Evaluation of the Farmsafe pilot study

Agriculture has one of the worst fatal accident and occupational ill health records of
any major employment sector, with 45 people killed as a result of farming and other
agriculture-related activities in 2005/06. Workers in agriculture are a group who are
difficult to contact and, against this background, a pilot scheme (Farmsafe) was
designed with the aim of influencing awareness and practice of health and safety
among farmers. The pilot scheme promoted the uptake of a free 20-minute health
and safety assessment, addressing six priority health and safety topics, which was
carried out by Scottish Food Quality Certification Limited (SFQC) assessors as part
of their routine annual farm inspections. The pilot study was carried out between
March 2005 and June 2006, and over 800 farm assessments at around 650 farms
were carried out. Following the SFQC assessment, farmers could be offered a
referral to Safe and Healthy Working (SaHW) for a follow-up visit.
This report provides an evaluation of the pilot scheme, with the aim of assessing how
effective and acceptable the scheme has been to farmers, the rate of uptake of the
scheme, changes in health and safety attitude among participants in the scheme and
reasons for non-participation among those who declined to take part. Forty-eight
telephone interviews were carried out with participant and non-participant farmers,
SFQC and SaHW assessors and stakeholders in the study. All data collected during
the SFQC assessments were analysed as well as additional data on attitudes
towards the study collected from 176 farmers during the evaluation study.
Results of the evaluation study showed evidence of an impact of the Farmsafe
assessment on the participating farmers. Two-thirds of the farmers interviewed felt
that the Farmsafe assessment had been beneficial to them, mainly in terms of raising
awareness of health and safety, and around one third had made changes to their
farm as a result of the assessment. A comparison of the scoring of hazards at first
and repeat visits to farms showed a general improvement in health and safety
practice, although it is not possible to determine whether some improvement may
have happened whether or not the assessment had taken place.
The scope of the pilot study had been limited by the inclusion only of arable farms
which were members of the Scottish Quality Cereals scheme, and an extension to a
broader range of farms, including meat producing farms, was seen as essential by all
the stakeholders of the pilot study. There was also a lack of awareness of the study
among some of the farmers contacted and higher profile publicity is recommended
for any future intervention of this kind.
There were fewer referrals for follow-up visits by SaHW assessors than had been
expected. This was identified and addressed during the pilot study by means of
additional training session. Further integration of the two sets of assessors would
benefit any future interventions, with joint training held at the start of the programme
and joint visits carried out periodically.
Overall, the pilot study has been a useful exercise and has shown that, with some
modifications, there is the potential for an intervention programme of this kind to have
a positive impact on health and safety in the agriculture sector.