Podcast - Next Steps: moving into management

Introduction

Abi Judd-English (00:24)

Hello everyone and welcome to the May edition of the RCVS podcast. I'm Abi Judd-English, Senior Media and Publications Officer, and today I'm pleased to be bringing you part two of our Next Steps Project podcast special, this time focusing on moving into management. For those of you who don't know, our Next Steps Project was launched earlier this year as part of our wider work to strengthen the veterinary workforce, supporting veterinary professionals through a range of events and resources to make key career transitions smoother, currently primarily focusing on those moving into management for the first time, those returning to work after parental leave, and those returning after a career break more generally.

For today's feature, our Director for the Advancement of the Professions, Angharad Belcher, is joined by Miles Russell, Finance and Operations Director at the George Vet Group, current board member and past president of the Veterinary Management Group and former crossbench peer in the House of Lords. In this chat, Miles chats about his experience as, in his words, a reluctant leader, his journey into leadership, the value of problem solving and curiosity, the importance of mentorship and the challenges and rewards of leading teams in an ever-changing industry.

I'll then be joined by Jen Ayers RVN, head of our free digital online learning platform, the RCVS Academy. Nearing its fourth birthday, we chat about why the Academy was developed, the wide range of on-demand courses available to support veterinary professionals, and what exciting new developments the team have got in the pipeline.

But before we get into that, we've got our usual news update, giving you a quick overview of current events within the college.

Abi Judd-English (02:11)

The recipients of our annual honours and awards have been announced, including the first winner of our new collaboration award launched in 2025 to reflect the stronger together focus of our 2025 to 2029 strategic plan, which has been awarded to an international scheme that aims to improve global access to veterinary medicines. A total of 10 award winners have been announced, celebrating exceptional contributions to veterinary medicine, animal welfare and public health in a range of areas.

All awards will be bestowed at Royal College Day, the RCVS Annual General Meeting and Awards Ceremony at One Great George Street, Westminster on Friday the 3rd of July, 2026. 

In other news, following this year's election for our council, three veterinary surgeons have been elected for four-year terms on a voting turnout of 15.8%. The three election candidates are Ian Battersby, FRCVS, Dr Neil Smith, FRCVS, and Dr Lara Wilson, MRCVS, who will begin their terms at our Annual General Meeting in July.

Elsewhere across the College, our Mind Matters and Practice Standards Scheme teams have collaborated to create new Suicide Prevention Plan guidance for practices following the introduction of a new mandatory requirement to the core standards of the Practice Standards Scheme at the beginning of April requiring all accredited practices to implement a practice-specific suicide prevention plan.

Working with external suicide prevention experts, MMI and PSS have produced three initial resources that are aligned with the new British standard on suicide prevention in the workplace to help practices meet the new requirements.

Over in standards and advice, the 2026 spring update is now available to view on our website. This contains details including advice to the profession on the use of artificial intelligence in everyday practice and information on the recent review of Chapter 13, Clinical and Client Records, of the supporting guidance to the Code of Professional Conduct.

Finally, our free digital online learning platform, the RCVS Academy, has launched a new course, SVN Stepping Into Practice, designed to help student veterinary nurses prepare for, and make the most of this valuable learning experience, offering guidance on what to expect and how to succeed. The course equips learners with the knowledge, skills and mindset needed to thrive in a clinical environment.

To find out more about all these news stories and details on how to access the RCVS Academy and Standards and Advice Update, follow the direct links in the show notes.

Next steps: moving into management

Angharad Belcher (04:50)

Good morning and welcome to the latest podcast. I'm really lucky to be joined on this lovely spring morning with Miles Russell from the George Vet Group. Miles, would you be kind enough to tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?

Miles Russell (05:01)

So I'm very lucky, I work for the George Vet Group. I've been there for nearly 18 years now. I joined as Practice Manager and over the time the practice has grown and recently just gone into a new title role as Finance and Operations Director. Also been a board member of VMG, the Veterinary Management Group for about six years now. I'm a past president as well and still remain on the board.

And then I have another little side role which I've done for the last couple of years which is I'm a member of the House of Lords. But that is probably going to end soon.

Angharad Belcher (05:29)

Well, that's certainly a varied career history that you've got in there. And I think something that will really help us with the conversation here today when we talk about leadership, because you've seen not only change within your role, but also within the veterinary sector more broadly. So in terms of your journey into leadership, what was that like?

