Harvesting healthier futures for farmers
Farming is at the heart of North Yorkshire. It shapes the countryside, puts food on the table, and keeps the local economy going. But many farmers face daily pressures that can affect both their physical and mental health.
Long hours, difficult weather, money worries and isolation all play a part. For many, finding time for appointments feels impossible. Travelling long distances makes it harder to reach services. And the stigma around mental health still puts people off asking for support.
Earlier this year, we published the report Ploughing through barriers Ploughing through barriers, which examined these challenges from the perspective of farmers themselves. Since then, things have started to move. From general practice and auction marts to the local council and even Parliament, your voices are being heard.
Putting farmers' voices at the centre of change
Farmers told us that the way health services are currently organised often does not work for them. Taking a day off for an appointment can feel unrealistic, and there is still worry about being judged for speaking up about mental health.
By sharing your stories and experiences, you have helped ensure these issues are now on the agenda. Health and care leaders are listening, and your insights are helping shape services both locally and nationally.
Where your feedback makes a difference
Here’s how your insights are already driving change across the county:
1. Farmers’ walk-in clinics at GP practices
Plans are in place to trial walk-in clinics designed around farmers’ schedules. These pilot sessions will take place at GP practices under the North Riding Primary Care Network (covering the Hambleton North & South and Leyburn Medical Practice). These will be deliberately timed between November and January, when farm workloads ease slightly.
A “farmer’s walk-in clinic” is a session where no prior appointment is required and anyone from the farming community can attend for a health check.
2. Local care in Selby, on the East Coast and beyond
Healthwatch presentations have sparked real action within NHS and social care teams. For example, the Living Well team in Selby trialed bringing healthcare to an auction mart , spotting high blood pressure in a farmer who needed urgent GP care. Other local care partnerships are now exploring initiatives such as walk-in farmer clinics, health checks run by local GP practices at auction marts, and dedicated social prescriber visits, showing how your evidence is directly driving improvement.
A care partnership is when NHS staff, councils and community groups work together locally. The idea is to stop services working on their own and instead make them more joined-up so they can tap into each other’s strengths and resources and avoid duplication.
3. Healthcare at auction marts
Auction marts are the beating heart of farming communities. By trialling health checks run by GP practices and support services at Selby auction mart, shaped by the Healthwatch report and inspired by the work of the Field Nurse charity, healthcare is brought to where farmers already are.
In addition, North Riding Primary Care Network, a group of GP practices working together, have launched a Rural Health Team and, alongside the Farming Community Network, visited Malton auction mart for the first time in October 2025 to deliver health checks.
They plan to return in November and December 2025. Their long-term goal is to build up a regular presence and work together with other agricultural organisations to improve access to primary care within the farming community, they have already received an enquiry from an agricultural company in Malton.
Auction marts aren’t just about selling livestock. They’re places where farmers meet professionally and socially. That makes them a natural place to offer health checks and advice without farmers losing valuable working hours.
Building on this momentum, we are also working with Dr Johnny Ferguson (Lead for Health Inequalities at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) to explore placing nursing posts within auction marts. The Friarage Hospital has agreed in principle to host these roles, and funding and sponsorship are being sought from the National Farmers’ Union, Country Land and Business Association and agricultural feed companies. We will come together on 1 December 2025 to progress these plans.
4. Supporting mental health
Veterinarians and other rural professionals work closely with farming families and often visit during stressful periods. Because of this, they are well placed to notice early changes in behaviour, mood or wellbeing. We are supporting plans to train these professionals to recognise signs and symptoms of mental health concerns and to feel confident starting supportive conversations.
This initiative is being developed with the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, which provides specialist mental health support for the farming community. The aim is to give trusted professionals the knowledge to signpost farmers to help at the earliest opportunity, reducing the risk of issues worsening unnoticed.
5. Training general practices to improve
Healthwatch is working with the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) to offer training sessions for GP practices. The plan is to raise awareness of the barriers to accessing care that farmers face, to highlight what GP practices can do to help break down these barriers and to showcase RABI, a key support organisation that GP practices can signpost patients to. The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution is a farming charity that provides financial help, emotional support and practical guidance to farmers and their families.
We have attended one GP protected learning time session in Selby Vale and will be part of the the Scarborough, Hambleton and Richmondshire sessions this year to support practice staff education around farming.
