Care Farming in the UK - the current context

Before I dive into my Churchill Fellowship findings I thought it would be useful to share more about current care farming in the UK.

There are currently three organisations working with social care farms and gardens in the UK. Farm Buddies, which works across the South East of England, Social Farming Northern Ireland, which works across Northern Ireland as well as on cross border projects with Social Farming Ireland, and Social Farms and Gardens UK, whose website says they are currently supporting approximately 2000 organisations including city farms, school farms, community gardens as well as the UK's care farms. Their website also has information on training opportunities and their voluntary code of practice.

Social Farming Northern Ireland supports farmers who are delivering or preparing to deliver care farming services and with meeting the requirements in Northern Ireland. This includes a comprehensive training programme, police background checks, help with securing funding, supporting farmers with health and safety management and brokering client placements. Farm Buddies offers their own slightly different support programme in the South East of England. Both of these organisations specifically aim to support family farms.

Amongst some of the people I spoke with, there was a perception that working family farms in England, Scotland and Wales are being overlooked in favour of what was termed 'specialist farms'. They explained that, in their opinion, a specialist farm was a care farm that has been set up to be similar to a day care centre that would take clients five days a week, perhaps run by a charity and that was located on a farm or in a garden.

I hope that my Churchill Fellowship research findings, which are due to be published in August, will inspire UK farmers to consider care farming within their family farms and offer practical solutions to allay concerns as well as explaining the benefits that such initiatives can bring.

In my next blog I will introduce my research themes and questions.

Churchill Fellowship Destinations - Introducing Israel, Italy and the USA

Following on from my last blog, I would now like to introduce my three final destination countries - Israel, Italy and the USA.

In Israel, where care farming is a very new concept having only been introduced in 2020, I discovered how quickly it is possible to introduce relevant legalisation and how discussions are currently taking place with the government to fund and accredit two new care farms that were established that year.

In Italy, I learnt about the importance of community food growing post World War 2 as people struggled to feed themselves, and how that has become part of the culture in many Italian communities. I looked at the fundamentals behind care farming in the country and how social horticulture is being added to care farms to encourage members of the local community to get involved.

Finally, in the USA I was fascinated to hear from the Director of a care farm which focused on supporting those who have suffered bereavement including traumatic bereavement and how these clients travel from across the globe to access this service. I spoke with an established residential therapeutic care farm and a residential therapeutic school with care farm and discovered the differences between how they approach the use of animals, as either livestock or companion animals through animal assisted interventions and therapy. I also learnt about a group of newly established care farms in the community in Montana, and the academics from the University of Texas and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University that supported their creation.

In my next blog I will look at the current context within the UK.

Photograph reproduced with kind permission of Hopewell USA

My Churchill Fellowship Destinations - Introducing Australia, Austria and Ireland

Over the last four weeks I've been busy writing up my Churchill Fellowship Report and I hope to be able to share this with you in the next couple of weeks. It's been a privilege to talk to all of the participants and learn about the research and care farms in Australia, Austria, Ireland, Israel, Italy and the USA. In this blog I would like to introduce Australia, Austria and Ireland.

In Australia I learnt about the very first care farm to be established in the country, which was set up sixteen years ago as well as more recently created care farms. I looked at how the development of a new residential therapeutic care farm model has the potential to change mental health services in the country. I explored the research being carried out at the University of Tasmania and a well established community charity for children and young people that has just moved onto a working farm. I also discovered how Animal Assisted Interventions are being considered as part of a number of these programmes.

In Austria, I gained an understanding of the six stage model that is in place to support farmers as they move through the process of setting up a care farm including training, preparing their farm, putting legal and business procedures in place, external accreditation and securing long term contracts for clients and how this approach has brought benefits to small family farms across the country. I also learnt about the academic research that has underpinned this work over recent years.

In Ireland, I was informed about Sli Eile, Ireland's first therapeutic residential care farm, and the creation of Kyrie Farm, the second such establishment in the country. I spoke with Helen Doherty from Social Farming Ireland, and Professor Jim Kinsella, University College Dublin, and discovered the history of how social care farming in Ireland has been developed since 2000 and how closely the work with Rural Support Social Farming Northern Ireland.

In my next blog I will introduce you to those I spoke with in Israel, Italy and the USA.

Photograph published by kind permission of Judy Brewer