Growing Care Farming - our work
The Growing Care Farming (GCF) project was part of the Government Programme for Children & Nature supported by Defra, funded by the Department for Education and managed by Natural England. It was delivered by Social Farms & Gardens, in partnership with Thrive between May 2019 and March 2022.
Care farming is the therapeutic use of farming practices and is sometimes called social farming. Care farming sits amongst other nature-based therapies that are collectively called green care. Green care means structured nature programmes for people with a defined need to benefit health, social care or education outcomes.
The project focused on creating more opportunities for children and adults to benefit from the specialist health, care and educational services provided by care farms.
The GCF project provided:
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Training - care farming and green care training opportunities
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Support and resources - a care farming knowledge base for those new to the sector as well as established care farming and green care providers
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Regional networking - key contacts for local networking and mapping of care farming and green care services
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Quality assurance - recognition of good practice with the Green Care Quality Mark (formerly the care farming Code of Practice)
Evaluation
Read the Growing Care Farming Insight Report, an independent evaluation of the project by the University of Essex.
Our Growing Care Farming Final Report gives a detailed evaluation of the Growing Care Farming project.
Contact us
If you would like to contact us or have any further queries about the project or care farming and green care, please email carefarming@farmgarden.org.uk
Care farming and green care resources
Browse our library of information for those new to the sector as well as established providers.
Care farming and green care training
Find care farming and green care training to get you started or develop your services.
Green care Quality Assurance
Show quality service provision by working towards our Green Care Quality Mark.
