OG status:

Fully open

Author unit / section:

Agriculture and Food Sector/ Safety Section

Target audience:

FOD Health and Safety Advisory Officers (HSAOs), Divisional Intelligence Officers (DIOs), Partnership Teams, and inspectors involved in farming events.

• Summary
• Aim
• Justification
• Audience
• Messages
• Activities required
• Diversity
• Further information and contacts
• Appendix 1 - Guide on organising farming SHADs

Summary

This SIM outlines arrangements for the management of Farming Safety and Health Awareness Days (SHADs) in 2009/10. It provides links to newly produced guidance (Appendix 1) for organising and running the events and follow up visits in 2009/10. This is a transitional year during which further changes may be made prior to finalising arrangements for managing the programme planned for 2010/11.  Any in-year changes will be drawn to divisions’ attention as necessary by a supplementary SIM.

Aim

SHADs provide practical guidance on key topics to those working on farms.

Justification

These events are the most significant face to face contact HSE has with the farming community. They form a core element of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Board’s Agriculture Revisited Initiative (see Board paper HSE/08/24) and are included in the list of mandatory workstreams for 2009/10 (item 4 of Annex 8 of the Guidance on Planning Proactive Work: Work-Year 2009/10).

Audience

The primary target audience for these events is family farmers, the self employed and farmers employing up to four workers. This means that places are primarily, though not exclusively, intended for farmers and workers who do not normally have access to essential information or training on health and safety through any other route. The continued focus on this primary audience will be kept under review during 2009/10.

Messages

The messages connected with each topic are laid down in the guidance. The sector meets with the instructors formally once a year, and informally more often, to refresh messages.

Activities required

A programme of 24 traditional farming SHADs during 2009/10 has been agreed with FOD HQ and should be delivered in line with the guidance in Appendix 1. The guidance contains some important changes based on the lessons learned from pilot events conducted in 2008/9 and the need to prepare for future change to the management of the programme.

Diversity

HSAOs and inspectors should be aware of the diversity needs of the target group. They should give consideration to, and factor in issues such as literacy, English as a second language and disability (e.g. access needs).

The diversity pages give more information on these areas.

Further information and contacts

Planning & management of the event programme – Samantha Peace Agriculture & Food Sector tel 0115 971 2822.

Technical content of events – Alan Plom Agriculture & Food Sector tel 07951 527051.

Appendix 1 - Guide on organising farming SHADs

Introduction

This guide covers farming SHADs that are intended to:

• Influence a large number of hard to reach farm workers;
• Provide practical demonstrations that explain the key causes of death, injury and ill health and the simple, practical and cost effective steps that can be taken to prevent them;
• Contribute to a longer term reduction in unwise risk taking behaviour.

These events are the most significant face to face contact HSE has with the farming community. In the last 10 years, 142 events have reached about 12% or 43,000 of the target audience of family farmers, the self employed and farmers employing up to four workers. This means ~88% of the target audience have not yet attended an event.

Management of the programme

Current management arrangements are set out below and will remain in place for 2009/10. This year steps will be taken to put in place effective arrangements to enable a smooth transition to new management arrangements of the programme of events, with a view to achieving full implementation in 2010/11. Current arrangements are:

• A local FOD Band 2 has overall responsibility for the event and in particular for ensuring that an adequate risk assessment is done. The B2 or a nominated B3 attend the event to introduce it on behalf of HSE, provide technical and legal advice and monitor the delivery of the messages by instructors;
• An HSAO is appointed to organise the event, including identifying and booking venues, suppliers, local stakeholder liaison, identifying and inviting attendees, ordering SHAD packs, supervising set up the day before the event, providing data and feedback to the sector after the event, including intelligence about post event visits to farms;
• Glenda Treneary of the sector will centrally book the instructors and their accommodation and verify and process their invoices;
• An HSAO will visit a number of non attendees and provide intelligence to a nominated local inspector for follow up;
• A nominated local inspector will conduct the equivalent of one day’s visits to non attendees. 

What is a farming event?

HSE is seeking to deliver an imaginative programme of events, some in partnership with other stakeholders. In order to deliver more events within the existing budget, the sector proposes to take a flexible approach about what will be supported in this transitional year, while seeking to ensure that a sufficient number of traditional events are available to the farming community. Testing what works best is essential to designing programmes for 2010/11 and beyond.

The sector will fund the programme of 24 traditional farming SHADs. These consist of events with six demonstrations from the list provided by sector that are relevant to the type of farming activity in the area. In addition and where funds are available the sector will support:

• ‘Mini’ events, e.g. in remote locations or where available venues limit the scale of the event;
• Events conducted in partnership, e.g. with the Environment Agency or other partners, where one or two demonstrations take place as part of a wider event for farmers;
• Events where one demonstration takes place at e.g. an auction, where there is effective outreach to farmers who would not otherwise leave the farm.

