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Care Farming

I shall come to that point in a moment. What my hon. Friend has described tonight could be taken as a simple manifesto for the development of care farms. He has made some reasonable requests, including collaboration between Departments and recognition of the therapeutic benefits. Those measures do not cost money, but the will to carry them forward is necessary. He mentions assistance with regulatory burdens, and I listened to his description of the impact on the farm that we have been discussing this evening. I also take seriously his comments about a rational approach to risk in the care of young people, and he makes a good point. I have a suggestion for my hon. Friend on the issue of funding which he may wish to take up. We cannot escape the fact that care farms need to be run as sustainable businesses, with their customers—whether local authorities or primary care trusts—purchasing the services as an integrated part of their provision for people with disabilities or other mental or social needs. I believe that set-up funding may be available from DEFRA through the rural development programme for England, but for their long-term sustainability care farms should be funded through the mainstream budgets for people with disabilities or other mental or social needs. It would be easy for me, as Minister of State with responsibility for farming, to stand here and commit other people's budgets, so I will not do that, but if the care farm practitioner steering group wishes to come to discuss some of its ideas with me, I would be happy to meet it. I know that its members recognise that care farms need to be run as viable businesses, but there may be things that we can do across government, engaging colleagues in the Home Office and the Department of Health in a way that might help to achieve those obvious benefits without a great deal of investment.