farm safety charity writes:

Over the last year, 25 people have lost their lives on farms in Great Britain– an encouraging improvement on last year’s total of 41, but one life lost is one too many.

Of the 25 people killed in England, Scotland and Wales in the past year, 22 were farm workers and 3 were members of the public including a 9-year-old child. For an industry that still has between 1 and 2 children being killed through its activities each year, this simply must improve.

The picture is similar in Northern Ireland where farming accounted for 6 of the 18 (33%) reported workplace fatalities in 2021/2022 (HSENI). In the Republic of Ireland, farming, which accounts for 4% of the workforce has 26% of all workplace fatal incidents.

Farming has changed so much over the past decade so why hasn’t its safety record?

Despite an encouraging improvement in the HSE figures over the past year, these are very sobering statistics.

But we must remember that these are not just statistics – behind every fatal notification is a worker, a visitor or a child. We cannot become immune to the impact that each and every death has on farming families and communities across the UK and Ireland. Ten years after our first campaign, we cannot continue to accept that risk-taking is part and parcel of farming – we must work harder to make it safer.

From the 18th – 22nd July, the Farm Safety Foundation will hold its tenth annual Farm Safety Week, a campaign which brings together five countries over five days with ONE simple goal – to encourage farmers to make our farms safer places to live and to work.

This week, the Farm Safety Foundation will highlight some of the key issues facing the farming community, spotlight the work being done to drive a change in attitudes and behaviours and introduce ten inspirational farm safety heroes who have worked tirelessly over the past decade to reduce the injury risk for farmers and farming families across the UK and Ireland.

Agriculture is different from many industries in that it can present hazards to people not actively involved in the industry, such as children and family members living on the farm and visitors, in addition to farm workers. Hazards can also exist for vets, delivery workers and even the emergency medical services personnel, as they provide assistance and care to victims of farm incidents.

Awareness of farm safety is at an all-time high with 66% of farmers in the UK (80% of under 40s) aware of Farm Safety Week according to NFU Mutual’s Voice of the Farmer 2022 survey - but the fact remains that, over the past year, 25 people lost their lives on GB farms so, awareness may be one thing but the time has come for action.

A decade on, a focus like Farm Safety Week is still important. When many voices join together to drive a change, this is when it can happen. We should be farming safely every day of the year not just during Farm Safety Week.

As a small charity that has delivered training sessions to over 18,000 young farmers in land-based colleges and universities across the UK and through the young farmers clubs’ network, the Foundation knows - and our research supports this - that the next generation of farmers are cultivating a better attitude to risk-taking and are starting to drive better safety behaviours in the workplace.

Farming is an industry where people do not retire at 65 so, with the oldest farm worker killed over the past year being 85 years of age, we need to look after our older workers so they can continue to support the farm business and carry out tasks are appropriate for their mobility, agility and health conditions.

But the truth is, farmers of all ages need to start challenging and changing their attitudes so we can make our farms safer places to work and to live.

• For more information on Farm Safety Week visit www.yellowwellies.org or follow @yellowwelliesUK on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook using the hashtag #FarmSafetyWeek