Miles Russell (05:47)

Originally I started farming as a career. Unfortunately that door closed so I decided to do accountancy which I was very good at at school. So I went to accountancy, unfortunately didn't manage to pass the exam so I got out but I went to work for a small rural charter surveyors doing the finance for the business and for their rural estates. And within that role, I took opportunities every time something went wrong, I sort of stepped in. So I'm fundamentally just a problem solver. So first thing that went wrong was the IT, so I'm quite good with IT and then HR. And I basically became the business manager of that practice as it grew from 10 people to 30 people.

And then through situations, there was an opportunity at the George to do bit of consultancy on their finance side for a short period of time. So I did that because I was trying to branch out from my roles within managing that business and managing the people. And through that, I got to know them, they got to know me, and then decided that they wanted a practice manager who could take on, day to day decisions, while the partners were out doing their roles.

So they gave me this opportunity. So I joined them, 17 years ago. And through that, I have developed a team. So there was an admin team of probably two. We now got an operations team of about five of us. So in that, I just learnt it.

So what I would say is first of all you want to have to take on responsibility and care for people I think is important and that feeling that to create a good harmonious environment for people to work and thrive.

My other mantra is that I create the platform for vets, nurses, dispensary staff, cleaners to do their jobs. That's what our job is as an operations team and that's what I try to do. And then I was sat in my office one day thinking, oh, I need to branch out. I want to get out a bit more than just sit in my little office in Malmsey. So that's when I enjoy VMG.

I'm inquisitive about how we can make things better for individuals in the business and developing them and strengthening their skills.

Angharad Belcher (07:34)

I think you've mentioned some really interesting points there around having that curiosity, but also being brave to take things on. Did you find it in that first sort of few moments of going, oh, what do I do? What does the pathway look like?

Miles Russell (07:45)

No, I'm a reluctant leader.

Because if someone steps up, someone quite loud or keen to take the leadership role, then I will not, I will just sit there and not do anything. But if there is no leader, I will step in because that void is very much the case. And the challenge of solving a problem, whatever the problem is. There's a computer that doesn't work, I just, it just doesn't work. I go, right, well, why isn't it working? So there's that inquisitiveness to solve a problem.

So I've got an anecdote. It's a really simple one. I was at an Italian airport waiting for my case to come off the carousel and you could see that the flight before hadn't got taken the language. I looked around and looked around and it was at that point when somebody steps up and goes I was the first one to take a bag off so the other bags could come down. But it took me 10 minutes to work out that I get the courage to do that.

Angharad Belcher (08:31)

I think that's true of a lot of people though isn't it that sometimes taking that first step it can feel a bit difficult. From your experience on VMG have you seen many different career routes into leadership and are there any themes that you've observed?

Miles Russell (08:44)

Within VMG I haven't seen particularly different ones. I think within the veterinary market I just see people good at their jobs and so they slightly stand out. And then as individuals, they show that desire and take on those responsibilities and the management takes the note of that and think they'll be a good manager. So they're really good at what they do clinically or within their current role and think, well they'll be good at management and that's the as an industry, we're not that great at, because there's always something going on. To create time to be a manager is the key, is that ability to have time to manage and give people time.

Angharad Belcher (09:24)

Yes, I would agree. I think that's one of the common conversations that we have with people is that they end up in a leadership role, but are still expected to do the day job and trying to squeeze management or leadership time in is really difficult and often it feels as though it's not as valuable as the clinical time. How would you encourage people to mark that space and make sure that they have the time for it?

Miles Russell (09:44)

I think that's a bit within the management of the business and the culture of the business is allowing people to manage. When you give someone a management role, you say, right, what time do they need to do that? It's very difficult, there's always a case coming through the door, so it is about actually allowing your workforce to have the time to do that. You've got to invest in more vets or more nurses to allow people to manage.

If you go another manufacturing business, the leader at the top, that's all they do. They just lead or they manage the business. And essentially that's as a practice manager, that's what I had. I had my finance role, but I could flex that. So I do have time to get up and walk around occasionally and see people.

So I do try and engage with people in the business.

Angharad Belcher (10:27)

That's a really important skill to make sure that you're always present and being part of the team, even if you are stepping back from the typical day job.

