Royal College Day 2020 speeches: outgoing President Niall Connell

My Lord, ladies and gentlemen. I am very proud, and very grateful, to be here today – very much with you in online spirit, if not quite yet in socially distanced body.

Watch a video of Niall's speech

This format wasn’t quite what I, or I’m sure any of us, imagined. I knew we were looking for a new venue for RCVS Day this year, but no one told me it would be my study. We are living in very strange times indeed.

17 years now with Multiple Sclerosis and I’m still pinching myself that I’m part of this wonderful world of dedicated veterinary professionals. A year ago, I remarked that I never imagined the highlight of my career was still to come, but what a host of highlights it’s been.

Now I can imagine being at some event in the future and someone asking, “Hey Niall, How did you get on as RCVS President? What happened in your year?“

“How long have you got?” I shall ask.

The past 12 months have been a whirlwind of wonderful events, celebrations and meeting so many fantastic folk, along with a healthy dose of adrenalin, sleepless nights and interminable Zoom meetings!

We HAVE achieved an enormous amount: much of it responding to the strange situation of the past four months, which I will come on to in a moment, but much of it planned.

Allow me to canter through a few things to give you a wee flavour:

• A packed Fellowship Day in October, showcasing the talents of our Fellows and also the Fellows of the Future.
• A series of innovation evenings hosted by ViVet, our innovation network in August, and our second ViVet Symposium in October.
• We launched our Under Care and Out of Hours review, which aims to ensure that our guidance remains fit for purpose in an ever-changing world.
• Additional cohorts of our very popular Edward Jenner Veterinary Leadership MOOC, which has now had approaching 10,000 learner enrolments since inception.
• A series of Mind Matters resilience courses, run jointly with BSAVA; plus our first student mental health roundtable and second mental health research symposium.
• Formal approval, in October, for the University of Surrey’s veterinary degree. My congratulations to Chris Proudman and all the team at Surrey.
• In November, a digital marketing campaign to raise awareness of the Practice Standards Scheme, under the theme ‘Veterinary care - from your kind of vets’.
• On the education front, VN Council launched new qualification accreditation standards, and we launched a new outcomes-based approach to continuing professional development. Our new 1CPD app has proved very popular, even amongst some of our greatest critics!
• Back in January, a series of sessions at the joint Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons and Veterinary Management Group Congress on diversity and inclusion, with a fantastic session chaired by Clare Balding, which reflects the work being carried out by our Diversity and Inclusion Group – more on that shortly.
• Our Graduate Outcomes project bore its first fruit, with Council approving a strong direction of travel for new Day-One Competences and a replacement for the Professional Development Phase.

I’ve also been struck by the nature of international cooperation of some of our stand-out moments over the last year and how, true to the motto that accompanies our coat of arms – Vis Unita Fortior – there really is strength through unity.

We are still working towards EU Exit – remember that? I genuinely thought I might become known as ‘The Brexit President’, although I fear that moniker will now be superseded.

Nevertheless, in October, we signed an historic mutual recognition agreement with the Veterinary Council of Ireland to recognise each other’s veterinary degrees.

In the same month, we gained significant international support for our joint statement with the American Veterinary Medical Association to promote and support positive mental health amongst the veterinary community, when it was also signed by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe and the World Small Animal Veterinary Association.

Then, in January, we signed a joint statement with BVA and the FVE that the European veterinary community remains united, with the emphasis on the highest standards of care and animal welfare.

An exemplar of our ongoing close ties with our veterinary colleagues across Europe was to be the FVE General Assembly we were due to host jointly with BVA in London in June. But of course, that, along with so many, many other things was forced to change with the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic in March.

At this point, I would like to invite you to join me in pausing for just a few moments to remember all those who have lost their fight with this terrible virus in the UK and around the world in recent months. Thank you very much.

I should like to express my heartfelt condolences to everyone who has lost family members or friends, and to thank, most sincerely, the NHS frontline staff who have risked everything to keep us safe, and all key workers and essential businesses who have joined the national effort to beat this disease.

So, of course from March, everything started to change and, like everyone, we were forced to shift our priorities. The team at Belgravia House rapidly changed its focus from planning, developing and creating, to cancelling, suspending and rescheduling, and all the while getting to grips with not being in Belgravia House anymore.

Initially via Council, and then through dedicated RCVS Council and VN Council Covid-19 Taskforces, we have worked with speed and agility – perhaps not words you would naturally associate with this particular august body – while, and this has been the difficult part, ensuring we continue to maintain robust standards.

It would have been easy just to tear up the rule books, but we are a statutory regulator, so we had to make a huge raft of swift and pragmatic temporary changes whilst ensuring they will stand up to scrutiny once this is all over.

A few highlights of these changes included:

• Council agreement to permit temporarily the remote prescribing of veterinary medicines in certain circumstances
• Amended EMS requirements for veterinary students, in consultation with the Veterinary Schools Council

(If you’ll permit me a small, but important aside, here. The training provided by the UK’s vet schools is excellent and the College’s education oversight is robust. Our new graduates are among the best the UK has ever produced. They deserve the best support and guidance as they start in their new careers and I wish them well.)

