A SENIOR manager from the South Warwickshire based NFU Mutual has been appointed to work on a project set up to help rural charities develop their support service for farming families.

Over the next year Pamela Oldfield will be working with staff and officeholders from four key charities which provide a variety of support services to people in the countryside.

She will be based at the Arthur Rank Centre at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, where a development group has been established to help Farm Crisis Network, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, ARC Addington Fund and the Rural Stress Information Network increase their effectiveness.

"It is apparent that demands on rural support charities have increased significantly as farming goes through a period of structural change and the current delays in delivery of the Single Farm Payments has further added to many farming families' problems," said Sir Don Curry, NFU Mutual chairman.

"As a major rural financial organisation with our roots firmly in farming we have been closely associated with the rural support charities for many years and believe that Pamela's secondment will help them develop even better support for the worryingly high number of farmers and country people with financial and stress problems."

Pamela, whose career at NFU Mutual has spanned over 30 years, has held roles including head of risk management services and head of public relations. She has worked with rural support charities for a number of years as part of NFU Mutual's corporate social responsibility programme.

"I am very pleased to have the opportunity to become directly involved with the rural charities and look forward to working with them for the benefit of the agricultural community," she said.