Thinking about some of our listeners who are those people that are wanting to take on that next responsibility, working their way into management and leadership. What would you encourage them to be doing?

Miles Russell (10:45)

I think the first one is self-awareness of where your strengths and weaknesses lie. And I will promote VMG, the Leadership Standards Framework is something you can do, it's free online and it will just give you an assessment of where you are. So it's becoming more self-aware so you know where your skills are, so you know what you can do. And also develop your goals. Do you want to be really good clinically? And actually not have the hassle of dealing with people. That's fine. And they are really valuable people in an organisation. Those people that want to remain doing their job. They are just critical because they're great. We want people to do that. And then if you want to manage, develop those skills and start understanding people…but actually know what your goal is. Is it that you want to manage a team to be the head nurse? Or from being an admin and wanting to be the practice manager or wanting to be a clinical director. So those roles are really important. Do you want to take on that extra responsibility and then also develop those skills.

So there's an assumption, you know, I'm an outstanding bookkeeper. I know that. But does that mean I can manage people? It might not be because I haven't got those skills. Or I'm a really good vet. So do I actually want to deal with people? And it's interesting, I think my observation of the being in the industry for over 17 years is, you're in a point, of responsibility all the time, but you are the king of the knowledge. But when you start dealing with other people, you're not the king of the knowledge because they're really unpredictable people, you don't quite know what they're going to throw you.

Being comfortable to deal with that uncertainty of what your colleague is going to deliver to you - that I believe is the real challenge. To be able to adapt and change. You don't know what's going come your way, so you have to adapt and understand that as a leader. Give people time and listen more than talk, which is real challenge.

Angharad Belcher (12:28)

It is hard, isn't it? And I think as we all go through different life stages and different needs, then our leadership, knowledge, understanding, experiences of other people leading, that all shapes us, doesn't it? And I think the responsibility from other leaders and managers within the business to influence those people coming through on their career journey is something that carries a lot of weight, doesn't it?

For those who are perhaps more experienced, who have been in senior roles for a longer period of time, what would your encouragement be to them to help those people who are thinking about their management and leadership careers?

Miles Russell (13:01)

That comes down to a bit of mentoring. Also giving them, encouragement I think the other thing is to be inquisitive and actually to all leaders, whatever age you are, is to be inquisitive and to look around you to see how other people are doing it and to learn. And I was desperate to get this in, so there's a tip that I love from Billie Jean King and it's never stop learning and never stop learning how to learn. And I just think that's whatever age, whatever stage you are within leadership something new will come out.

Society is changing a huge amount and the generations that's coming out, they've got a slightly different outlook on life. The world has changed significantly and the veterinary industry has changed hugely so you have to adapt. And as older leaders, you know, they don't do it as we did it. Well, that's true. That's fine. So we have to adapt and learn that. So listen to them, give them encouragement, give them time, invest in allowing them to go to conferences or seek other qualifications. So it's a case of allowing them and also having a clear role defined for them. So I'm the leader of business, what do I want them to do, who do I want them to manage, what projects do want them to succeed at? So it's allowing them, but as all leaders we need to continue to learn and adapt to the business that is in front of us.

Angharad Belcher (14:19)

Yeah, I think that's one of the things that we have a lot of people share with us that they feel as though their leadership journey perhaps started a lot earlier than they realised, but when they look back and they realised those extra projects that they were given or, you know, can you look at QI for the practice? Can you look at efficiencies here or procurement over here? That actually those were the small sort of kickstarters that gave them the confidence perhaps to ask for more or feel as though their skill set was being recognised. And as you say those mentors and those small conversations can have such big impacts on encouraging people, can't they?

Miles Russell (14:54)

Also the thing is to realise that certainly vets start leading as soon as they leave college and they arrive at the practice in theatre they're leading that little operation. They're the leaders. And it could the nurse they're in a branch and they're leading the clients through that the process. They're leading that little branch, so that when the vet walks in, it's ready to go. And they're supported by a client care team member. Everybody leads every day in some way, and it's just at what stage those responsibilities grow and grow and grow and so, yeah, if you enjoy those moments, that's to seize that and go forward.

Angharad Belcher (15:29)

Yes, having the enjoyment in what you do is part of the success, it? And remaining curious about it. So in terms of the less good parts or the less enjoyable parts of leadership, think we can all think about some of those, but for those people who are perhaps on the, should I take this on or should I not? It's going to be really difficult. What would your advice be to them?

