The RPA Podcast

The RPA Podcast - Episode 10

• RPA • Season 1 • Episode 10

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Welcome to the tenth episode of The RPA Podcast. In our latest episode, we have a roundtable discussion with RPA’s senior customer leadership team: ‘Inside the RPA: Leadership and Vision’.  And in our second part, we bring you an interview with the Farming Advice Service (FAS) to give you more information on their new partnership with Catchment Sensitive Farming.

RPA senior leaders Marie Hardeman, RPA’s Customer Director, Emily Edwards, Head of Customer Insight and Gareth Jones, Head of Customer Experience engage in a discussion about how they’re working to improve customer service and how listening to, and understanding customers, are the pillars for improving the customer journey and satisfaction.  

In our second section, we speak with Laura Harpham from the Farming Advice Service (FAS) about their services and their new partnership with Catchment Sensitive Farming. The FAS is a national network of qualified, independent advisers under contract to Defra who provide free and confidential government advice to farmers and farming industry advisers. 

The Podcast is also an opportunity for RPA to engage with farmers and land managers, and we encourage you to reach out to us with suggestions of particular topics that you’d like us to cover with our subject experts. You can e-mail us at External.Affairs@rpa.gov.uk

Follow us on social media for the latest updates and information on the following accounts:

By following and subscribing to our social channels and blog, you’ll be able to see the latest updates about important information. 

The RPA Podcast is an opportunity to engage with farmers and land managers in a new way, and we encourage you to reach out to us with suggestions of particular topics that you’d like us to cover with our subject experts. You can e-mail us at External.Affairs@rpa.gov.uk.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates and information on the following accounts.

By following and subscribing to our social channels and blog, you’ll be able to see the latest updates about important information.

The RPA Podcast: Episode 10

Caroline Ling: Hello and welcome to the tenth episode of The RPA Podcast. I’m Caroline Ling and in today’s programme we feature a roundtable discussion with senior members of RPA’s Customer Directorate discussing all things customer service.

 And in the second part of the podcast we have special interview with the Farming Advice Service talking about their new partnership with Catchment Sensitive Farming to provide farmers with free, confidential advice and guidance in one place.

But first, we bring you a special interview discussion between RPA’s Customer Director Marie Hardeman, Head of Customer Experience Gareth Jones and Head of Customer Insight Emily Edwards. In this item on the podcast, Marie chats with Gareth and Emily, two new members of her leadership team about their roles and plans for customer service. 

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Item 1: Customer discussion with Marie Hardeman, Gareth Jones and Emily Edwards.

Marie: Our role at Rural Payments Agency is to make it as easy as possible for customers to access policy, to access funding. How do we make it easy for them to access it? How do we make it easy for them to use that funding on their farms or on their land? And then once they are, what are those interactions like through the life cycle of whether it's an agreement or maybe a scheme? It could be a one-off grant, but how do we make it easy? 

Emily: Yes, and I think all of that comes together in terms of my team and my role with the insights in that we find all of that out, via that insight. So, for us, it's about having a look at all of that varied, but robust insight and information that we have across the organisation.

Finding out new things, but also looking at the information and the data that we already hold. Pulling all of that together and really understanding what the customer is telling us. Finding out what really will help and support them, allow them to do the things that they need to do and ultimately get the funding that they need to do the things that they really want to do and enjoy doing.

This is their livelihood. This is what they love to do day in, day out. We need to support them and help them by doing that. And we will only do that in the best way we possibly can by understanding really what it is that they need from us to allow them to do that.

Marie: So it's really important that we take that customer insight to help our agency, to deliver for our customers. It is important that we understand what customers want. Now, our customers will also be keen for us to listen and learn and feed back to policy. And that's another part of our role: how do we understand customer requirements so that we as an agency can support our wider DEFRA colleagues in creating policies that work?

Gareth: Yes absolutely. And then we recognise that. Not every customer is the same. We've got a really diverse set of customers. From sheep farmers in upland farms that have got an element of common land, to huge, big arable farms. Massive agricultural businesses. Different things.

But at the moment we sort of offer a one size fits all solution. And so how do we look at our offering and change it slightly for different customer groups so that we make sure that we really benefit as many groups as we can.

Marie: There's been such a shift across the agency. If you think that our role for a long, long time has been to deliver EU funded schemes, and now we're delivering domestically funded schemes. There's more flexibility for our farmers, but with that means there's maybe more questions and they need more support.

We no longer have inspections. So, our field officers are going out to support customers. How can we help you get things right? How can we help you meet the terms of your agreement? You know, if you've signed up to do things, how can we guide you to do that? You, as the farmer or the landowner, know your land and your business model better than us.

You know how you're going to get there to deliver those outcomes, but you might need some support on the way. And it's how do we, as an agency now, structure ourselves as a business, so that the insight that you're gathering and how we're hearing from our customers, how do we make that powerful for our colleagues so they can do brilliant jobs?

So I think it's really valuable for us being out today. I'm so glad you guys have been able to get out because I think we don't want to make decisions just sat in meeting rooms. We're civil servants, we're in offices, we need to be there, but we also need to get out in the field and learn more about our customers. So days like today are really important to our customers and to our business. 

Emily: Yeah, and it's actually been really great coming along. It's the first show that I personally have been to and the amount that you can take and learn from that is just incredible. People have been so helpful and they've even invited us to their farms or to their businesses to come along and really get that on-the-ground feel and feedback of what it is that they do.

Marie: And it's important we take that back. It's so important that we take that learning back to colleagues across the agency. So, it's all about learning today, isn't it? Watching our farmers in action, understanding the reality of what they're up against. You learn so much more about that at places like here today.

