Practice Standards Scheme updates – a reminder

Following our direct communications to all RCVS-accredited practices at the beginning of December, we would like to remind all those involved in managing their practice’s membership of the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme (PSS) that a number of updates are due to come into effect soon.

These changes – set out in full in our PSS pages – are designed to strengthen the integrity of the PSS that practice teams work so hard to be part of, to help provide more PSS Assessors (and more assessor training) to meet the increasing demand for practice accreditations, to update the standards in line with latest RCVS guidance, and to ensure the PSS remains self-financing.

Updated rules to ensure compliance

Achieving RCVS-accredited status is a fantastic achievement and provides reassurance for animal owners that practices are maintaining and promoting the highest standards of veterinary care.

We know that most RCVS-accredited practices are complying with PSS Core accreditation standards, with many going over and above what is required; however, a small number of practices remain non-compliant for much longer than we would like.

We have therefore updated the PSS rules to better understand and address where practices do not meet Core accreditation standards, and to improve overall rates of compliance.

From 1 January 2024, the updated rules will mean that practices have a limit of 12 months, starting from the assessment date, to achieve compliance with at least Core accreditation standards.

If practices remain non-compliant for longer than 12 months, a number of further actions could be taken, particularly if these matters were of public interest or serious concern.

Read more about the update rules

Changes to Find a Vet listings

We are making some changes to practice listings on our online Find a Vet service both to raise awareness of practice efforts to achieve/maintain RCVS accreditation, and to help uphold public confidence in the PSS.

A new category of ‘RCVS accreditation in progress’ (green box) will be applied to practices who have enrolled on the Scheme for the first time and are working towards their assessment; and, to those accredited practices who have not achieved compliance with at least Core accreditation standards within 12 months of their assessment and a re-assessment is needed.

Full ‘RCVS-accredited’ status (blue box) will be applied/reapplied once the practice has been assessed/reassessed and achieves compliance with at least Core accreditation standards.

Read more about changes to Find a Vet listings

Recent changes to PSS modules and awards, including ‘under care’

Over the last year there have been some minor changes to standards and awards that have meant amendments to the PSS modules and awards requirements.

These changes have included the new 'under care' guidance approved earlier this year, which primarily centres around the medicine modules at Core accreditation level across all species, to highlight how the new guidance will impact the prescribing of prescription-only veterinary medicines (POM-Vs).

We have also made changes to the out-of-hours (OOH) module, to introduce guidance around limited-service providers (LSP) and telemedicine providers.

A list of all the recent changes have been incorporated into the modules and awards, and onto ‘Stanley’, and can be found in a helpful table for ease of reference.

View the changes document

Rearrangement of assessment dates

Some practices due to have assessments in 2024 and 2025 will have their assessment dates changed. This is a knock-on effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced us to put assessments on hold and move to a remote format for a period. We have had to realign our assessment schedule in response.

Most of the Practices affected are those with assessment due from April 2024 onwards.

Some assessment dates may be pushed back. This means practices will be assessed later than their original assessment date and will have more time to prepare. The majority of these practices are those originally due to be assessed in 2024.

NB your ‘RCVS-accredited’ status will not be affected should your assessment date be pushed back.

Some assessment dates may be brought forward. This means practices will be assessed earlier than their original assessment date. These are likely to be those originally scheduled in 2025.

The PSS team will contact you directly if your practice is affected, and give you as much notice as possible.

Fee changes

To ensure the Scheme can remain self-financing, and to increase the number of PSS Assessors available across the country on a regional basis (including more Assessor training), a range of changes have recently been made to the PSS fee structure. These increases will take effect from 1 January 2024.

View the fee changes

Lead Assessor’s top tips

PSS Lead Assessor, Dr Alice Duvernois MRCVS, has set out some of her observations and top tips on how best practices can prepare for their PSS assessment.

These include advice on time management, how to best focus efforts on particular aspects of the assessment, and how to make the most effective use of the whole team.

Read Alice’s top tips

Any questions?

Although most of the information about the updates can be found on our PSS pages, if you have any questions, please contact the Practice Standards team on [email protected].