Miles Russell (15:51)

I have a very simple one which I've developed in the last few years. I'm not alone in this is, you if you want to progress, if you want to develop and be the best you can, you've got to leave the comfort zone but also know that when you do, it's, although you probably feel it's extremely personal, it's not, difficult conversations are challenging. And when you grow into those leadership roles and you move from being a member of the team to being in a management role, you suddenly got to tell a colleague you've got on really well with to do something that's really challenging. And so it is being aware that it's going to be challenging and there are uncomfortable moments, but in time you'll get used to them and when you've done it for two or three years it's still hard to have those difficult conversations but you will grow through it and with more experience you feel more comfortable with it and the other thing is you won't get it right all the time. I was in a meeting last week and I've had a little bit feedback, I was probably a bit bold and you think okay well when I get that wrong so...but that's the self-reflection.

And that comes back to that original point about self-awareness, that if you're in the middle of a conversation, is if you can suddenly think, oh, I'm being a bit aggressive here, or I'm not listening, those are the keys. And also your own emotional state. You've had a bad trip into work, or something's gone wrong in life, and you just are not as sympathetic as you could be because of other pressures.

Angharad Belcher (17:07)

Yes, we are all human and having that empathy for others and recognising that somebody might be turning up with something really difficult that's weighing on them and having that compassion and that grace to try and find these conversations is an important thing.

We've a reasonable amount of ground in terms of taking on that extra responsibility, looking for how you might develop those skills, thinking about your confidence, your self-awareness.

For people who are in those early phases and perhaps don't have the support from somebody senior within their business, or are thinking actually there are skills that I would like to develop but it's a really small organisation that I'm in...how you help them if you were giving them advice to find that mentor or that coach or somebody that could give them a little bit of insight into what about this?

Miles Russell (17:53)

VMG, it's an educational package, there are modules you can do, you can choose the exam route if that's your way the CVLM is there to be done.

The other thing is engaging with other people outside the business. So it is looking at and thinking what is available and there are lots of advice are out there.

And so it's finding which one of those training books or those podcasts, you know, there's a high performance pod. Listen to it. So it's a case of investing time in looking outside of the veterinary industry and within the veterinary industry of how to do those. But it's being inquisitive and challenging and saying, I can do this and finding a network of people. And that's where congresses are so good.

You can go to them and sit there and find people that say, well, how did you deal with that challenge or what KPIs are you using to monitor cash? So it's looking to find ideas outside your thing. So it is quite circular, this conversation, but it is being inquisitive and saying, right, what, can I learn from those other people and I've been to plenty of congresses and you have a conversation with somebody in the dinner queue and say well tell me your favourite tip.

It's trying to connect with other people in similar positions.

Angharad Belcher (18:55)

I would agree in that the live event space, whether that's sort of small courses, big congresses, they are the places where you find your people, you hear other ideas and there is that opportunity to test things out, take a few risks with what sessions you go to and what information you're picking up. And one of the other elements that you've alluded to in this conversation is that it takes time.

It doesn't happen overnight it's something that is grown over time you have to nurture it you have to feed it and by learning and being curious that's how you start to develop those skills.

Miles Russell (19:26)

There is no perfect leader because we all have our weaknesses and our strengths. Was Churchill the perfect leader because he's the greatest leader? But he needed a war to be a great leader. You look at Richard Branson, ran an amazing organisation, but he has amazing guys behind him doing finance because he's a creative person.

And one of the strengths of the leader is knowing your weakness and getting that ability to cover that area. And I just think back to the George and, the partners at the time. The ability to think alright, we're going to need to invest in a practice manager. And they were brave enough to say, I'll let somebody else make those decisions.

So they saw that as a weakness in their system they were out some ambulatory, some in surgery. So here there was somebody who staff could go to to make decisions and therefore there isn't a perfect leader. We all have our leadership styles. I've got plenty of failings. And actually on that one is one of the other traits of being a great leader is to show vulnerability. And if you can do that, you know, just to be able to say okay you've got a better idea than me or I've made a mistake.

Angharad Belcher (20:25)

Yeah, admitting those mistakes is really hard, isn't it? But it has to happen, but also that's the way we learn. And how we show people that we are learning and that we are continuing to work with their trust and the trust that they place in us as leaders. Are there any other final thoughts that you'd like to share with our listeners your favourite parts of leadership or anything that you would like people to take with them?

