FAQs

You can disclose a new caution, conviction or absolute and conditional discharge online in the ‘My Account’ area as part of your annual renewal. You will be asked to provide supporting documentation, where relevant. Alternatively, you can notify the Professional Conduct Department, using the details below. Either way a member of the Professional Conduct Department will contact you following the disclosure of a conviction, to confirm they have received it.

For further information on disclosing a new conviction, please contact the Professional Conduct Department directly on 020 3821 1142 or [email protected]

If you want to start practising (subject to certain conditions) ahead of the conferment of your degree and full registration with the RCVS, you can apply for temporary registration.

To meet the criteria you must:

• be a graduand from Cambridge or Glasgow
• have passed your final exams
• have completed all the requirements for a recognised UK veterinary degree. 

Further information about this type of registration and how to apply can be found on the Temporary Registration page.

Yes; all practice premises from which medicines are supplied must be registered with the RCVS.

Premises likely to be considered as ‘veterinary practice premises’ by the RCVS and the VMD are those

• from which the veterinary surgeons of a practice provide veterinary services; and/or, 
• advertised or promoted as premises of a veterinary practice; and/or, 
• open to members of the public to bring animals for veterinary treatment and care; and/or, 
• not open to the public, but which are the base from which a veterinary surgeon practises or provides veterinary services to more than one client; and/or, 
• to which medicines have been and/or will continue to be delivered wholesale, on the authority of one or more veterinary surgeons in practice, even if those medicines have not yet been used or have only been used on your own animals or those of family and/or friends

This is not an exhaustive list of premises that may be considered as veterinary practice premises.

The charity/business premises may be veterinary practice premises, if, for example:

1. the premises are open to members of the public to bring animals for veterinary treatment and care (i.e. the animals are not owned by the charity/business)
2. the premises are used as a base to provide veterinary services to other clients
3. drugs are delivered and/or supplied from the premises and stored there overnight.

New members who have less than 18 months of significant work experience as a veterinary graduate will be expected to enrol in the VetGDP. 

The PDP is not simply a matter of filling in case numbers, it is much more than this. To get the most out of the PDP, the graduate should review their progress continually, making a conscious effort to fine-tune their skills, reflect and learn from experience. The PDP system is there to encourage them to think about what they are doing so they can build on their successes and learn from their mistakes.

Employers can help graduates by encouraging them to keep their records up to date. Reference to their skills log can be used to structure any appraisal discussion, and can provide an idea of the balance of the experience they are getting. (The graduate can share a non-editable page of any part of their PDP and CPD record with a third party by sending them a link by email.) If they are short on experience in some areas, employers could look at switching rotas to provide exposure to a different range of cases.

Employers may also want to consider letting them see practice elsewhere for a short period if this would help to broaden the range of cases they see. This could be a valuable adjunct to their CPD. If graduates are having difficulty with some procedures, employers should try to be supportive and provide opportunities for more practice in carrying these out. One approach might be for them to have additional supervision until they are confident in these procedures. The list of  PDP Competences provides a guide to areas where graduates may need further training, perhaps by attending some external courses, or by further reading. General professional competences such as communication skills, or practice and business management, are also important and should not be overlooked. 

1CPD has been developed in consultation with the profession to support your CPD in the most intuitive way possible. It includes features such as voice recording and image uploads which helps support planning and reflecting on your CPD.

We strongly encourage you to use it; it will become mandatory from January 2022. 

1CPD data is secured using industry-standard mechanisms. All data is encrypted at rest and in transit. Access to RCVS servers and databases is restricted to specific members of staff, and firewalls restrict traffic appropriately.

Overseas vets coming to work in the UK should participate in the VetGDP if they have less than 18 months experience in a role similar to that which they will be undertaking when starting work in the UK. This includes all roles for which the graduate needs to be MRCVS.