HSENI is committed to eliminating fatal accidents through our 'Be Aware Kids' child safety on farms campaign.
Tragically, fatal accidents involving children on farms have been all too common on Northern Ireland farms over many years.
To date, this campaign has seen a significant reduction in accidents involving children. However, we must never be complacent and need as many people and organisations as possible involved with our campaign to ensure that this positive trend continues.
This area of the website has lots of useful information for parents, resources for teachers and interactive games for children.
- HSENI YouTube video - 'Dangerous Playgrounds' (four to eight year olds)
- HSENI YouTube video 'Farm Safe' (eight to eleven year olds)
Information for teachers
Farm health and safety for children is an important message that should be promoted not only at home but also in schools. Teachers in particular have a great opportunity to pass on messages that will stay with children all of their lives.
HSENI is keen to work in partnership with rural primary schools throughout Northern Ireland as part of the "Be aware kids" Child Safety on Farms campaign.
We run a number of initiatives as part of this campaign including the 'Child Safety on Farms' poster campaign and we are piloting a new programme with the aim of visiting each rural primary school over a rolling five year period to deliver child safety on farm sessions with the children.
Below you will find our 'Avoid Harm on the Farm' PowerPoint presentations which are tailored to Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. These presentations highlight what dangers could be present on the farm and also help to promote the important message of child farm safety:
- Avoid Harm on the Farm - Key Stage 1 presentation
- Avoid Harm on the Farm - Key Stage 2 presentation
- Child farm safety activity pack - introduction to farm safety materials
To find out more about these initiatives contact us on:
- 028 9024 3249
We have also created some additional resources to use with the children tailored to their age group. Just look in the appropriate resources below.
Resources Key Stage 1
- Avoid Harm on the Farm - Key Stage 1 presentation
- Preventing or controlling ill health from animal contact at visitor attractions
- Stay safe on the farm with Jessy
- Sammy Safe and Harry Harm colouring sheets
- Avoid Harm on the Farm - 'Be Aware Kids' child safety on farms calendar 2020
- Avoid Harm on the Farm - 'Be Aware Kids' child safety on farms calendar 2021
- Child farm safety colouring sheets
- Avoid Harm on the Farm - a children's guide
Resources Key Stage 2
- Avoid Harm on the Farm - Key Stage 2 presentation
- Preventing or controlling ill health from animal contact at visitor attractions
- Farmtastic Four - the farm of danger
- Avoid Harm on the Farm - word search
Information for parents
Agriculture has one of the highest fatal accident rates of any industry in Northern Ireland and is also the only high risk industry that has to deal with the constant presence of children.
As a parent there are a number of things you can do to help prevent your child having an accident - the following checklist should help.
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
- make sure your vehicles have good all-round visibility
- prevent all children under 13 years 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
The Farm Safety Foundation has also produced a guidance document aimed at the parents of children who live on farms. It contains lots of excellent farm safety advice which is epecially important during this time of school closures due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic:
Resources for parents
The resources provided here will help inform you of the dangers you and your children may face and what to do.
- Avoid Harm on the Farm - An adult's guide
- Preventing or controlling ill health from animal contact at visitor attractions
- Equipment - tractor driver training for children aged 13 and over
- Protecting you and your family from Brucellosis
- How safe is your farm - check it out
Resources for children and students
- Farm Safety Foundation - A guide for young farmers (yellowwellies.org)
- Avoid Harm on the Farm - a children's guide
- Equipment - tractor driver training for children aged 13 and over
- Stay safe on the farm with Jessy
- Farmtastic Four - the farm of danger
- Sammy Safe and Harry Harm colouring sheets
- Child farm safety colouring sheets
- Child safety on farms word search sheet
- How safe is your farm - check it out
- Farm safety short story competition - 2016 winning entries
'Farm Secure' - new farm safety app for children
As part of Child Safety on Farms Week 2016, a new app called ‘Farm Secure’ has been developed by students at Ulster University’s School of Nursing.
Sponsored by the Farm Safety Partnership (FSP) the free app is aimed at primary school children and features videos and an interactive quiz: