Advice on Schedule 3

Under Schedule 3 to the Veterinary Surgeons Act, only registered veterinary nurses and student veterinary nurses have the privilege to perform certain procedures in veterinary practice, as delegated to them by veterinary surgeon colleagues employed in the same practice.

On this page, you can find a range of resources to help in understanding the provisions of Schedule 3, including our formal guidance, a range of case studies and our 'SUPERB' checklist poster.

Formal guidance

You can read our formal guidance on delegation under Schedule 3 in the following chapters of supporting guidance to RCVS Code of Professional Conduct:

• Chapter 18. Delegation to veterinary nurses
• Chapter 19. Treatment of animals by unqualified persons

Case studies

Our series of case studies demonstrate how veterinary nurses and student veterinary nurses can work within Schedule 3, what they can do when working independently, and certain areas that fall outside the Schedule 3 exemption.

We will add more case studies to this series in due course.

View the Schedule 3 case studies

'SUPERB' Checklist Poster

We have produced a poster to help vets in practice remember the key things they need to consider when delegating work to registered/student veterinary nurses.

The poster has a six-point checklist and uses the mnemonic ‘SUPERB’:

Specific procedure
Under care
Person
Experience
Risks
Be there

...which is designed to help vets remember the key questions they need to consider and answer ‘yes’ to before delegating work to their R/SVN colleagues.

We have previously mailed a copy of this poster to all veterinary practice premises in the UK, and have provided digital files to download below in various sizes and formats. 

PDF version 

A4 size
A3 size

JPG version 

A4 size
A3 size

EPS (vector) version

Vector

If you have any feedback on this poster, please email [email protected]