The 'Be Aware Kids' child safety on farms campaign is part of HSENI's commitment to eliminating fatal accidents and serious injuries on Northern Ireland's farms.
'Be Aware Kids'
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.
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.
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
Resources for parents
The resources provided here will help inform you of the dangers you and your children may face and what to do.