Miles Russell (20:45)

My favourite part is people. I am naturally an introvert but I do enjoy people. I love discovering how people function.

When things are working well, it's really good and people thrive and you see people progress is great. It's really challenging at the moment. As an industry, it's really challenging. The most challenging time I've seen in the veterinary market, certainly for the George in terms of the economy, the CMA, and hopefully progression with the Veterinary Surgeons Act. These are great. The corporatisation of the industry.

So, there are lots of challenges, but that's exciting. If you want to embrace it and say, how can we make this work better for everybody? And it's just being able to adapt, I think, to that. But it is fun being a leader and it can be stressful. But certainly I've, loved sort of falling into it and growing in it and being part of a team, and leading a team. It's a lot of fun. And for me, there is no hierarchy. The VCAs, that's a tough job, but they do it. And then client care, the client care team, I support them. You know, when I sit on the desk, very rarely, I'm thinking, what's going to go wrong? Will someone ask me a difficult question? So that's a challenge. I don't know the answers. I'm quite sort of uptight about it. And then the nurses, you know, and these vets doing out of hours, it's tremendous. So that's why I love being in the industry. We do a great job. But it is challenging at the time.

Angharad Belcher (22:05)

It is, but the reward when you see a team that's flying, it makes all the hard stuff worth it.

Miles Russell (22:09)

Yeah, absolutely, I agree there. And when, you know, the culture, you walk into a room and they're all having a chat and they're all having a good time, it's huge.

And the other thing is we can't get it right for everybody. People have different lives and different challenges and people move on and there's always a turnover of staff and so therefore you have to be adapted to that and bring in new people and strive to make the practice as best as you can but it's never going to be perfect. Life is not perfect. Perfection is the evil of good, isn't it?

Angharad Belcher (22:38)

Yes, no, it is very much that sometimes the 80 % solution is the right one to take at that moment in time.

So, well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts and your experiences with everybody. And I think we will all learn and take away some inspiration and some opportunities to go where would we go next? What would we like to think about? How can we be more self aware and consider that curious approach? Because it does add a huge amount of value, whether your role is clinical or non-clinical, being curious as to how can we improve, how can we do this better, how can we make it more enjoyable for the team, then all of those questions are there to be answered. In terms of what we're doing at RCVS, there's a huge amount of resources that are continuously being shared by the Advancement of the Professions Team, but also some of our others. One thing that we're really excited about is our Next Steps collection, so as part of the Workforce Action Plan, we've got events that are happening over the next few months but one of those is new to management and getting people into those first roles. We've got resources that will sit alongside this.

For those who are perhaps on the earlier stages and are bit more curious about what does this look like, what am I thinking about, we have on the RCVS Academy a number of free courses available. So we've got Leadership versus Management, Delegation, Mentorship, Civility Fundamentals, Unconscious Bias, and a new one that's on managing mental health in the workplace, which will support with those people who are looking at that side of the organisation as well and understanding how we can support people more holistically.

We've also got the Let's Talk Adjustments campaign, which has come off the back of the research that we've done into disability and chronic illness. So responding to the fact that a lot of people who were in management roles at the time saying that they needed a little bit more support, they were feeling quite vulnerable and not having the confidence to deal with people making requests. So we have a huge number of resources and case studies looking at how we can be more supportive within the workplace

So please check out the resources that we've got. Hopefully we'll see you at some of our events. So thank you very much.

Miles Russell (24:32)

Thank you.

Introducing the RCVS Academy

Abi Judd-English (24:48)

Next up, we're joined by Jen Ayers, our Head of Academy, to tell us all about the RCVS Academy, which is our free digital learning platform for veterinary professionals. Jen has been with us since the Academy was first launched in 2022 and has overseen its growth and development over the past four years. So, Jen, welcome to the podcast. Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself to start with?

Jen Ayers (25:08)

Yeah, sure. So I'm a registered veterinary nurse. I entered the register back in, I had to think about this, 2008. And I worked predominantly in charity and that was really great fun. Quite stressful and full on, but really, great work. I then did an ECC certificate and worked a lot of nights and emergencies. And then I stepped actually just by accident into public education and then I stepped much more into educating our vets and nurses. So I've been in this kind of sphere for over 10 years, I've also got my CIPD qualification now in organisational learning and development. So I sort of straddle two professions now, the veterinary profession and the L &D profession which really lends itself quite nicely to my role here. So my focus really is supporting our vets and nurses with their career development and professional development now.

