NFU Mutual – Responsibly Saving Lives on Farms

This month’s blog is a guest blog from our funders NFU Mutual as part of Business In The Community’s Responsible Business Week 24-28 April 2017.

 

‘I’d rather lose my job than my life!’

The moving words of 17-year-old Jack Sutherland from South Staffordshire College, as the realisation of how easy it is to lose your life on a farm dawned on him.

Jack had been attending one of the Farm Safety Foundation’s award-winning and innovative ‘Introduction to Farm Safety’ courses at his college which aims to help young agricultural students –  the farmers of the future – understand the dangers and hazards that working on a farm entails.

In 2014, NFU Mutual set up the Farm Safety Foundation, as a registered charity, to help young farmers like Jack challenge their behaviours and change their attitudes to farming safely.

The facts are shocking: 27 farm workers lost their lives in the workplace in 2016. In 2017 so far, there have been 12 deaths and nine of those took place in February.

Three years on, the Foundation and their Yellow Wellies campaign is making a huge difference and impact on the lives of young farmers. The team delivered their course at 19 colleges across the UK last year and they plan to get to 30 colleges this year. That’s 2,602 agricultural students who’ve listened, learned, took part in role plays, watched shocking videos of real farmers who’ve lost limbs or family members and then had to think on their feet in real life accident situations.

The Foundation also work very closely with the NFYFC, YFCU, Wales YFC and SAYFC to bring this message to their 36,000 members across the UK as well as managing Farm Safety Week.

What makes our day at NFU Mutual is when we get results such as 96% of agricultural students surveyed saying that, after receiving the training, they would think twice about taking risks in the future. That’s exactly why we believe in the Foundation, why we continue to fund their groundbreaking work and why we are encouraging the farming industry to support them to continue this work for the future.

At NFU Mutual, this is who we are. Insurance is just the start. We look after our members, we champion rural communities and we value our people and the Farm Safety Foundation is just one of the ways we are trying to make a difference.

To read our Responsible Business Report 2016 CLICK HERE