BACKGROUND TO HEALTH & SAFETY QUALIFICATION

LEVEL 3 in Agriculture/Horticulture CONTROLLING RISKS

Why

Life for these qualifications started in 2000 in response to the government's campaign called "Revitalising Health and Safety". This pinpointed agriculture as a priority area, because of the high death rate among workers - both among supervised workers and self employed farmers.

Who

The idea came from the then "Health in Agriculture" Committee of AIAC, which consists of farmers, farmworkers and inspectors, along with various other public bodies. They decided that it would be very useful if we could "build the capacity" of people on the land to be able to control risks better. farms are full of hazards - biolgocial (like skin allergies or Weil's Disease), physical - like muscle - bond disorders, and checmical - like pesticides. And then the are further hazards from the climate and geography of the area. If people know more about the hazards and how to deal with them, then they should be able to make farms and small holdings safer places to work. This was seen as a useful additon to - rather than replacement of, inspection - whether by HSE inspectors or staff representatives.

What

Throughout it was recognised that these qualifications were not about throwing legal information at the issues but working out a "Who should do what" - that leads to the development of skills. The TGWU farmworkers Union (now part of UNITE) and the National Farmers Union (NFU) discussed what roles and responsibilities should be allocated to various levels of people who work on farms or holdings. Where there were differences of opinion, these were sorted by agreeing who would be expected to do what. This lead to a dyanmic model where there was communication between managers and workers going two ways, via the supervisors/skilled/union workers. To help determine who should do what, the Committee used the National Occupational Standards produced by ENTO (2007 version pdf) . These Standards were designed for larger workplaces, but nevertheless were very useful in providng an organisational framework for determining the skills required. At the end a "Strategic Agreement" was produced between the two sides of industry. For more on the "Strategic Agreement" and how it was decided who did what..click "Farm Footsteps"

How

The HSE Committee called in the support of various other agencies - particularly Awarding Bodies, Sector Skills Councils & QCA to help flesh out how to define the skills previously identified, in a way that could be checked through recognised procedures of vocational learning. only such courses can be funded through government funding mechanisms. When applying for funding, it is also necessary to explain how these qualifications go beyond the minumim requirements fo the law, to develop the sorts of skills that will become increasingly critical in the future.