Abi Judd-English (26:00)

Kind of the perfect role for you then, isn't it? Sort of developed for you in a way, isn’t it? But yeah, that's great. Really interesting to hear about your background as well. So can you tell us a little bit more about the RCVS Academy and why it was created? Because I know you joined the college similar time to me, didn't you? Back in…I think it was 2021? And then that sort of development phase and then we launched in 2022. So yeah, can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Jen Ayers (26:23)

Yeah and of course 2021 was sort of in the middle of that horrific time the whole world was having and everything was going online and particularly learning and development was going online but the RCVS Academy was part of that strategic plan at that point. What it is, is a digital learning platform and it offers free CPD to our vets and nurses. We've got stacks of topics on there now.

And it was really created as part of our compassionate strand. And it was a really compassionate approach to help our professions meet the standards that we're setting as well as supporting them at various stages in their career. So yeah, it's a CPD platform that offers on-demand learning, which was really critical at that time, but that still rings true now because it’s a 24-7 profession. Getting out to CPD events and conferences whilst it's still happening and it's great and people still enjoy that, it's still really critical that people have that on-demand option as well.

Abi Judd-English (27:16)

Yeah, for sure. Because I think people definitely need to sort of be able to manage their own schedules, don't they? And be able to have that capacity to fit their learning in when it suits them, because we know that people are busy and it's just being able to fit in, isn't it? And being able to get that learning in the best way possible. So how many courses are there now on the Academy and what sort of topics can people expect to find?

Jen Ayers (27:39)

You know, I knew you'd ask me this, so I went and counted them launched with six courses. So it amazes me now. We're actually at 43, which is incredible and a real testament to the work of the team now who are working so hard. But we are on track to be at, I think, 50 by the end of the year.

But we're not just flooding the academy with new courses. We look at the content in every course every year because it's really important that that content still remains really relevant to our professions.

I mean, at the moment we're going through huge changes, particularly with the CMA stuff and we've launched courses in response to the CMA work as well. Our communicating cost course was really relevant to that. We also review our old ones because we'll write a course, we'll pilot it, we'll design it in the way that we know best as digital learning professionals. But it might not always land as well with our professions and we get great feedback from our vets and nurses. They're always really honest with us, which I really welcome. And it's that honest feedback that helps us just improve these courses and keeps them useful that's what's super important.

Abi Judd-English (28:44)

Yeah, Because ultimately our role is supporting veterinary professionals to be the best that they can be. And so we have to listen to what they want and what they're getting out of the things that we're providing and listening to those gaps and where they need that support really, isn't it?

Jen Ayers (28:59)

Yeah and actually, Abi, not every course is relevant for everybody, you know? And what we chose to do is not go in there and put like just vet courses and nurse courses and you click into those because it's actually a little bit more complex than that. There are different career stages. People have different interests and people have different development needs. And I think it's really important for our professions to start to identify and recognize their own development needs and they can then select the courses that are right for them.

I don't think that's for us to define for them.

Abi Judd-English (29:27)

No, not at all, which is why I think obviously we've got the RVN starting out, so it's people that are first starting off in practice and then this also leads quite nicely onto the next question because today we've been talking about leadership, so that wasn't actually planned at all, so that was great, worked out really well.

Jen Ayers (29:43)

Yeah, I love it when that happens.

Abi Judd-English (29:45)

So yeah, we've always been talking about people moving into leadership for the first time, because obviously quite often that just happens by default in a way. Like you've just been working in practice for so many years and then you reach a certain stage and you then have to manage people.

People just end up finding themselves in these managerial positions, not really necessarily knowing how to do that role as effectively as they can. So I guess we're kind of there to try and provide more support for those people as well. And again, like I saying earlier, fill in those gaps. So what sort of relevant Academy content is there for people looking to learn more about moving into management and leadership positions?

