How safety campaign is putting kids and young farmers first
© Farm Safety Foundation As the 13th annual Farm Safety Week approaches (21-25 July 2025), the Farm Safety Foundation is urging the industry to reflect on why farming remains one of the most dangerous jobs.
Led by campaigner Stephanie Berkeley, the Farm Safety Foundation (Yellow Wellies) has spent the past decade tackling the high rates of fatal accidents and poor mental health across UK agriculture.
See also: Farmers Weekly launches kids’ farm safety campaign
Stephanie, a nominee for the 2024 Farmers Weekly Game Changer Award, has overseen a year of outreach focused on embedding safety awareness in young farmers and improving attitudes to risk and wellbeing.
“We have had a hectic year so far,” says Stephanie.
“We went straight back into the classroom. We have Alma Jordan at AgriKids in collaboration with Farmers Weekly, targeting the younger students and harnessing their pester power.
“And we have us, looking at the young people who have made the choice to go into the industry.”
Stephanie Berkeley © Richard Stanton
Over the past 12 months, the foundation has worked with 46 land-based colleges and partnered with Young Farmers’ Clubs across the UK.
It has also launched a pilot programme with the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution to help students better understand mental health and what to do if someone close to them is struggling.
Connection
“We felt like we needed to make that connection between physical and mental health. People need to be fit and healthy before they get behind the wheel of a tractor,” says Stephanie.
“We wanted to treat mental wellbeing as central to farm safety.”
Yellow Wellies is also behind the Mind Your Head campaign, a national initiative highlighting the link between mental health and physical safety on farms.
This year’s Farm Safety Week marks 13 years of awareness-raising, but the foundation says more must be done to address the persistent dangers.
“Thirteen years on, why is farming still one of the most dangerous places to work?” asks Stephanie.
“This year, we really want to reflect on why this is and to get people to stop and think. We still lose an average of 31 people on farms a year.”
© Farm Safety Foundation
According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Fatal Injuries in Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing Report for 2023-24, 23 farmworkers and four members of the public, including two children, died on farms in Great Britain last year.
In Northern Ireland, there were eight reported fatalities in the sector over the same period, according to HSENI.
Updated figures are expected next week, during Farm Safety Week.
Farm Safety Stars
To tackle the problem at its roots, safety awareness campaigns are increasingly targeting children and families.
Alongside Yellow Wellies, another organisation supporting this work is AgriKids, founded in 2014 by Alma Jordan after a particularly deadly year on Irish farms, where 32 people, including five children, lost their lives.
This year, Farmers Weekly has partnered with AgriKids to champion farm safety among preschool and primary school children through the Farm Safety Stars initiative.
Each week, young readers can engage with fun and educational activities designed to gently but effectively raise awareness of farm dangers.
Farm Safety Week marks the midpoint of the series, with five weeks left of the worksheets. Subscribers can find the latest worksheet with the magazine, or visit fwi.co.uk/farm-safety-stars.
“I want teachers and parents to normalise the conversation of farm safety, but I think this can start with kids. Kids are natural, instinctive learners and take home that learning to their parents,” says Alma, founder of AgriKids.
Stephanie praises the initiative and its grassroots approach.
“It’s so important to embed safety from day one, which is what we are trying to do with an older audience,” she says.
“Alma Jordan does such an incredible job of this, and we work together really closely. It’s so great to see the activities in Farmers Weekly this year. We know that the messages really come from children and change needs to come from the family home.
“Teaching safety from an early stage, with Alma’s work and collaborations like this, safety training is embedded by the time children get to us. Risk assessments are second nature.”
The weekly Farm Safety Stars worksheets are in line with Yellow Wellies’ own tone and teaching style.
“The worksheets in the magazines take a similar approach to us; it’s gentle talking and fun teaching. Children need to be encouraged in a friendly way,” says Stephanie.
Stephanie and Alma remain committed to reducing fatalities by changing the way the industry views and responds to risk, physically and mentally.
As Farm Safety Week 2025 draws near, the message is clear from both organisations: safety needs to be a lifelong habit, starting at home, reinforced in education, and carried into every field, barn, and yard.
About the Farm Safety Stars campaign
Turn your kids into Farm Safety Stars and help create a safer future on our farms for everyone.
Our weekly interactive worksheets feature fun activities that help youngsters aged up to 13 learn how to be farm safe.
Get your kids involved to help ensure they stay safe now, and grow up to be safer farmers in the future.
You can download the worksheets from Farm Safety Stars page, and Farmers Weekly subscribers will also receive a printed worksheet with their copy of the magazine.
Later in the campaign, there’s the chance for kids to get a Farm Safety Stars certificate in our quiz to show how much they’ve learned.
You can also inspire others by sharing photos of your Farm Safety Stars. Show us what they’re learning about being farm safe – and staying farm safe – for a chance to feature on our social media channels and in the magazine.
