 This week, Monday 21st July – Friday 25th July 2025, is the Farm Safety Foundation’s 13th Annual Farm Safety Week.
In Cumbria, there are over 5,000 farm holdings, and farming is a significant part of our county’s economy, employing over 12,000 people.
Unfortunately, agriculture has one of the highest fatal injury rates of any industry in the UK.
In addition to the 12,000 people who work on farms in Cumbria, children also live, or visit relatives on farms. Due to the dangerous nature of farms, children, especially young children, should not be in the farm workplace. However, if children are taken into the workplace, e.g. for a learning experience, the visit should be properly planned in advance to avoid busy times or higher risk areas.
At all times, while the child is in the farm workplace, they should be closely supervised by an adult who is not engaged in any work activity. The sole focus of the adult must be on supervising the child.
Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness Safeguarding Children Partnerships, alongside Cumbria’s Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP), want to raise awareness this Farm Safety Week. You can get involved by sharing social media messages and discussing farm safety with the children, young people and families you work with, who are part of the farming community.
Organisations who will be sharing key messages on social media this Farm Safety Week, which you can reshare, are:
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Farm Safety Foundation: Farm Safety Foundation – Yellow Wellies (Facebook) / @yellowwelliesuk (X)
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AgriKids: Agrikds (Facebook) / @agrikid (X)
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Health and Safety Executive: Health and Safety Executive (Facebook) / @H_S_E (X)
Resources
There are some excellent resources that can be used and utilised during Farm Safety Week and beyond. These include:
- The What 3 Words App can be very useful in an emergency situation, particularly within rural areas. You can find more information about What 3 Words here.
- Health and Safety Executive
Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness Safeguarding Children Partnerships encourage you to share these resources with your teams, and the children, young people and families you work with in the farming community to ensure that children in our area are kept as safe as possible, if they are in a farming environment.
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