FAQs

The College’s principal purpose is to protect animal health and welfare, and to maintain public confidence in the veterinary professions. It does this by setting standards of professional conduct and veterinary care, by setting educational standards, by providing guidance on what is expected of veterinary professionals, and taking action where necessary where there are concerns about fitness to practise.

It must do so in a way that gives assurance to the public and government that it is acting in the interest of the public rather than the professions, where those interests may differ.

It is therefore appropriate that the College considers governance reform in line with the principles established for other regulators, both in the human health sector and elsewhere.

The RCVS is indeed unique as ‘a Royal College that regulates’, and this may be a justification for some variance from the usual principles of regulatory governance.

RCVS Council has already agreed that it should recommend the retention of a membership of 24 people, which is considerably above the norm, and is also considering whether to maintain a majority of registrant members.

However, the medical Royal Colleges are not regulators and therefore their governance arrangements may not need to reflect the aforementioned principles; they are therefore not useful comparators when considering RCVS governance reform.

The traditional model of self-regulation, involving professional majorities and elections to governing bodies, is no longer in-line with government principles on good regulatory governance.

However, one key aspect of self-governance is a statutory regulatory body responsible for regulation that is independent of government – this contrasts with models where regulation is carried out directly by government departments. There are no plans to change this aspect of self-regulation.

In any event, those members elected to Council are not there to represent the interests of the professionals who vote for them, but to ensure veterinary input into decisions that are in the public interest.

This would count as a veterinary prescription, even where the human-licenced medicine is not itself prescription-only.

Human-licensed medication could be prescribed under step (c)(i) (in Great Britain) or (b)(i) (in Northern Ireland) of the prescribing cascade, however, the justification in this case would also need to account for why a veterinary medicine (authorised for that species and condition, or for another species or condition) could not be used.

There is specific information regarding prescribing human-licensed paracetamol on the RCVS website.

Additionally, the VMD has provided guidance on the use of medicines commonly found around the home:

In exceptional emergency circumstances, you may judge there is a need to alleviate a pet’s discomfort until a home visit can be made or the animal brought to the surgery. You could recommend that an animal owner use a human medicine that they already have in their possession, such as antihistamine tablets. This does not mean a pet owner should be encouraged to go into a pharmacy and ask for a human medicine for their pet.

As it already does for its appointed lay Council members, and for members of PIC and DC Committees, an appointment mechanism would be independent in line with Professional Standards Authority guidance, as is the case with other health regulators.

It is not possible to claim credit/equivalence for previously achieved qualifications.

The majority of these programmes are based on a blended learning approach, with the majority of your work completed remotely. However, there is likely to be an expectation of some attended sessions.

You should check this when you contact the provider and ensure you can feasibly travel to the relevant campus if required.

No. VetGDP applies to all veterinary graduates from summer 2021 and you will not be able to defer to the PDP. The practice or workplace you’re employed at needs to become an RCVS Approved Graduate Development Practice, which means that they must have at least one fully trained VetGDP Adviser.

Once you submit a completed declaration of intention to sit you will be eligible to ‘see practice’ in accordance with the provisions laid out in the Veterinary Surgeons Act.

This affords you the opportunity to gain practical, clinical experience, as part of your preparation for the examination and is strongly recommended. Further information about the regulations around ‘seeing practice’ can be found in the examination guidance and on the website.

Yes, at the end of each course you will be asked to complete a short survey about your learning experience. You will also be able to make comments about other areas. You can also feedback at any time by emailing us: [email protected]

Yes, throughout your course, you will notice our notes icon that can mark your page. View our navigational video which explains how to use our notes-learning tool.