This is not exhaustive and the sector would welcome other ideas and suggestions from local FOD teams.

Funding

Events funded by the sector will be allocated a specific cost code that must be used for all expenditure relevant to the event. The sector will raise a purchase order for each item of expenditure.

The maximum sum available for food and a venue for traditional events is £2500.

Contributions for joint events and other non traditional events should be negotiated with Samantha Peace of the sector on a case by case basis.

Selecting a date and time for the event

Choosing the right date and time of year is important to maximise cost effectiveness and to ensure people are able to attend. Events should be planned around busy months of the farming year, which depends on the main farming activity in the area, school holidays when people may be away from home and market days. To avoid clashing with other SHADs, HSAOs should check the list of those already planned and published in the Farm SHADs diary on the HSE website.

In some areas, e.g. where dairy farmers predominate, farmers have made representations that they cannot attend events that cross milking time without incurring expense to hire relief workers to do the milking. In some areas it may be best to have an event with one session in the middle of the day and an evening session in order to ensure that the needs of the local farming community are taken into account and they can attend.

The sector would also encourage local organisers to ‘cluster’ events. Running two or more events relatively close in location and time has a number of advantages. It minimises the travel costs of instructors and enables organisers to offer those unable to attend one event an alternative. 

HSE has a contract with Lantra Awards to ensure sufficient experienced instructors are available. A core group of instructors registered with Lantra Awards are kept up to date with current developments to ensure quality and consistency.

Lantra Awards, via Glenda Treneary of the Sector, should be given as much notice as possible (preferably at least 3 months) as their registered instructors are heavily involved in providing training and other activities for the network of Lantra-Awards affiliated training groups. Many also have their own farming and business commitments. They can therefore get booked up quickly, particularly during the traditional training periods, i.e. late autumn through to spring, so to secure their involvement in an event it is necessary to propose and agree dates and venues as early in the work-year as possible. 

Choosing a venue

It can be a challenge to identify a suitable venue for this type of event, especially as farmers are generally reluctant to travel more than 30 minutes to attend them. Events have been held at a wide range of premises including agricultural colleges and army bases. Any venue needs to have the following characteristics:

• Be available the day before the event for ‘setting up’;
• Good access routes that can be well signposted;
• Sufficient parking;
• Adequate covered accommodation, including external areas for demonstrations involving large and noisy plant;
• An area large enough for attendees to gather to hear the opening address
• Six discrete areas for demonstrations that are within reasonable distance of one another;
• Have a layout that enables groups to move easily from one demonstration to another i.e. a one way system avoiding passing in corridors or other pinch points.

To assist in planning a map of all the events known to have been held since 1999 is available (see TRIM Record 2009/151158).

The risks associated with the event, in particular the movement of vehicles and pedestrians must be assessed and any action identified taken.

The estimated cost of hire of the venue and the business name of the venue should be provided to Glenda Treneary in advance of the event.

Selecting the demonstrations

Demonstrations chosen for an event should suit the type of farming in the area and concentrate on the top causes of death and major injury (see TRIM Record 2009/162996). Transport, falls and manual handling are generally relevant to all businesses and should normally be used at all events. Other demonstrations such as maintenance / hydraulics also have a general relevance. Others e.g. livestock handling or sheep dipping are more specialised.  ATVs are widely used but will be of little interest to farmers in some areas. In some areas it might be possible to target an audience involved in a specific activity, e.g. in areas of high concentration of similar producers such as glasshouse/horticulture.

Glenda Treneary should be informed of the demonstrations required at the earliest opportunity in order to contact Lantra Awards and book the appropriate instructors and equipment. One way to reduce expenditure is to find a venue that is willing to provide the equipment needed e.g. agricultural colleges usually have suitable equipment on site, but this may not always be possible.

Suggestions for additional demonstrations, e.g. bale handling, are being considered and are welcomed.

Staffing

The team needed to run an event effectively, is one B2 or B3, the HSAO, and six B6 staff. The sector would encourage the use of as few frontline staff as possible to minimise the impact on other operational activity. Where venues are unable to provide them, it may be cost effective to hire stewards or students to carry out car park duties instead of using HSE staff. Such stewards can also be used to escort a group. The cost is generally £60 - £80 per person, per day.

However many local inspectors and HSAOs find attendance at events useful for training purposes as well as providing opportunities for project management and direct stakeholder engagement.  

