can be improved

HOW FARM SAFETY CAN BE IMPROVED

JAMES CHAPMAN 2016 NUFFIELD SCHOLAR

In 2005 I lost my left arm to an unguarded PTO shaft, the ensuing few months were taken up with visits to hospitals for physical and mental repairs which although not ideal, did at least give me something to do. Soon after I became heavily involved in the Young Farmers Club (YFC) both at a county level and at national level.

It was during my time with the National Federation of Young Farmers that I became involved with HSE to help promote farm safety. Put basically it was don’t do what I did kind of thing, but, soon I was being asked to do talks on the subject. Mostly I would relive the day I lost my arm, revelling in the gory details, hoping to turn a few people green, whilst slipping in the odd bit of humour to lighten the mood. However, I began to find people asking questions about keeping safe on farm and if there was anything that was being done better elsewhere. But that was a question I couldn’t answer. By chance I was approached by a previous scholar who suggested that maybe I should apply for a Nuffield, which I did. The scholarship enabled me to get a wider view of the problems we face in agriculture but also realised that the problems we have in the UK are exactly the same around the world. Annoyingly nobody has fixed it completely. However I managed to find some great individual work being done to improve safety so hopefully my report has helped bring some of those ideas together.

Since completing my scholarship I’ve been made a trustee for the Farm Safety Foundation where I’m able to use my learnings to help shape the direction of a fantastic charity. Having a Nuffield behind me has also given me a bigger platform to get my message out to farmers around the country and most importantly I’ve been able to influence several Nuffield year groups at the start of their journeys which has hopefully helped keep them safe but also opened their eyes to the issue and hopefully they can use their influence as Nuffield scholars to help promote safety on farms, giving me way more impact than just one voice.

Nuffield has given me much more than I set out to achieve from life long friendships to a greater perspective of national and international agriculture. The farm business I work on has changed as a direct result of Nuffield which has nothing to do with my topic but due to being exposed to some of the best farmers from around the world.

On top of all this its also been a lot of fun!