IOSH Approved Managing Safely in Agriculture: what the new course actually offers
Agriculture employs about 1% of the UK workforce and accounts for roughly 21% of worker fatalities.
That is not a Farm Safety Week talking point. It is the day job for people running farms and rural businesses with thin margins, long hours, and very little spare capacity for classroom theory that does not travel well to a yard at 5am.
During Farm Safety Week (20-24 July 2026), IOSH launched IOSH Approved Managing Safely in Agriculture and Rural Industries, a sector-specific Managing Safely course for managers and supervisors. NFU Mutual’s Risk Management Service is supporting the launch with funded places.
Why this matters beyond the launch video
IOSH’s own Farm Safety Week material is blunt: agriculture still carries the highest rate of fatal injury of any industry in Great Britain. HSE figures cited by IOSH for 2025-26 put agriculture, forestry and fishing at 22 deaths and a rate of 8.09 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers, far above other sectors.
IOSH President Richard Bate has made farm safety a presidential priority. His point lands because it matches what people on the ground already know: farmers do not need another reminder that the work is high risk. They need tools that still work when the silage clamp is open and half the team is on overtime.
What the course covers
According to IOSH, the course is built for people with managerial or supervisory responsibility, from larger farming operations through to smaller agricultural businesses. Participants work on:
- identifying workplace hazards and assessing risk
- implementing practical control measures
- understanding legal health and safety responsibilities
- investigating incidents effectively
- monitoring and measuring safety performance
That is the Managing Safely spine, written for agriculture and rural industries rather than a generic workplace with a rural photo on the brochure.
26 free places (deadline 21 August 2026)
NFU Mutual is offering 26 free places through a prize draw. FarmingUK reports entry closes at 11.59pm on Friday 21 August 2026. Course dates at The Grange in Leicestershire are:
- 24-27 November 2026
- 19-22 January 2027
Winners are contacted after the draw and offered a choice of available dates. The free-place entry form is linked from the IOSH announcement.
Awareness is cheap. Capability is not.
Stephanie Berkeley of the Farm Safety Foundation put it cleanly around the launch: there is no shortage of noise on farm safety, and awareness alone does not change behaviour. A four-day course will not fix every pressure on a farm business. It can put a named supervisor in a better position to run risk assessments, investigate near misses, and stop “we’ve always done it this way” becoming the control measure by default.
If you manage people in agriculture or a related rural business, the useful question is simple. Is this the training you would send a supervisor on, or does the industry still need something shorter and closer to the farm gate?
Further reading
- IOSH course announcement: https://iosh.com/news-and-opinion/new-agriculture-safety-course-helps-rural-businesses-build-safer-workplaces
- IOSH Farm Safety Week overview and fatality context: https://iosh.com/news-and-opinion/safer-farms-iosh-calls-for-stronger-safety-action
- Richard Bate, Farm Safety Week opinion: https://iosh.com/news-and-opinion/time-to-break-the-cycle-of-tragedy-this-farm-safety-week
- FarmingUK on free places and 21 August deadline: https://www.farminguk.com/news/twenty-six-free-places-up-for-grabs-on-farm-safety-course_68878.html
- Free place entry form (NFU Mutual / IOSH): https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=Na_ZUEkH0ES5piXp51sCFclPwHu-K8JNjTbUlvnNi_BUNkxKRThJUkVIU0tGSThFWjhBUVNKUENaSC4u&route=shorturl
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