Identifying the audience and data recording

Lists of farmers can be drawn up from a number of sources including:

• Corporate data bases such as COIN;
• Internet based commercial data bases;
• The MINT data base that holds a combination of data from Jordans and Companies House;
• The Prolog data base of customers who have requested HSE priced publications
• Data supplied by the Department for Rural Affairs (Defra)

The most reliable source is the Defra data, though HSAOs should make use of any records they hold for previous events, in particular those who were unable to attend or were turned away where events were oversubscribed. Data should be recorded in line with the example spreadsheet (see TRIM Record 2008/472809).

The spreadsheet data should be attached to the COIN record for the event so that it is available locally. It should also be placed on TRIM in folder 5.1.2.28 and titled ‘FOD Data – [name of event] [date of event] and updated as required. The TRIM reference should be forwarded to Samantha Peace at the sector by e-mail.

Invitation process

The new model invitation process (see Table 1) should be used for events funded by the sector. Templates for the letters are held on TRIM. Any modifications required for jointly funded events should be agreed with the sector.

This model was tested in 2008/9 and was effective in generating an improved response. Based on historical data the normal response rate is between 20-29%. The new model generated response rates of 93%, 43% and 67%. In addition normally around 10% of people who cannot attend an event contact HSE to explain why. The new model invitation prompted up to 35% to contact HSE, providing valuable intelligence.

Work is underway to produce material for inclusion with the invitation letters, so that those invited understand that SHADs are practical, not classroom based, and non technical events. This is intended to deal in particular with the need to attract women to events; as they are one of two key influencers for farmers.

Table 1: Invitation model

Letter	Enclosures	Timing
1 Initial invitation TRIM 2008/472870	Reply slip Pre-paid envelope	7 weeks before the event
2 Reminder if no reply TRIM 2008/472876	Reply slip Pre-paid envelope	5 weeks before the event
3 Final reminder if no reply TRIM 2008/472878	Reply slip Pre-paid envelope	2 weeks before the event
4 Attendees turned away due to the event being full TRIM 2008/512989	CD self assessment and INDG163	1 week before the event.
5 Thank you to attendees TRIM 2008/513366	INDG163	1 week after the event
6 Non-attendee – failed attend without reason TRIM 2008/542015	CD of self-assessment software and INDG163	2 weeks after the event

Exhibitors

If there is sufficient space, relevant local organisations may be invited to exhibit and/or provide information on the day, e.g. local training groups, or suppliers who have supported and publicised the event.

Catering

Identify a suitable caterer and plan where food will be provided and eaten. Mobile units are often convenient, adaptable and cheap, though the choice may be restricted at some venues. Keep it simple, a bacon roll and tea/coffee for example (though don’t forget to provide a vegetarian option). Food and drink typically costs £4-5 per head.

The estimated cost of catering and the name of the firm being used must be provided to Glenda Treneary in advance of the event.

Feed attendees on arrival so that the two groups do not combine in the middle of the day. Brief the caterers adequately so that they are prepared to deal with en masse arrivals in the morning and afternoon. Make the timing explicit so that they can plan effectively and have enough staff to get everyone fed in the time available.

Remember to organise adequate food and refreshments, including water, for instructors and HSE staff.

Setting up

Many instructors now provide their own equipment. Before arrival and on set-up day, check that any additional equipment you have ordered is being provided. Try to have any equipment sourced locally to be delivered to the venue by noon on the day prior to the SHAD so that it is ready for the instructors to set up.

Make sure that suppliers of equipment such as ATVs and materials handlers are aware that the machines will be driven and demonstrated by Lantra Awards’ registered instructors. Make sure that any equipment provided is in good condition and compliant with all relevant legal requirements, e.g. lift trucks must be well maintained and have all mirrors, lights, etc. in place and operative. 

Insurance and indemnification by HSE

The question of insurance cover for loaned equipment has often arisen. As a government body, HSE does not take out insurance but provides an indemnity against losses. Suitable wording for a letter explaining and confirming this arrangement is;

“The Health and Safety Executive is a statutory corporation established under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 which performs its functions on behalf of the Crown. For financial and administrative purposes it is treated as a non-departmental public body within the Department of Work and Pensions. As such, it does not carry either employer’s liability or public liability insurance. Under Treasury rules, government departments and public bodies such as HSE are not required to take out private insurance.

The purpose of all liability insurance is, of course, to ensure that there are funds available to meet any claim which is recognised as properly based in Law (whether or not any case is actually taken to court). As a government body, there would be no question of HSE not being able to pay in the event that it was faced with such a claim. Insurance is therefore an unnecessary protection either for you or for any individual who might be affected.

To insure as set out in the requirements would be unnecessary and contrary to the practice of HSE and other public bodies.”

This has usually been accepted as sufficient guarantee.

