Child Safety on Farms during the summer period

The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) is calling on the farming community to keep children safe on the farm this summer.

Summer is a particularly dangerous time for children on farms as they’re off school and are about more when farms are particularly busy - often with contractors on-site operating potentially dangerous vehicles and machinery.

Tragically, since the year 2000 eleven children have lost their lives due to work related accidents on farms.

The 'Be Aware Kids Child Safety on Farms' campaign aims to eradicate fatal and serious accidents through an extensive education and outreach programme which includes a programme of planned school visits throughout Northern Ireland. This involves HSENI staff visiting rural primary schools to deliver interactive workshops about farm safety, and this year more than 75 schools have been visited since Easter with over 10,750 children attending the presentations.

Urging farming families to take extra care this year, HSENI Chief Executive Robert Kidd said: “Keeping children safe on farms is one of those things that everyone agrees on. It is simply unthinkable to lose a child or have them seriously injured in a farming incident. Those who have experienced this bear unimaginable pain for the rest of their lives. But it needn’t be this way in the future. We can take action to keep our children safe and we must do everything we can to prevent our children being injured or killed in farming incidents.

“It is really important that our children are educated about safety on farm so that they are aware of the potential dangers and learn how to avoid them. I am making a personal plea to all farm families to make child farm safety a priority, particularly at this busy time with longer evenings and with schools winding down for the summer. Please talk about safety as a family and put in place simple, practical, measures to make sure your children are safe at all times. 

“There are plenty of materials and guidance available on the HSENI website to make safety interesting and engaging for children. We are all now well aware of the dangers from livestock, harmful substances, falling objects, slurry, high places and moving vehicles.  However this awareness must be matched by changed behaviours to ensure incidents are avoided. The Farm Safety Partnership will continue to do all it can, but the initiative must come from parents if we are to really make our farms safe places for our children. Please make that change today and prioritise your family’s safety over everything else.”

UFU president Ivor Ferguson says, “Children are naturally curious. Farms, and in particular working farms, can be tempting places for them to play and often children do not understand the dangers a farm can present.  It can be very difficult to both supervise children and work on the farm. With this in mind, parents should think about preventative measures they can put in place to help protect children from the dangers. 

"These measures include providing children with a securely fenced off play area, ensuring unattended vehicles are kept locked, and discouraging children from using bales of any description for playing.”

Farm safety checklist for parents:

• have a safe and secure play area for young children
• prevent children from playing in or around farmyards and livestock
• prevent all children under the age of 13 from riding on tractors and farm machinery
• restrict the use of the quad and provide suitable safety equipment
• secure all heavy wheels, gates, heavy equipment and stacked materials to prevent them from toppling over
• ensure your slurry lagoon is securely fenced to prevent children from gaining access and make sure tank covers are always in place 
• always keep children well away when mixing slurry
• keep track of where family members are playing or working and when they are expected back 
• make sure everyone washes their hands before eating and drinking 
• keep chemicals locked in a secure store when not in use
• make sure that guards are in place to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery
• make sure all family members know what to do in an emergency 
• prepare a list of emergency contact telephone numbers

Notes to editors: 

1.   The ‘Be Aware Kids – Child Safety on Farms’ campaign is the largest initiative in NI to engage with children on the issue of farm safety. The programme has been running since 1999 and is extremely well known in the farming industry. This initiative includes the annual Child Safety on Farms Poster Competition, which has been running since 2003. The deadline for this year’s entries is of 28 June and judging will take place in July. More than 41,000 ‘2018’ calendars featuring winning entries to the poster competition were distributed to 450 rural primary schools across Northern Ireland.

2.   The Farm Safety Partnership comprises the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI), the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU), NFU Mutual (NFUM), the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster (YFCU) and the Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers Association (NIAPA). It is tasked with assisting Northern Ireland’s farming community to work safely and tackle the problem of work-related fatalities and injuries on farms.

3.   The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) is an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body, sponsored by the Department for the Economy (DfE).

4.   HSENI is the lead body responsible for the promotion and enforcement of health and safety at work standards in Northern Ireland.

5.   For media enquires please contact: HSENI Press Office on: 028 9024 3249 or email: media@hseni.gov.uk

6.   For Out of Office hours please contact the Duty Press Officer on 028 9037 8110.

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