Lizzie Lockett, Royal College Day 2026 speech

Good morning, everyone, and a warm welcome to RCVS Day 2026. It’s my pleasure to tell you a little about the year that has elapsed since we were last here.  

There is an acronym with which those of you who develop organisational strategies and risk profiles may be familiar: VUCA.

No, it’s nothing to do with your feet.  

It stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. Sometimes, if people need even more jeopardy, they throw in an extra ‘c’ – climate change. 

Volatility. Uncertainty. Complexity. Ambiguity. 

I think if four words ever summed up the last 365 days at the RCVS, it is those. 

Since this time last year, we have fully settled into our new building, 1 Hardwick Street, which has required new routines and ways of working – writing a new chapter on a blank page, although I am aware that any place with a past is a palimpsest: we only write our history atop others’. 

It is a truly beautiful space, well used for meetings, events, hearings and office work. Since autumn, it has borne our new logo and branding. Of course, we continue to use our complete coat of arms for formal occasions: you will see it on the programme in your hands. But the new brand underpins a more cohesive presentation, tying elements such as the Academy and Mind Matters more closely to the corporate body; ending some ambiguity about ownership of those initiatives. 

At Hardwick Street, we have hosted delegations from Singapore and Brunei, and one due shortly from Sharjah. We also have a queue of organisations wishing to use the space, including veterinary bodies, other regulators and even our own professional body, the Institute of Regulation, which held training at Hardwick Street last week.   

At least the period of uncertainty and ambiguity that saw us living out of boxes has come to an end.  

But it remains in other areas.  

We have continued to work with the Competition and Markets Authority, latterly on the process for monitoring the remedies and developing the levy. This has taken a huge amount of time and, because it’s been a process that is largely out of our hands, uncertainty, complexity and yes, some ambiguity too.  

Certainly, to all those who have said to me since the publication of the CMA’s preliminary decision report last autumn ‘I guess things have gone a bit quiet now’ – not a bit of it, as the steadfast core team involved in the twice-weekly meetings will attest!  

But we are nearing the ‘end of the beginning’, at least. And by 23 September, the CMA will have finalised its Orders. We will then work hard to ensure that there is as little ambiguity and uncertainty as possible for practices, their teams, and the clients they serve. 

Another major area of VUCA for us has been the ongoing review of the Veterinary Surgeons Act. According to reports over the last twelve months, we have variously been going to lose our professional leadership role but stay a regulator; stay a professional leadership body but lose our regulatory role; keep both but in an entirely different structure, with degrees of separation ranging from light touch to impermeable. Every time I open the veterinary press, I read a different version of our future. It’s been a tough time for the College team.  

Despite this, I have been immensely proud of how everyone has pulled together to keep the show on the road. Better than that, to deliver some really excellent new initiatives, more of which shortly. 

The thing we need to cleave to, despite the uncertainty, is that the core elements of the new legislation for which we have long advocated are a consistent thread in government communications – the regulation of practices, the protection of the veterinary nurse title, regulation of the wider veterinary team, and modernisation of our registration and disciplinary processes. This was underlined by Baroness Hayman, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, at a joint parliamentary event we held with the British Veterinary Association and the British Veterinary Nursing Association last week. We are very grateful for all of the hard work that the Baroness and her team have put into getting thus far, it’s a real achievement. 

The animal health and welfare, public health and consumer benefits set to be brought about by a new Act are clear, and we hope that the momentum will be maintained into the future, whatever that may look like.  

Perhaps less obvious to the external eye has been a significant amount of work that has gone into the development of our new customer relationship management system (CRM) and new website. The website was launched earlier in the year, and the CRM will be launched before the end of the summer. Both support more modern and efficient ways of working. The website is more focused on the needs of our users, as well as having an attractive new look and feel. The CRM will also support better ways of working, both internally and in terms of our registrant interface. Almost as soon as launched, these solid new platforms will enter a second phase of development to support the CMA outcomes. There is no understating the work faced in getting us to this point, so enormous thanks to everyone involved.  

