Memorandum submitted by the Countryside
Stewardship Scheme: Educational Access
Defra's Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS)
makes grants to farmers and other land managers for using environmentally
friendly farming methods to enhance and conserve English landscapes,
their wildlife and history. There is also a scheme option to improve
opportunities for countryside enjoyment, including educational
access visits. Under this option land managers allow use of their
land for learning purposes, and visits to farms can be linked
to National Curriculum subjects, such as:
— using the landscape to stimulate
creative writing and artistic expression;
— mapping, land use and conservation
studies;
— close contact with the farming industry
and the chance to learn about activities such as lambing, harvesting,
and livestock management and how the food we eat comes from the
crops grown or animals reared;
— the relationship between the farming
industry and the countryside, and how Countryside Stewardship
aids conservation, the landscape and the protection of historical
features.
Each educational access site has a Teacher's
Information Pack, which shows how a visit can be used to help
studies in various subjects and where it would fit within the
school curriculum. The pack has been devised in association with
Farming and Countryside Education (FACE). A Farm Facts Leaflet,
with more general details about what the site has to offer, is
provided for other visitor groups. Defra works closely with DfES,
through membership of the Access to Farms partnership (ATF), which
is an umbrella organisation for providers of farm educational
visits.
There are currently around 1,000 CSS educational
access sites in England and payments to agreement holders are
expected to reach £1 million this financial year. Payment
arrangements were reviewed recently and are now based on each
farm visit, up to a maximum of 25 per year. This should encourage
more visits than the previous system, which paid a flat rate per
annum, irrespective of numbers of visits. The total paid in 2003-04
was £800,000. In addition, details of over 450 CSS educational
access sites will shortly be displayed on the DfES "Growing
Schools" website widely used by teachers organising visits.
Agreement holders are being encouraged to participate
in a new accreditation scheme, the Countryside Educational Visits
Accreditation Scheme (CEVAS), provided by ATF. Accreditation is
designed to encourage better uptake of visits by schools and colleges.
CEVAS provides training and accreditation package for individuals
dealing with school farm visits, and includes a health and safety
inspection. Following a successful pilot, the scheme has secured
funding from Defra's Vocational Training Scheme (VTS) until 2006.
Agreement holders are provided with HSE guidance
on farm visits by the public and are required to have appropriate
public liability insurance. They are also encouraged to carry
out appropriate risk assessments, depending on visitor groups.
And agreement holders are encouraged to arrange security vetting
by the Criminal Records Bureau, where this might be appropriate,
for instance to meet the needs of local schools.
CSS educational access details can be found
on the Defra country walks website at http://countrywalks.defra.gov.uk
Although the Countryside Stewardship Scheme
closed to new applicants in 2004, Educational Access will continue
in the new Environmental Stewardship (Higher Level) Scheme, which
is due to replace Countryside Stewardship in 2005.
November 2004
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