A new project led by The Farming Community Network (FCN) will help farmers in England and Wales plan ahead for the future.

FCN’s ‘Time to Plan’ project helps to raise awareness about the importance of forward planning and encourages farmers to prepare for change from both personal and business perspectives.

A lack of medium and long-term business planning and later life planning are contributory factors in many cases that present to FCN each year. This can often lead to increased stress as well as contributing to family relationship issues, financial problems and difficulties in managing the farm in older age.

Jude McCann, FCN CEO, said: “British farming faces an uncertain future, and the need for farmers to plan ahead and know their options is vital. Taking time to plan ahead can help farmers to remain resilient through change – this could include managing the handover between generations, or being prepared for unexpected challenges like Brexit, Covid-19 or serious weather events.

“Time To Plan will see FCN working with a range of industry partners to develop helpful resources about planning ahead which will be available to the farming community through our free FarmWell platform. A core part of FCN’s mission is to help improve farmers’ personal and business resilience, and this project plays a key role in this objective.”

Over the year ahead FCN will be working with industry partners to:

• Connect you with the most relevant sources of information to help you make the best decisions
• Provide tips and insights on developing personal and business resilience
• Help you to plot a successful course for the future of your farm business
• Support you in planning for succession and retirement
• Assist you to look after your own wellbeing and that of your family and staff
• Provide information around working safely and productively
• Link you to help and support if needed

As part of the project, FCN is running an awareness campaign from October 2020 – March 2021.

Each month content will be created in partnership with other organisations focusing on different themes, including: managing through change successfully; planning for the unexpected; diversification; the new post-Brexit support regime; succession planning and retirement; and wellbeing and safety.

In the longer term, FCN will be developing a ‘Planning Toolkit’ to help farming families take positive steps to prepare for the future, building on FCN’s FarmWell (https://farmwell.org.uk/) initiative and FarmWell Wales (https://farmwell.wales/).

To find out more about the project visit: https://farmwell.org.uk/time-to-plan/

FCN is keen to work with industry partners for this project. Please contact [email protected]  if you would like to get involved and share expertise around planning ahead.