The Government has asked the Forum for Rural Children and Young People, which is based at the NCB's London headquarters, to bring together information and impressions of the challenges health authorities in affected rural areas are facing regarding children.
The forum has written to 25 health authorities in England to assess what additional resources are needed to help children, who have perhaps witnessed the culling of animals, or whose family livelihood is threatened through the stressful epidemic.
The forum's co-ordinator, Andrew Brown, said the crisis was not only having an economic impact on farming and rural tourism but was also having social consequences. He added, 'We want to highlight the distress children in farming communities are suffering and make sure health authorities also regard it as an important issue.
'We have no firm evidence but it is common sense to say that if young children are seeing piles of carcasses, or their parents' distress because their livelihood has been destroyed, it is highly likely that there is a lot of stress in families.
'It is not just health authorities that can help. Staff in schools and nurseries will be able to see the first signs of emotional problems in children. They have got a part to play in supporting children and making sure the appropriate people in local authorities and health authorities are informed.'
The Government has also responded to the concerns of schools in affected areas about the impact of the foot and mouth crisis on published results. Last week David Blunkett said education performance tables would give a clear indication of which schools were in areas directly affected by the outbreak.
The education and employment secretary added, 'All but a handful of schools have kept running throughout the outbreak, but there are some pupils who have been unable to leave family farms - and may not be able to do so for key stage tests.
In such exceptional circumstances, I think it is right that such pupils are not counted against a school's performance.
'Headteachers have also been worried about the impact on pupils' performance due to prolonged absence from school, as well as the stress and trauma resulting from the outbreak.
'There will therefore be a clear indication in this year's performance tables to highlight those schools which, by agreement with their local education authority, have been affected by the foot and mouth outbreak.'