Focus on leadership and innovation at BSAVA Congress

We will be at the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) Congress next month to promote the new RCVS Leadership initiative and the launch of our free massive open online course (or MOOC).

RCVS Council members and College staff will be on Stand 105 for the entire Congress, which takes place from Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 April at the Arena Birmingham and ICC in Birmingham.

The RCVS Leadership initiative was launched as part of the RCVS Strategic Plan 2017-2019, which had as one of its ambitions “to become a Royal College with leadership and innovation at its heart, and support this creatively and with determination.” The initiative’s goals include integrating leadership into veterinary professionals’ continuing education (in part by creating the MOOC), leading by example in the College by developing Council and staff members’ leadership skills, and highlighting more diverse leadership opportunities.

On the Thursday RCVS Vice-Presidents Amanda Boag and Chris Tufnell, and RCVS Director of Leadership and Innovation Anthony Roberts, will also be hosting a breakfast session titled: ‘New initiatives to support veterinary leadership and innovation’ from 8:30-9:15 in Hall 6.

Amanda commented: “With this programme we hope to foster and encourage a whole new group of veterinary leaders within all branches of the professions. At some level all veterinary professionals face leadership challenges on a daily basis, and developing those skills can help us to thrive in the uncertain and complex environment of everyday life in practice, and give us the confidence to identify new and diverse career opportunities.”

We launched Vivet, an ambitious and wide-ranging programme designed to ensure veterinary professionals are at the forefront of innovation in the animal health sector, at our inaugural Innovation Symposium at The Shard in September 2017. Visitors to the stand can find out more about ViVet, and play a timed innovation-themed game with the fastest player each day winning a Kindle Paperwhite.

The leadership and innovation talk will kick off a whole stream of RCVS talks in Hall 6 – after which will follow ‘Welcome to Stanley: The new IT system for the Practice Standards Scheme and Q&A about the Scheme’ lead by Pam Mosedale, RCVS Lead Assessor, and Megan Knowles-Bacon, RCVS PSS Officer, from 9:25-10:10.

The next couple of sessions will focus on the Mind Matters Initiative, both hosted by Mind Matters Chair Stuart Reid. From 11:05-11:50 Elinor O’Connor, Director of Teaching and Learning Fellow at Alliance Manchester Business School, and Lizzie Lockett, RCVS CEO, will give a talk titled ‘Maximising wellbeing at work: an evidence-based approach’, and then from 12:00-12:45 there will then be a talk titled ‘Blaming, excuses and mindset – how changing the way you think and speak can help change practice culture’ with Anne-Marie Svendesen Aylott, Leadership Coach at PurpleCat Coaching.

The afternoon will then switch to a focus on VN Futures with a dedicated VN stream chaired by Niall Connell, Vice-Chair of VN Council. There will be talks on One Health by Helen Ballantyne; career progression by Matt Rendle; the future of veterinary nursing by Dot Creighton, Stephanie Writer-Davies and Liz Cox; and, support, training and recognition by Renay Rickard.

Throughout Thursday there will also be the opportunity to book a one-to-one PSS surgery with Pam Mosedale, PSS Lead Assessor, in the exhibition hall, to discuss any aspect of the Scheme. Please visit our event page to secure your slot, which will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis.

Friday will then see RCVS President Stephen May taking part in a panel debate on Brexit and its impact on the veterinary profession from 11:15-12:30 in the Hyatt Ballroom, chaired by RCVS past-President, Professor the Lord Trees.

Finally, on the Saturday there will be an ‘&me Live’ event chaired by Lizzie in her capacity as Director of Mind Matters, to talk about the joint Mind Matters and Doctors’ Support Network mental health campaign, &me. The campaign aims to encourage senior people within the healthcare professions to come forward with their stories to reduce the stigma around mental ill health, and demonstrate that a mental health problem does not exclude people from achieving leading roles in healthcare.

Held from 8:30-10:10 in Hall 6, this session will feature a panel discussion on experiences of mental ill health in the veterinary and medical professions, hearing from: Rob Pettitt, Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Orthopaedics at the University of Liverpool; Nicky Paull, RCVS Postrgraduate Dean; and Dr Louise Freeman and Dr Angelika Luehrs, Co-chairs of the Doctors’ Support Network.