Using instructors registered with Lantra Awards ensures that they personally carry adequate public liability insurance. This needs to be checked when non-Lantra Awards instructors are used. If any doubts remain about insurance, or queries from venues or suppliers cannot be dealt with locally, please contact Alan Plom or Nick Sangha of the sector.

Risk assessment

A risk assessment must be produced for each event. An example is provided on the Agriculture Communities site. Consider how you will segregate attendees from any working machinery or other adjacent or nearby hazards, passing traffic, ‘no-go’ areas, etc, e.g. by providing signage and hazard tape or, where necessary, installing physical free-standing barriers. This will need to take account of the host site and event-specific risk assessments. Any particular precautions or restricted areas should be highlighted during the introduction.

An electricity supply is required for some scenarios. It is more convenient if a power socket is readily available but if an extension cable is required, this must be in good condition, suitably tested and routed to avoid physical damage and creating a tripping hazard. 

Security

At some venues it might be prudent to consider additional security arrangements, e.g. to protect equipment stored overnight, or attendees’ cars whilst parked at the venue. However, this might incur considerable additional cost and is only likely to be justified in exceptional circumstances where the level of security within buildings or supervision in car parks is considered inadequate.

First aid

If facilities and arrangements at the venue are not adequate for the numbers anticipated to attend an event at any one time, it may be necessary to engage a suitable external organisation, such as St John’s. These should be sourced locally.

Arrival and registration

Supervision of parking may be necessary to ensure proper use of space, a free flow of traffic and pedestrian safety. High visibility tabards should be worn by parking stewards.

The HSAO should arrange for staff (usually two) to register attendees as they arrive and allocate them into colour coded groups using stickers. Make sure they understand the system for dividing them into groups. Arrange for someone to register late arrivals.

The HSAO should brief staff on the layout and order of the demonstrations and appoint staff to accompany each group.

The HSAO should appoint a person to monitor the timing and to sound a klaxon or hooter from somewhere it can be heard for all demonstrations 5 minutes before they are due to end and at the end to signal to move to the next.  

Welcome and introduction

An introductory address should be given to attendees before both the morning and afternoon sessions by the B2 or B3. The introduction should be brief, highlighting the overall aims (as described in the model invitation letter and at the beginning of this guidance), recent trends in fatalities, injuries and ill health, and the current ‘priority topics’ (perhaps using a recent incident or two to emphasise local relevance. Arrangements for lunch and refreshments and location of other facilities and emergency arrangements (including provision and location of first aid) should also be described. If the event is being hosted by an agricultural college or other organisation, it would be polite to also invite the college principal etc. to give a brief welcome and to endorse the event.

SHAD information packs

SHAD packs should be provided: see TRIM Record 2009/163018.

Feedback forms completed by attendees

Organisers should aspire to achieve 100% returns for the feedback form (see TRIM Record 2008/516385). One effective method is for the attendees to be given the forms and asked to complete them before leaving the final demonstration.

Diversity

Try to provide one or two chairs at each demonstration area - some of the attendees will be elderly and others might need to sit down.

Visits to those who do not attend

Visits to non-attendees should take place within a reasonable period of the event. Historically visits have been made to between 10% and 20% of non-attendees.

Based on available data about 30 visits by an HSAO may produce enough referrals to an inspector for the equivalent of one days inspection (about four farms). Intelligence led inspection is operationally efficient and helps reinforce the importance of SHADs in the farming community.

Feedback to the sector

HSAOs should send a brief report within 6 weeks of each event to Samantha Peace of the sector. This should summarise the data held on the spreadsheet, the response to the invitation(s), the level of attendance and a summary of the feedback given by attendees on the feedback sheets together with any other relevant information, including any significant compliments, complaints or recommendations (from participants, instructors, inspectors or hosts), to improve such events in future.

The HSAO should also provide information regarding the following to Samantha:

Any pre-event HSAO or inspection activity that might impact upon the event, particularly attendance;
Media coverage pre, and during the event;
HSAO post event visits, with outcomes;
Inspector post event visits, with outcomes;
Media coverage connected to post event inspection and enforcement.

Contacts and further information

For information regarding this guide and the management of the event programme please contact Samantha Peace of the sector (Nottingham office) telephone 0115 971 2822.

To book instructors and confirm proposed dates and venues for events please contact Glenda Treneary of the sector (Plymouth office) telephone 01752 276315.

Any questions regarding the design and content of the demonstrations should be directed to Alan Plom of the sector (Luton office) telephone 01582 444219.

For queries about insurance arrangements, or queries from venues or suppliers that cannot be dealt with locally, please contact Alan Plom (as above) or Nick Sangha of the sector (Birmingham office) telephone 0121 6076252.