FAQs

VN Council meetings are held in public and anyone is welcome to attend, providing there is space. Please contact Annette Amato on [email protected] for more information.

However, unfortunately, there is not a VN Council meeting during the candidate nomination period.

Paperwork from past VN Council meetings is available, which will give you an indication of the type of business conducted.

You are welcome to contact the Registrar, Eleanor Ferguson ([email protected]), the CEO, Lizzie Lockett ([email protected]), or the President, Dr Melissa Donald ([email protected]), for more information.

Our Council members tell us that being on Council has broadened their horizons and allowed them to meet people and go places they never would normally have done.

In some cases, it has given them back the buzz about their profession that they enjoyed when they first graduated. They feel good about giving something back to their profession – and often the employers benefit too, from having someone on their team ‘at the heart’ of the governance of the profession.

Council work can also count as CPD if you feel it has helped you meet your development objectives.

Why not watch our video, in which some past Council members talk about why they stood for election, what life is really like on Council, how to juggle Council work and the ‘day job’ and what benefits you can expect to gain.

Regular Council meetings are held in public and any member is welcome to attend, providing there is space. There is one public Council meeting during the nomination period (Thursday, 19 January 2023). Please contact Dawn Wiggins on [email protected] for more information.

Paperwork from past Council meetings will give you an indication of the type of business conducted.

Those considering standing for election first need to secure nomination from two individuals who must be veterinary surgeons registered with the RCVS, but not current Council members.

There is then paperwork for you to fill out, as well as paperwork for your nominees. Both can be found on this webpage, together with guidance notes.

For you, there is a short form, which includes your name, qualifications, registered address, (which must be  included and will be publicly available),  and other contact details (these are optional and you can include to be publicly available if you wish).

You are then asked to include a short (max 200 words) biography and (max 300 words) personal statement.

You also need to send us a high-resolution digital image which will be used both on the RCVS website and on the secure voting website. Both of these will be made accessible to all voters.

Meanwhile your proposers need to complete a form that asks for their name and Register information and you will also need to obtain electronic signatures from both.

The paperwork needs to be submitted to Dawn Wiggins via email on [email protected] at the RCVS by no later than 5pm on 31 January 2023.

Please note that your nomination will require electronic signatures from you and your supporters. The best method would be to scan copies of the physical signatures and save them as electronic picture files (preferably Jpegs). These could then either be added in the relevant section of the nomination form or they could be attached to the email when you submit your paperwork. Either will be accepted.

Those considering standing for election first need to secure nomination from two individuals who must be veterinary nurses registered with the RCVS, but not current VN Council members.

There is then paperwork for you to fill out and sign, and paperwork for your nominees and you to sign. Both can be found at www.rcvs.org.uk/vncouncil22, together with guidance notes.

For you, there is a short form which includes your name, qualifications, address and other contact details.

You are then asked to include a short biography (200 words, maximum) and a personal statement (300 words, maximum).

You also need to send us a high-resolution digital image which will be used both on the RCVS website and on the secure voting website.  Both of these will be made accessible to all voters.

Meanwhile your proposers need to complete a form that asks for their name and Register information, and you will also need to obtain electronic signatures from both.

The paperwork needs to be submitted to Annette Amato via email on [email protected] by no later than 5pm on 31 January 2023.

Practice names are a form of advertising and as such, should comply with Chapter 23 of the supporting guidance to the Code of Conduct as well as any relevant UK advertising codes, including the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (CAP Code).

Practice names that include the titles, ‘vet’, ‘veterinary’, ‘veterinary surgeon’, or ‘veterinary practitioner’ that are to be incorporated at Companies House will first require a letter of non-objection (LONO) from the RCVS. Please see Chapter 23 of the supporting guidance for further information. Failure to present Companies House with a LONO in the above circumstances will result in your application being rejected by Companies House. Please note that LONOs are not required for trading names/unincorporated practice names or practice names that do not include one of the above titles but are to be incorporated at Companies House.

