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Mark has urged the Government to encourage the growth of care
farming.
Today (Nov 24th) Mark led a Parliamentary debate on care farming
which is defined as "combining care of the land with care of
people". This means that areas such as farms, woodlands and market
gardens are used to tackle social issues and provide care for
people with learning or social difficulties.
Research by the University of Essex has revealed that care
farming is a viable solution to address increasing
pressures on the health sector and social care providers, offender
management services and educational bodies as well as ensuring the
economic viability of farms.
But there are only around 80 farms in the UK at the moment compared
to much larger numbers in other European counties like the
Netherlands where there are around 600.
There is also problems over funding. According to research
conducted in January 2008 by the University of Essex , fees charged
by the farms vary from £25 to £100 a day. And funding streams are
ad-hoc. The research showed that 49 per cent of farms receive funds
from charitable trusts and 33 per cent get cash from the local
authority. Thirty-eight per cent get funding from other sources
like the lottery.
The National Care Farming Initiative (NCFI) was started in 2006, to
promote care farming across the UK.
Mark, who was alerted to this issue by constituent Roger Hosking
who runs a care farm in Etwall, called for more recognition of what
care farming can offer, more analysis of the outcomes of care
delivered this way and simplified referral procedures.
He said:"Care farms vary widely both in the kinds of farming they
do and the types of care they offer. So there's no set model. But
as relatively small activities they often struggle both to comply
with the bureaucratic demands of public agencies and with
communicating the work they do. The evidence is that the
combination of open-air settings, practical tasks, team working and
strong value systems produce big benefits in self-esteem, behaviour
and basic skills. Elsewhere in Europe there has been strong
recognition of care farming's benefits. Nobody seeks big subsidies.
We simply need better communication and simpler systems to
facilitate care contracts."
For more information visit the NCFI website
(www.ncfi.org.uk) which also has details of the research quoted
in this article.
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Nov 24 - Mark leads debate on care farming