Raising awareness where it matters
Your feedback has not only shaped local services but also caught the attention of national decision-makers:
Reaching out to visitors at the Great Yorkshire Show
The Great Yorkshire Show is the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s flagship four-day event, attracting around 140,000 visitors in 2025. Healthwatch took part in a panel discussion that put farmer wellbeing centre stage.
The session opened honest conversations about mental health, access to care, and the pressures of farming life. By speaking directly with farmers, families, and healthcare staff in this unique setting, we reached people where they live and work.
The show did more than raise awareness — it helped break down stigma, build understanding, and lay the foundations for stronger support for people across the rural community.
In Parliament
Julian Smith, Member of Parliament for Skipton and Ripon, asked government ministers three formal questions about farming health:
- bringing mobile health services into rural areas
- making general practice appointments more flexible for farmers
- training rural professionals, such as vets, to signpost support
When a Member of Parliament asks a question in Parliament, it means a government minister must respond publicly. This helped push farming health higher up the national agenda.
Ministers recognised the challenges farmers face and pointed to existing schemes, including the Farmer Welfare Grant and mental health training for agricultural communities.
Read more - Healthwatch volunteer action lead to parliamentary response
With the Yorkshire Agricultural Society
The Society has taken your report into its Rural Support Network steering group, using it both to set priorities and to strengthen funding bids for frontline services. This means your evidence is not just informing plans but unlocking the resources needed to deliver change on the ground.
With North Yorkshire Council
The experiences of farmers, alongside Healthwatch recommendations, are shaping something called the Rural Health Needs Assessment, which identifies the specific health, wellbeing, and social support needs of communities in rural areas of the county. The result is that farmers’ voices are influencing long-term planning for rural services, ensuring that issues such as access, isolation, and tailored GP support are built into plans - not left to chance.
Healthwatch also presented findings at the North Yorkshire Scrutiny of Health Committee (Health and Wellbeing Board) about farmers’ health to councilors, who acknowledged the seriousness of the challenges farmers face and gave their backing to continued action to break down barriers to healthcare in rural communities. Their support means farmer wellbeing is now firmly on the council’s agenda, creating opportunities to influence how healthcare services are planned, funded and run.
Speaking up for farmers
Healthwatch shared the Ploughing through barriers report at discussion and planning groups across North Yorkshire, ensuring farming communities stay at the forefront of rural healthcare planning.
It has helped:
North Yorkshire Council’s suicide prevention group
Your input has helped bring the unique challenges of isolation and farming life into a countywide suicide prevention plan. This ensures that rural mental health is not treated as an afterthought but embedded wider plans. It also opens doors to training opportunities (such as protected learning time sessions for doctors) so frontline staff can better recognise and respond to farmers’ needs.
Rural Services Network’s national seminar
Sharing North Yorkshire’s learning on a national stage means shaping the rural health conversation and helping reach more people in England. Attendees at the event included rural health leaders and those making decisions about your health, giving your recommendations a platform to improve healthcare across other farming locations, such as Derbyshire.
What happens next?
This is only the beginning. Farmers have spoken up, and services are beginning to change, but more needs to be done. Over the next year we will:
- Keep pushing for more flexible healthcare services, like walk-in clinics and health checks at events where farmers go (such as auction marts and young farmers’ events).
- Continue working with North Yorkshire Council and health leaders so rural voices are part of every major plan.
- Make sure farming families are included in mental health and suicide prevention work.
- Share what North Yorkshire farmers are saying at a national level so change reaches beyond our county.
North Yorkshire’s farmers keep our countryside alive. Your voices are now shaping how health and support services are planned and delivered, making sure services for farmers are no longer an afterthought but a priority.
Healthwatch exists to make care better for everyone. This impact is one step closer to that.
Next steps and new partnerships
We are working with a doctor land lead for health inequalities at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to explore:
- Getting nurses into auction marts – the Friarage Hospital has agreed in principle to host these posts. We are now seeking funding and sponsorship from the National Farmers’ Union, the Country Land and Business Association, and agricultural feed companies.
- Training vets and other rural professionals to recognise signs and symptoms of mental health issues, with support from the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution
A meeting on 1 December 2025 will bring partners together to move this work forward.
Rural cancer awareness
We are also part of the Humber and North Yorkshire Rural Cancer Working Group, which focuses on cancer awareness, NHS screening, diagnosis and treatment in rural areas.
deas under discussion include introducing cancer champions into auction marts and training vets and other rural professionals on cancer awareness - similar to our mental-health training. There is potential funding within the Humber and North Yorkshire Cancer Alliance to pilot some of these things.