Jen Ayers (30:22)

Yeah, do you know, Abi, you're so right. And I've worked in this sphere for, like I said, over 10 years of professional development, and leadership is the number one thing that comes out of any kind of needs analysis that we do, and predominantly it's for our new leaders that are stepping into leadership and management. And hey, it's the hardest thing to learn. I'm in a leadership position and it's something that I continually have to learn and it's just an ever evolving subject and it's hard and it's tough and I think it's really important we put support out there for them. We're starting to develop our leadership stuff through the Academy. Like I said, we don't categorise things on the academy for roles, sort of vets or nurses, but what we do is we categorise things to help learners identify the most suitable courses for them. So we actually have a leadership and coaching category and we've got a course in there called Leadership versus Management, which is a great introduction actually. It's just a 45 minute short course and it's for anyone seeking to understand the difference between leadership and management because they're the two kind of fundamental cornerstones to this, and it's really important to recognise those differences because as a leader you flip between both in that position and it's a really great course. It's aimed at people new to leadership and management who've, exactly as you said Abi, have just stepped into that role and they want to develop their understanding a bit more about how to apply these concepts. We've got other courses in this category such as Principles of Delegation

I know a lot of new leaders really struggle with how to delegate and we have a modular course in there on mentorship which is much more of a kind of supportive type role in the leadership sphere. We also have really specific courses in that category such as VET GDP advisors and any leaders that will be supporting vets and nurses coming from overseas, we have courses for them.

It's certainly a category that we want to add much more in and I think next year we're going to start to develop much more around the leadership framework so we can continually add courses in because as I said it's just it's one of those areas that is really popular and people always need help and support with so yeah.

Abi Judd-English (32:29)

Yeah, that sounds great. It's like you're saying sort of listening to that demand and adding things accordingly, isn't it? And just carrying on to tweak it to make it as relevant as possible. So, going back, obviously we were saying it's so important to have content on demand so that people can fit it into their working days. But obviously people do still like those sorts of in-person interactions. So, I know recently, I think was it last year, you'll correct me if I'm wrong on this, we launched our Academy Live events for the first time, which aimed at bringing the courses to life. So yeah, can you tell us a bit more about that please?

Jen Ayers (33:02)

Yeah, you're pretty much right. We piloted Academy Live at the end of 2024 and then launched them fully last year in 2025. And they're online live CPD sessions. They're less than an hour. And they've become really popular, actually, Abi, probably more popular than I expected them to be. And I think that showed us that there's real demand for still that live learning, which is great. And we just wanted to add more of a blended learning approach into the Academy. So it's usually topics relating to academy content already. So we might have a big three or four hour modular course. We might pick one or two learning outcomes from that course and really drill into them. It’s delivered by the subject matter experts that we've developed the online course for. So it gives those learners the opportunity to interact with our subject matter experts.

Work with their peers as well so they interact with other people who are in a similar situation and interested in that subject matter. And we run these throughout the year on a range of topics actually and yeah like I said they've been super popular and yeah it's been really great to see people interacting with us.

Abi Judd-English (34:08)

Yeah, I've nothing but positive feedback from those events. Like you say, fill up fast, don't they? So people  are obviously getting a lot out of it. So yeah, it’s great. This coming year, what have we got coming up? What sort of courses can people expect to find new ones on the Academy?

Jen Ayers (34:21)

It's weird to talk about coming year, isn't it? Because I've just did the report for the first half of the year and I think, we're coming into May now.

Abi Judd-English (34:28)

Actually, we’re halfway through nearly now, aren't we?

Jen Ayers (34:30)

I know, but it goes so quickly and I think it's really nice when we look back at the end of the year to realise we've done so much and we've launched so much for our professions, but you're sometimes always looking forward. But we do have loads of great stuff.

We will continue to increase our offering of Academy Live. Because they've been so popular, we really want to explore other topics that our learners want to see. What else have we done this year? Well, we've just released our SVN Stepping Into Practice course. So that's our recent launch now. So that's for student veterinary nurses who are stepping into clinical practice. What can they expect? What professional behaviours are expected of them and the people that they're interacting with? And really importantly how to get the best out of that clinical placement. So we've put that course together to hopefully help our students have a really positive experience. We will also be launching a welcoming returners course as well. So I think you alluded to that earlier, Abi, when we were chatting, you know, as part of the workforce work that the advancement professions are doing. We're doing a welcoming returners course – that’s actually for our vets and nurses who will be welcoming people coming back from either a career break or paternity, maternity leave, just to know how to help those people settle back into practice and integrate and how to help them best with their learning and development.