And on the topic of more change, later this month we were due to see the EU Reset Summit – but that has now been put on hold. One assumes it will come back on the agenda at some point, and as Defra was the department most affected by EU Exit, perhaps it follows it’s likely to be the one most affected by the reset. More change for the professions and the animal-owning – and meat-eating – public is therefore likely.   

I might be giving you the impression that we have only been at the mercy of external forces this year, buffeting us about, and that this has been a bad thing. 

But ambiguity and uncertainty can be good for an organisation. It’s in these misty lacunae that we can evolve and thrive – and change is certainly something the College has sought – and weathered – often, since its establishment in 1844.  

There is a quote with which you may be familiar: “A ship in harbour is safe – but that’s not what ships are built for.” 

The good ship RCVS may be entering its biggest period of change yet, but it is still out there on the water, steering a steady course, working together with its stakeholders to deliver the best it can for animal health and welfare, and public health.   

We have pushed ahead in delivering our strategic plan, including: 

• Hosting the first International Postgraduate Veterinary Education Symposium, attracting global delegates to drive the development of veterinary knowledge  

• More recently, a Veterinary Nurse Educators Conference, which was hailed by delegates as ‘inspiring, educational and energising’ 

• Refreshing the membership of our Public Advisory Group, our invaluable sounding board of animal owners   

• Celebrating ten years of the trailblazing Mind Matters Initiative, the first of its kind in the regulatory world  

• Launching the AI Transparency Alliance, supporting veterinary professionals to use their clinical judgement when using AI tools, by ensuring the right information is displayed to them by developers 

• Gaining Council approval for consultation on a specialism in primary care 

• Running our ‘Let’s Talk Adjustments’ campaign, to support those with diverse ways of working 

• Celebrating four years of RCVS Academy, a truly compassionate, upstream regulation tool that helps professionals to succeed 

• Including suicide prevention plans for all practices within the Practice Standards Scheme  

• And, continuing with our pioneering VN Vison project, developing a roadmap for the profession 

It’s not always plain sailing – we sadly had to discontinue our extra-mural studies database at the end of last year due to insufficient engagement. Things won’t always work out, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t endeavour to innovate. Look up ‘Google Graveyard’ if you think that successful organisations only ever succeed.  

Our structure of governance being as it is – for now at least – there is constant change baked in, with new presidential leadership annually. There are not many roles where your boss changes every year – I am on my 22nd President – well, 23rd by the end of today. Sometimes, if I have trouble sleeping, I try to remember them all in order, from John Parker back in 2005. I usually drift off around 2014….  

But though their time as President may be fleeting, each leaves a lasting impression. I would like to give my sincere thanks to Tim Parkin, our outgoing President. Tim has been calm, good humoured and clear-sighted throughout all of the uncertainty. To be fair, occasionally his immediate incisive response to some of the chaos has been a single four-letter word… but it has been hugely reassuring to have such an experienced and supportive leader at the helm.  Thank you, personally, for always being so positive!  

Tim has very ably led a very able Council. We have had more extra meetings – largely to discuss confidential CMA matters – than I can ever remember. Yet Council has approached these, as all else, with the spirit of inquiry, fairness and compassion, which has become their hallmark in recent years. I am very grateful for the collegiate approach. I hope that even if, in the future, we are no longer a ‘college’ in the sense we are now, that collegiate approach will always be there. Thank you.   

I am looking forward to working with the new Officer team, especially our incoming President Tim H – no, another Tim won’t be confusing at all…. 

From what I have experienced of Tim so far, he will be a great President, balancing in-depth experience of life at the coal-face, with a very keen eye on serving the public interest in all that we do. 

And, as ever, hats off to my brilliant, resilient, creative and committed colleagues – you are quite simply amazing, showing such grace under pressure.  I am very proud of all that you have achieved. 

And if, in the weeks and months to come, things continue to beset by verrucas, sorry, VUCA, and any of you find yourself saying, ‘I can’t do this’, then I continue to say to the team, our Council, and to the wider professions – you are doing it, and this is what doing it feels like.