NFU Vice President David Exwood says that making a pledge during Farm Safety Week to upskill everyone’s safety training in a farm business will go a long way to improve safety on farms, which needs to be a top priority for everyone.
He said: “As an industry we are constantly learning, from each other and through innovation, and we need to ensure this mentality is applied to health and safety.
“Pledging to upskill ourselves, either through repeat or new training, is a simple and cost-effective way to increase awareness and better identify and manage risks on farm. By investing in ourselves and our learning, we are actually investing in our farm businesses as we are our most valuable asset, so safety has to be a top priority.”
Online training for members
To help members increase awareness and better identity and manage risk, the NFU is providing access to a new e-learning course on safety - Agriculture Health and Safety: How to Meet Your Legal Responsibilities.
The course is provided by Lantra and has been developed with advice from the HSE.
David said: “The course offers reminders about the risks we all face on farm, including working at height or with cattle, and provides practical safety advice, including remembering to engage the break when using a farm vehicle and wearing a helmet when riding on an ATV.”
The NFU is providing the e-learning course for members at a discounted rate of £18.
Best practice
“We are about to embark on the busiest time of year in farming – harvest – and we must remember farm safety best practice. On my farm, we have just started combining and I will be ensuring that all workers take sufficient rest breaks and wear high visibility clothing.
“On the 10th annual #FarmSafetyWeek let’s work together to encourage each other to improve agriculture’s safety performance and ensure that no more unnecessary accidents take place. We can use this week to take action, such as pledging to upskill ourselves, to ensure our businesses and ultimately ourselves are protected.”
The Farm Safety Partnerships (FSP) across Britain are supporting the campaign, run by the Farm Safety Foundation, which is this year focusing on the achievements that have been made over the past decade and highlighting the continued changes we can all make to reducing accidents on farm.
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