Care Farming
Overview
Care farming is the therapeutic use of farming practices. It is a relatively small movement in the UK at the moment, but interest is growing at a rapid rate as more people recognise that farms and farming are capable of providing social inclusion, education, rehabilitation, therapy and skills training for a range of disadvantage or marginalised people.
Due to its embryonic nature, there is no single standard model or programme for care farming. However, most client groups tend to be either people with learning difficulties, those recovering from addiction, young offenders and people with mental health needs.
Referrals are made by organisations working in education and skills, health and social care and criminal justice. Clients can also be self-referred as part of the direct payments scheme or be referred by family members.
Emerging Trend
The growth of care farming itself in the UK is the trend here. Most noticeable is the creation of the National Care Farming Initiative, which was set up in 2005 to:
- Raise the profile of care farming
- Develop policies and actions that will support UK care farming
- Create networking opportunities among care farms
- Provide information to existing and prospective care farms as well as commissioning organisations and researchers.
NCFI has become increasingly prominent over the last two years, as the interest in care farming grows and practitioners look for support and advice. The creation of NCFI was a recognition that care farm providers can feel isolated and the lack of a national network meant that many were missing out on the benefits of collaborative action (e.g. marketing, training, service access, etc.), mutual support and political impact.
There are also a number of recently-formed regional organisations, with links to NCFI, such as Care Farming Scotland, Care Farming West Midlands and the East Anglia Care Farming Group who are helping to promote and support care farmers in their areas. There are also plans to create a care farming group for Wales (see NCFI website for details)
Examples & Case Studies
The National Care Farming Initiative website has a number of downloadable case studies available to read at:
www.ncfi.org.uk/case-studies.aspx
Videos about selected care farms are available to watch via: www.ncfi.org.uk/videos.aspx
More Information
National Care Farming Initiative
The National Care Farming Initiative website has a wide range of resources and information available to anyone running a care farm, commissioners, users, researchers, funders and policy makers. Care farms that join NCFI via its website will have their farm displayed on an online map and others can sign up for newsletters and bulletins. NCFI is on Twitter.
Contact NCFI on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
For European information the best place to visit is the Farming for Health website which has video links and other information about green care farms all across Europe.
Alternatively take a look at the website for COST Action 866 in Green Care and Agriculture.
Publications
Farming & Care Across Europe - A Nuffield Scholarship Report
A study undertaken by Debbie Wilcox, NCFI Network Coordinator, looking at the development of care farming and the issues facing care farmers across a number of European countries. You can download the whole report using the link below:
Other publications and research documents are available via the Resources pages of the NCFI website
