HSE & TGWU need your help on child safety in agriculture

HSE Press Release: E106:04 - 10 August 2004

Health & Safety Executive (HSE) inspector, Mike Walters, currently seconded to the Transport & General Workers Union (TGWU), is appealing for people in farming to help improve child safety by taking part in two surveys.

Agriculture has one of the highest fatal accident rates of any industry in the UK and is also the only high-risk industry that has to deal with the constant presence of children. Farms are homes as well as workplaces and visitors to the countryside, many of whom are children, are often present on farms.

In the ten years from 1993 to 2003, 35 children have been killed on farms and the HSE has received reports of nearly 400 serious injuries to children, with many more incidents going unreported. All adults in the industry need to take responsibility for keeping children safe and stopping them going to areas where they might be at risk.

Improving child safety in agriculture is a major strategic aim of the TGWU, and one that it shares with regulators, employers and other stakeholders. To help take forward this aim, HSE has recently seconded Mike Walters, HM Inspector of Health & Safety, to undertake a research and development project in this area for the Rural, Agricultural & Allied Workers (RAAW) National Trade Group of the TGWU in partnership with Cardiff University School of Social Sciences.

Mike Walters said: "Part of my research during my secondment is to examine current attitudes towards child safety, and formal and informal arrangements for childcare provision in rural communities. To help give a fuller picture on these very important issues I'm inviting members of the farming community to complete two surveys. The first is designed to help try and solve the difficulties faced by farming families in relation to childcare. The second is an investigation into the awareness of the farming community of the risks faced by children on farms and to see what current action has been taken to control some of the identified key risks."

He went on: "These surveys provide an opportunity for all of us involved in agriculture to seek solutions to reduce the number of incidents on farms involving young children."

Chris Kaufman, TGWU National Secretary, Food & Agriculture, showed his support for the surveys by saying: "Farms are workplaces NOT playgrounds. Mike's surveys are vital to the TGWU's campaign to keep death and injury off the farm. I hope there is a big take up of the surveys by the farming community."

Results of this research will be published towards the end of Mike Walters' secondment to the TGWU - probably early in 2005.

Notes to editors

1. A survey of child deaths in agriculture since 1993 reveals that 35 children (under 16 years of age) have been killed in the past ten years. The major causes of fatal injuries to children continue to be: struck by moving vehicle, drowning/asphyxiation, struck by moving object, fall from height, contact with machinery and fire.

2. In June 2000 HSE launched two booklets to help reduce injuries and fatalities to children in the agriculture industry, 'Preventing accidents to children on farms', which uses examples of actual incidents to help parents understand what can happen so they can avoid dangerous practices, and 'Stay safe on the farm', a children's interactive magazine style booklet packed with fun games for children aged between five and nine, designed to help them realise the dangers which can threaten them.

3. 'Stay safe on the farm' can be ordered free of charge from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2WA Tel 01787 81165 and is available online at http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/misc403.pdf

4. Leaflet AS10 (rev2) 'Preventing accidents to children on farms' is available online: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/as10.pdf or from HSE Books as above. The leaflet supports the Approved Code of Practice 'Preventing accidents to children in agriculture' L116, available from HSE Books, ISBN 0 7176 1690 8, price £5.50.

5. Another leaflet 'Keep children safe on the farm - fatal accidents to children' INDG340 http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/as10.pdf is also available from HSE Books.

6. Further information on the work of the Transport & General Workers' Union (TGWU) can be found at: http://www.tgwu.org.uk Since the TGWU was formed, one of its goals has been to secure greater protection for children on farms. A key objective has been to prevent children under 16 years old from working on farms altogether. In addition, the TGWU wants to see the rural and farming culture shift so that farms stop being regarded as an extension of the home and, by association, a fit place for children to be.

7. Further information on the work of Cardiff University School of Social Sciences can be found at: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/