To continue, we…

• developed online registration processes for overseas vets and nurses, and allowed new graduates to postpone registration until they had a job;
• introduced phased payment of fees and waiving of late fee for veterinary surgeons;
• reduced by 25% the CPD requirements for vets and VNs in 2020;
• postponed disciplinary hearings, Practice Standards Scheme assessments and vet school accreditations;
• lobbied government about student caps and furlough arrangements;
• devised an innovative replacement for the VN practical examination – the new patient-based assessment;
• changed arrangements for Statutory Membership Examination candidates;
• run a monthly survey on the impact of Covid-19 on practice, which has helped inform our decisions, and recently launched another into practitioners’ experiences of remote prescribing;
• launched new resources and support during the pandemic around leadership, reflection and mental health; and,
• coordinated the donation of equipment and ventilators by veterinary practices, advised on volunteering roles and even donated our spare computing power to an international effort to understand the structure of Covid-19.

As you might imagine, there has been a huge increase in our Advice Team’s output, producing guidance on what work can be carried out, key worker status, quarantine, social distancing, and critical businesses, amongst many other things.

And, at the same time, our communications efforts have skyrocketed, with a multitude of email and social media updates, dedicated online coronavirus advice hubs for the professions and the public, and even a number of radio interviews and podcasts by yours truly.

Very sadly, we have also had to postpone or cancel a huge number of events – the dates in my diary disappeared like tears in rain. Some, like the FVE General Assembly, should return in 2021, whilst others we’re moving online, like our AGM today.

We have worked closely with BVA throughout, producing a number of joint statements to heIp guide and support the professions, particularly through those acutely challenging and confusing first months.

I was particularly pleased and privileged to join BVA President Daniella Dos Santos – who is putting in a real shift – in a webinar at the height of the outbreak with an audience of over 3,000 listeners.

RCVS Officers have met frequently not only with BVA and its divisions, but also Veterinary Schools Council, the UK’s CVOs, Defra, APHA, FSA, FSS, and every stakeholder you could possibly imagine.

We are ‘Teamed’ and ‘Zoomed’ to the max, and “You’re on mute!” has become an all-too familiar catchphrase, under Zippy’s ever-watchful eye.

Our professions will, however, get through this, thanks to the incredible veterinary surgeons and nurses working in general practice, specialist practice, education, government, laboratories, and everywhere in between. Working in strange situations and enduring personal hardship, emotional upheaval and financial turmoil, yet still doing their very best for our animals.

I was heartened to see this huge effort and commitment publicly recognised by Defra Secretary of State George Eustice in his open letter of thanks to the professions earlier this year.

To my vet and VN colleagues across the UK: you absolutely deserve the trust and respect placed in you by the public. I salute you.

So, what of the future?

Well, we will hear a little more, shortly, about our exciting new five-year strategic plan, which in spite of everything that has happened recently, is already well underway.

RCVS Council recently agreed for the recommendations of our Legislation Working Party, chaired by Professor Stephen May, to go out for full consultation. After more than a dozen meetings with BVA and BVNA over three years, and looking at 56 different reform proposals, this is the most comprehensive review of the Veterinary Surgeon’s Act since 1966. It aims at ensuring RCVS is a modern, principle-based regulator with far-reaching possibilities for our professions.

I will continue to chair the Diversity and Inclusion Group, whose vital work we unfortunately have been forced to pause during the pandemic.

We must reach out to individuals and communities who may not be aware of opportunities to work with us and are facing obstacles in their path. We must improve, support and protect diversity in the workplace and not be afraid to call out if things are not right or safe for any individual. We will continue to work with other groups to break down barriers to a more diverse profession with regard to selection, recruitment and retention.

We need role models, mentors and guides. We want diverse role models into schools to improve awareness of our professions and assist opportunities to join with us. Once in our veterinary world, everyone must enjoy the same opportunities and rewards, without ever fearing prejudice or abuse.

And so, in closing, I hope you will indulge me in a few personal thank yous.

I owe everything to my parents who sadly are gone. I absolutely could not have managed this year without the support and hard work of my wife, Colette. Thank you, Colette. And the support of my children, Andrew, Natalie and James and three grandchildren!

I’m very grateful for the support and hard work of my fellow Council members. Council is at its finest when it is debating and deciding on complicated issues with integrity, tolerance and respect, and we have had plenty of such debates these past 12 months.

The team at Belgravia House (or rather, scattered across London) and our assessor team around the country do a fantastic job too. On behalf of the Councils and wider professions, I should like to thank them sincerely for everything they do, and for their long hours and commitment to get the RCVS work done, in all its myriad forms. And raising £3,700 for Shelter in the 2.6 Challenge in their spare time. Brilliant!

One particular person, however, deserves special mention. A certain Elizabeth Ann Lockett, our CEO.

Lizzie has been simply magnificent, working incredibly hard to support me, my fellow Officers and Council, and to guide and lead the whole staff team. She has skilfully and unassumingly steered the College through these recent extremely challenging times, whilst continuing to achieve so much more for our professions along the way. She is the epitome of integrity, decency and compassion with a mind as sharp as an obsidian scalpel blade.

Thank you, Lizzie and your whole team, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today.