Emily: When you're on the ground, you're in their environment. And you're talking to them about the things that they love, and that's where you get that true sense of meaning and understanding from them about what it is that we can do to help and support them. With that, when we talk about the voice of the customer, that's where it's really important to where we can make a massive difference and take a lot from that and learn from that.

Item 2: The Farming Advice Service partnership with Catchment Sensitive Farming to provide farmers with free, confidential advice and guidance in one place. 

Caroline: Today we have a special guest on the podcast from the Farming Advice Service. We’re joined by Laura Harpham who is the programme manager for the Farming Advice Service. Welcome Laura.

Laura: Thanks very much Caroline, it’s good to be here.

Caroline: Laura, before you tell us about the partnership with Catchment Sensitive Farming, could you tell our listeners a little bit about what the Farming Advice Service does? 

Laura: Yes of course. The Farming Advice Service has been running for 20 years though not always under that name, and I’ll sometimes refer to it as FAS; it was originally set up by Defra when we were still part of the European Union to provide guidance and support to farmers and land managers on the rules that they had to follow to as part of cross-compliance to receive basic payments scheme payments and their predecessors as well as other government-funded schemes. 

Now we are out of the European Union and farmers in England are no longer subject to cross compliance as it applied to the basic payment scheme. However. the underlying laws that underwrite the rules and requirements are still there and so there are still rules that farmers and land managers need to follow in order to protect people, livestock and the environment and we are still here to help people understand those requirements. 

Of course, the policy landscape and the way in which support is available to farmers and land managers has also changed quite a bit since Brexit and FAS now has an increased scope to provide guidance, support and sign-posting to the various different funding opportunities that are open to farmers to support them through the agricultural transition. One of the key areas for that is the Sustainable Farming Incentive so I’ve joined you today to talk a little bit about the support the Farming Advice Service can offer and, as you say, also the new partnership with Catchment Sensitive Farming. We are working closely with that team to join up some of the support and make it easier for people to get the advice and guidance that they need.

Caroline: That’s very helpful, thanks Laura. It might also be helpful for you to briefly explain for those listeners who haven’t come across them, what Catchment Sensitive Farming do?

Laura: Absolutely. We’re really pleased to be working with Catchment Sensitive Farming because essentially they do another version of what the Farming Advice Service does, which is provide a government funded support system to help farmers to navigate the rules and access funding and support to comply with those rules. They also work closely with farmers to ensure that their farm business is operating in a way which is most efficient and resilient from a business perspective as well as doing the best possible job for protecting, and in many ways promoting, environmental services on the land on which it operates. Catchment Sensitive Farming have teams across England and they’re locally-based so they have a really good understanding of different challenges across the country. They provide that locally informed, confidential on-farm advice to help people with decisions around all sorts of things; soil management, nutrients, slurry and manure management, ammonia emissions, farm infrastructure, pesticide handling and water resources. Because they have a good understanding of local environmental priorities they’re able to help people to maximise the benefits of any changes they’re making. They do also have a role in supporting applications for Countryside Stewardship and the new Sustainable Farming Incentive options and because our new scope also includes advice on that we’re really happy to be working so closely with them.

Caroline: It sounds like a really sensible pairing. Can you tell us how that will work? I believe you have a new website as well?

Laura: Yes, the partnership will allow us toprovide farmers with free, confidential advice and guidance in one place. At the moment Catchment Sensitive Farming have some information hosted on the gov.uk pages but we have worked with them to build a new section of the FAS website – farmingadviceservice.org.uk – to host more of the content; events, contact details and the online and printed resources in a more user-friendly, accessible way. We’re also working closely with their team as we progress through the agricultural transition so we can understand what guidance messages they need to get out to farming audiences. That way we can use the FAS website, newsletter, webinars, podcasts, social media, all of our resources to help share those messages with people who need to know. We can also feed in to them from the queries that we get through our helpline - by email telephone or the online chat function - to help them understand what people might need more help and support getting to grips with. 

Caroline: And what else is new about the website?

Laura:  It’s not a total overhaul, but in addition to the Catchment Sensitive Farming content we’ve done an update and a refresh to make it easier for people to find what they’re looking for. For example it has improved functionality so that people can better access information and guidance by topics:

·         Livestock

·         Arable

·         Soils

·         Air and Water Quality

·         Rules and Regulations

·         and Funding and Support

And of course, as I mentioned, the Farming Advice Service helpline can now also support farmers and land managers in navigating the guidance on the Sustainable Farming Incentive, as well as other government funded schemes and grants. The RPA will still be the go to team for some questions, but we can help point people in the right direction and access the wealth of information already on line.

Caroline: That’s brilliant. And how can people get in touch with the Farming Advice Service?

Laura: There are a number of ways, people can phone us on  03000 200 301 or email us at advice@farmingadviceservice.org.uk or if you prefer you could have an online chat with us at www.farmingadviceservice.org.uk and you can also speak to members of the Farming Advice Service team at a range of farming industry events.

Caroline: That’s been really informative Laura, thanks so much for joining us. So, that’s all we’ve got time for today. Thank you to all our participants, and thank you once again for listening. We’ll be back very soon with the next episode of the podcast to keep you updated on developments at the RPA. We’re always happy to receive your questions and suggestions. So, if you’d like us to cover a particular topic or issue with our subject experts, please get in touch. You can e-mail us at External.Affairs@rpa.gov.uk, or you can follow us on X - @Ruralpay - or follow the Rural Payments Agency on Facebook. Goodbye.

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