We are updating the VetGDP advisor course at the moment and based on some feedback from our advisors and also adding more content into our VetGDP graduate induction course just to help our graduates know a bit more about what's practically expected of them when they enter the VetGDP.

We’re developing our new client support series, helping our vets and nurses know how to interact with clients with particular needs. So what we will launch with is a course around deaf awareness so that our vets and nurses can understand a little bit more about how to support our deaf and hard of hearing clients and really ensure that they fully understand how to help their pets.

There are various other things we want to add into there as well around neurodiverse clients, those with sight loss as well. So there's stacks of stuff we can put in there. And it can be quite daunting for vets and nurses, you know, we've got a client in with additional leads, and we want to help them as much as possible, but it's really difficult to know how best can we help them. So we are working with external providers. We're really excited about developing and launching that. That'll be later this year. And also towards the end of the year, we will be doing our EDI fundamentals modular course as well - something that's really critical, I think, for every practice to be doing.

Abi Judd-English (37:02)

Amazing, yeah, so not that busy then really, are you?

Jen Ayers (37:07)

There more stuff as well Abi!

Abi Judd-English (37:09)

It’s such important, incredible work though. How many are there in your team now?  Obviously you're working externally collaborating with people as well.

Jen Ayers (37:18)

Yeah, so there's seven of us now actually in the team. So there's myself and then on the operations side, we've got two people, they sort of keep things going and running and we have two people that develop content. So our content writers, they are also registered veterinary nurses. So it's really helpful - they put things into context and they're very good at scenario writing. So that's great. And what our learners always say, can we have a scenario? And scenarios work great because we can start to put things into context and know how to apply that learning. And we have two digital learning designers who use all their incredible skills to turn the content into something that's really engaging and interactive and that lands with our learners so that it makes sense, it sticks and they know then how to apply it. It was just myself that started the team, but then demand's got high, so we've grown.

Abi Judd-English (38:09)

Well to carry on with all that work. You need the people, don't you? It's amazing what you're doing and all the courses as well just sound brilliant. And obviously there's a need for it, isn't there? Because people are coming back, people are doing the courses, people are coming to the Academy live sessions. So yeah, it's just really, really exciting to be able to have that capacity to expand out into all those different areas as well and hopefully be able to help veterinary professionals in so many different scenarios. So obviously our Academy is free to access for all members and all registered veterinary nurses as well. So how can people access the Academy?

Jen Ayers (38:43)

Yeah, so yeah, I'm so glad you said that it's free CPD and everything can be logged on 1CPD as well. Our student vet nurses can also access it. Whilst they don't need to record on 1CPD, they can still access the content on there. So we've developed courses for them as well. So it's the same login details for My RCVS, so previously known as MyAccount. So we've not given another login details - I'm sure vets and nurses will be pleased to hear that.

So once you've logged into that portal, you can go straight through to the Academy and start to access those courses. But genuinely, if anyone has issues with accessing the Academy, they can just contact us directly. We've got [email protected]. So we'll probably pop that in the notes, Abi, if that's all right. That'd be great. Yeah, so it's easy to access once you're in there. And yeah, there's stacks, as I said, stacks of courses now for people to explore.

Abi Judd-English (39:26)

Well, thank you so much, Jen, that was a really interesting chat. This is what I love about my job is that get to chat to so many different people. As often, across the college, there's so much going on and I don't always know everything that's going on because there is just so much brilliant work.

We’ve put the events link in the show notes as well so people can see if there's any upcoming Academy Live events that they're interested in attending and obviously the link to the Academy as well.

Jen Ayers (40:00)

Well thank you for having me. Bye, Abi. Bye.

Abi Judd-English (40:02)

Thank you very much and I’ll speak to you soon.

Outro

Abi Judd-English (40:21)

So that brings us to the end of the May edition of the RCVS podcast. A massive thank you to Miles, Jen and Angharad for giving up their time and for being such great guests and providing such insightful content today. All the resources and links mentioned today can be found in the shownotes, so that includes a link to our RCVS Academy, our news stories, events, our workforce page and also to our next steps events.

Please do get in touch on [email protected] if you have any questions or queries or if you have any other ideas about content for future episodes. We love to have you involved, so please do get in touch. Thank you and I hope you have a great week.