Culture change needed to boost farm safety record

A change of mindset is needed to deal with agriculture’s appalling accident record it was said this week, with claims it is the most dangerous industry in which to work.

Within UK farming, there are just under ten fatalities in every 100,000 workers employed on farms annually. Compared to this, the next most dangerous UK industry is construction, where the number of deaths is less than a quarter of the farming tally, at around 2.1 per 100,000 workers.

According to one farmer who was himself almost part of the “death at work” statistics, the situation is not improving with the industry “neither learning nor evolving”.

Twelve years ago, Jim Chapman, of Snowford Barn, Southam, suffered a life-changing accident when he became entangled in a power take off shaft, losing his left arm.

Now, after being awarded a Nuffield Farming Scholarship, he has visited the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to try to find out how best to change UK farming’s safety record.

“I have learned that farmers don’t recognise risk to life in the same way other people,” he said. “As an industry we thrive on the risks associated with farming and relish the challenge of working in a dangerous environment.” Chapman acknowledged there were pressures in farming such as time, finance and weather that often pushed personal safety down the priority list.

“As farmers we are very much multi-skilled,” he said.

“However, formal health and safety training isn’t one of the skills we possess, leading to a lack of understanding around the subject.”

In the report he has written for the Nuffield Trust, he believes that safety initiatives “need to be led by farmers for farmers”.

“Safety also needs to be practical and easy to carry out,” he said. “Farmers don’t have time for complex paper-based systems as the workplace is extremely dynamic. Safe practices need to be embedded in the minds of everyone involved in the business to allow autonomous safe working.”

He rejected any further safety regulation, saying: “Increasing regulation or penalties will not have a positive effect on farm safety.

“The disconnect between the regulator and the farmerwill only increase if more regulation is enforced. Existing laws are adequate to keep workers safe.”

He did not believe there would be any quick solution to the safety problem in farming, saying it would need a culture change and that would take time.

Triggering such a change would require strong and effective leadership from farming leaders.

“Farmers who can passionately promote safety should be identified to deliver peer-to-peer training on safe work procedures, and push clear and consistent messaging,” he said.