To future proof practice names where there are aspirations to become Practice Standards Scheme (PSS) accredited in the future, the PSS Rules should also be considered. This is because further restrictions might become applicable only at the point of joining the scheme (which could require a name change prior to entering the scheme). Please see FAQ 2 below in relation the use of the titles ‘Hospital’ and ‘Veterinary Hospital’ which further illustrates the importance of considering the future of your practice when choosing a name.

Practice names and all relevant expectations should be considered at the earliest possible opportunity, i.e., at practice inception and before applying to become a registered veterinary practice premises (RVPP), attempting to incorporate at Companies House, and prior to marketing investment.

If you are undertaking a procedure or technique that is likely to be of direct benefit to the individual animal that you are treating, then this is RVP.

For non-food producing animals the following would be considered RVP or CVR (NB this is not an exhaustive list):

1. Taking a series of biopsies for the purpose of diagnosis, or to monitor the efficacy of veterinary treatment (RVP)
2. Taking blood samples to assist in clinical management, e.g. diagnosis, metabolic profile, public health, legislative reasons, notifiable and other diseases (RVP).
3. Giving veterinary treatment to an experimental animal when treatment is for the animal’s benefit (RVP).
4. In the course of testing the safety and efficacy of an unauthorised vaccine in dogs, taking blood samples at the time of first vaccination, prior to second vaccination, post-vaccination course and at the time of the annual booster in order to test the vaccine’s success (CVR, NB - an ATC from the VMD is likely to be required).
5. Using clinical waste for research purposes, e.g. collecting a sample of synovial joint fluid at the time of surgery for routine investigation of a cranial cruciate ligament rupture in a dog, and using any of the excess fluid for a research study (CVR).

For food producing animals the following would be considered RVP or CVR (NB this is a not an exhaustive list):

1. Taking blood samples from an animal or animals within a defined group e.g. herd or flock, to assist in clinical management, e.g. diagnosis, metabolic profile (RVP).
2. Taking blood samples from an animal or animals within a defined group, e.g. herd or flock, to test the efficacy of veterinary treatment (CVR).

A note on blood transfusions

Note that taking blood from healthy donors with the permission of the owner and with the intention of administering the blood or its products to a recipient is routine veterinary practice where there is an immediate or anticipated clinical indication for the transfusion. Such a clinical procedure would be acceptable on the scale of an individual veterinary practice or between other practices in the locality. However, the collection of blood for the preparation of blood products on a larger commercial scale for general therapeutic use in animals may require licences under the ASPA; this larger commercial scale activity would also need to be licensed under the Veterinary Medicines Regulations.

Further, it would generally not be considered routine veterinary practice for sedation to be used to enable the donation of blood from any animal, this is because sedation breaches the Home Office guidelines about the threshold of pain (‘level of pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm equivalent to, or higher than, that caused by inserting a hypodermic needle according to good veterinary practice’), under the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. The exception to this general rule would apply in an emergency, where the donor and recipient animals are both known to the veterinary surgeon and therefore, they are able to make an assessment as to whether the harm caused to the donor animal is outweighed by the benefit to the recipient.

Although veterinary practices are not required to close, in order to meet the most recent government requirements they must ensure they carry out their work safely, whilst maintaining biosecurity and social distancing.

This means reducing the number of face-to-face appointments as much as possible, and some practices may also be able to offer certain veterinary services remotely. 

Please be aware that we do not expect veterinary practices to offer business as usual for the time being.

If your practice is unable to offer certain services remotely, or with social distancing measures, your vet may to decide that a procedure should not go ahead unless there is a real animal health and welfare risk. Even then, they will need to consider any additional risks and the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE).

In light of this, please do not attend your practice unannounced. Please ensure that you call ahead so that your vet can make assess whether you need to attend in person or whether treatment can be delayed or dealt with remotely.

Last updated:  April 2021

The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 state that before prescribing POM-Vs, a veterinary surgeon must carry out a clinical assessment and the animal in question must be under their care.

The VMRs do not define ‘clinical assessment’ and ‘under care’, so it falls to the RCVS to do so via this guidance.