We know that many members of the Society have been affected by the very difficult situation which emerged from the SFI26 application window. The Society is working hard on your behalf and has already had an initial meeting with Defra staff to explain the impact of Tuesday’s events on farmers, farm managers, consultants and administrators personally, as well as on their businesses. We will follow this up with further meetings to get the message across that future SFI applications must be managed differently.
If you or those you work with have found this particularly difficult, do please know that you are not alone and that support is available:
- The Farming Community Network (https://fcn.org.uk/) helpline is open from 7am to 11pm on 03000 111 999 or you can email them at help@fcn.org.uk.
- RABI’s helpline is available 24 hours a day on 0800 188 444 or by email to help@rabi.org.uk. Online advice is available at https://rabi.org.uk/how-we-can-help/.
- The NFU website has a directory of organisations which offer support for mental health and wellbeing: https://www.nfuonline.com/news/find-wellbeing-support-in-your-area/
Please do continue to share your views and experience with us so that we can feed these into our ongoing conversations with Defra.