Life looking up down on the farm (From Worcester News)

Life looking up down on the farm

3:20pm Wednesday 17th February 2010

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PLANS to create so-called care farms to give vulnerable people a better life across Worcestershire have received a financial boost.

Care Farming West Midlands (CFWM) has received £400,000 from the Advantage West Midlands Rural Regeneration Zone which is expected to fund up to 20 new care farms in the county.

The zone is part of a project by the regional development agency to create a stronger rural economy.

Care farms are designed to help people with learning disabilities, autism or Asperger syndrome, a history of substance misuse, mental health problems or the long-term unemployed by engaging them in productive activities. These include growing and harvesting crops, cooking produce for lunch or preparing it for sale in a farm shop.

Five farms have already been set up in Worcestershire – The Fold at Brans-ford, near Worcester; Brambles Living at Castlemorton Common, near Malvern; Ninevah Ridge at Bayton between Bewdley and Tenbury Wells; Acton Mill in Suckley; Uncllys in Bewdley and Ashfield Garden, between Stourbridge and Kidderminster.

Peter Luff, MP for Mid-Worcestershire, and Robin Walker, the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Worcester, visited Top Barn, near Worcester, which specialises in helping adults and young people with learning difficulties.

Jon Dover, policy manager at Care Farming West Midlands, said: “Care farms provide a practical combination of meaningful work, a supportive daily structure and connection with other people in a natural and healthy environment which can have a major impact on their rehabilitation.

“Working in a care farm environment gives people a chance to develop something for themselves, improving their skills and health.”

Mr Luff said: “This is a truly inspirational scheme which is doing something really special right here in Worcestershire. Working and learning on real farms, people can get back in touch with nature, developing skills they can use in the outside world.”

“Those with long-term conditions can undertake more fulfilling work than they would ever do in a day care centre while farmers can provide this care and training better and at much lower cost than the more traditional approaches.”

The West Midlands is the first region in the UK to provide investment and structure to develop care farming.

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