Clarity, compassion, courage and confidence: the future of the RCVS into 2024

When our Strategic Plan for 2020-24 was approved in late January, I don’t think anyone could have predicted the turn of events that would hit us just a few months later. While the coronavirus pandemic has had a massive impact on us as an organisation, as it has the whole of the profession, and has somewhat shaken up our priorities, much of what was in the Strategic Plan was about how the RCVS as an organisation works.

It is in times of crisis that an organisation’s values shine through, and we have never been prouder of how we do things, as evidenced by the incredible quality and quantity of work our staff, Council and VN Council members have put in to mitigate the impact of the virus on animal health and welfare and the veterinary team.

While our Strategic Plan does have specific targets to meet and projects to undertake, a great deal of it is about the culture of the organisation summed up neatly by our four Cs: clarity, compassion, courage and confidence, and all of these have been in evidence in terms of our approach to the pandemic.

In the extraordinary times we’ve been living through, our staff and our Council members have been living up to these behaviours brilliantly.

We have recognised with compassion the issues that are affecting the veterinary professions and animal owners; we have had the courage to take agile decisions in response to the circumstances in which we find ourselves; we have confidence that we will be able to adapt our working practices to support these choices, and we have striven to provide clarity to the professions in the midst of rapidly changing circumstances.

So that’s the situation we are currently in, but now to the aspirations of the Plan itself. In January, the plan received RCVS Council’s seal of approval and, notwithstanding the aforementioned disruption, we are starting to map out our key initiatives for the next five years in order to achieve our vision:

“That the RCVS will be recognised as a trusted, compassionate and proactive regulator, and a supportive and ambitious Royal College, underpinning confident veterinary professionals of which the UK can be proud.”

The Strategic Plan addresses what kind of regulator and Royal College we want to be, our place in the world, and how we can continue to remain relevant and ambitious. It looks at the future of the RCVS as an organisation working on behalf of all its stakeholders - taking into account the future direction and needs of the professions, of the public, and of animal owners, whilst simultaneously focusing on animal and public health and welfare.

Covering five years, the plan covers a longer time-span than previous iterations. This is to give us increased scope for broader objectives that can be supported by more agile operating plans and allows for flexible phasing of activities. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic and its long-term impacts, this was also a rather fortuitous decision!

As previously stated, this Strategic Plan is based around four overarching ambitions: Clarity, Compassion, Courage and Confidence. In the rest of this blog I will be unpacking what these four ambitions means to us and the future of the veterinary professions.

Clarity

As we work within a complex legislative and regulatory framework, we will continue to strive to simplify, unpick and modernise what we do in order to remain relevant.

In this ambition we commit to continuing to review the legislative and regulatory landscape to ensure the College keeps pace with, and stays ahead of, other sectors – and also aim to anticipate the needs of both society and the vet-led team.

Some specific actions under this ambition include:

• Continuing to review the regulatory landscape to ensure we develop world-leading, robust standards and approaches that are grounded in evidence.
• Reviewing whether the College can take a more proactive role around breaches of the Veterinary Surgeons Act, particularly involving unqualified individuals.
• Working with our partners overseas to ensure that the UK remains relevant in the veterinary world post-EU exit, ensuring there is a global element to all that we do, and working to support our international members to feel engaged and included.

Compassion

Under this ambition the RCVS recognises that, while our complaints process can lead to stress and anxiety for members of the professions, we can take a more compassionate approach to regulation by treating everyone as individuals, communicating promptly, explaining appropriately, and being fair. This compassionate approach also looks at how we can support members of the veterinary team to work to the best of their abilities.

Some specific actions under this ambition include:

• Enabling our teams to deliver compassionate regulation by providing structures, training and support to ensure they can help vets and nurses meet standards.
• Reviewing our concerns process through the eyes of each of our stakeholder and service-user groups to ensure that it is fair, forward-thinking and compassionate.
• Helping our regulated professionals meet the standards expected of them by their peers, the public and society at large by launching the RCVS Academy - housing a range of online educational tools.
• Continuing to support the mental wellbeing of veterinary team members through the Mind Matters Initiative.

Courage

In the face of changes in society, veterinary science and technology, it’s important for the RCVS to have the courage to help take the veterinary professions forward. Under this ambition, the RCVS will continue to take a leadership role within the professions and consider how it can ensure the professional culture is healthy, sustainable, inclusive, innovative and respectful.

Some specific actions under this ambition include:

• Continuing to seek culture change within the wider professions around help-seeking behaviour to support both mental and physical health, learning culture, leadership, innovation, sustainability and diversity.
• Ensuring a pathway for career progression for vets and nurses via postgraduate/post-qualification accreditations.
• Working with other stakeholders to retain skills and talent within the professions by developing return-to-work options that build confidence in those who have had a career break.
• Developing extra-mural studies (EMS) and work experience opportunities at the College.
• Continuing to develop the Fellowship into a learned society that reflects the varied achievements of the veterinary profession.

Confidence

This ambition recognises that the RCVS can only deliver on its plans if it has the right systems, skills and capacity in terms of its staffing, finance, IT and communications. Ambition is all well and good, but without these vital underpinnings, we will not have the confidence to succeed.

Some specific actions under this ambition include:

• Collating and reviewing our member and service-user feedback on an ongoing basis – working with RCVS Knowledge to employ a quality improvement and innovation methodology.
• Putting in a place a people strategy that develops our talent, diversity, leadership and culture.
• Ensuring our financial systems are customer-focused, fraud-resistant and efficient.
• Developing and implementing a technology strategy that puts digital first, is collaborative, and focuses on simplification and convergence.
• Putting in place a communications strategy that will focus on clarifying what we are, being clear about where and how we will work to improve, and being bolder about celebrating our unique contribution to animal health and welfare, and public health.

Our values underpinning our vision, mission and strategic ambitions

Whilst what we do is critical, as I’ve previously said, it is how we do it that makes a real difference. To support and underpin our Strategic Plan we will strive to put our values at the heart of what we do. These values are:

• Diverse and inclusive
• Compassionate
• Forward-looking
• Straight-talking

These values, coupled with our ambitions and key initiatives, will help us to structure a roadmap to become the RCVS we want to be by 2024. This will require a team effort and I would ask veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses to join us in making this strategy and our ambitions possible by checking out the full plan and continuing the dialogue with us.

The Strategic Plan can be found on our Publications page.