FAQs

You can email, fax or write to us to change your personal details, but we cannot change details over the telephone. Please email [email protected] with your new details and name and enrolment number to inform us of a change of address.

When you begin your veterinary nurse training, you are registered by the RCVS at an Approved Centre. If you change employment and move to another practice, it is very important that both the receiving Centre and the RCVS are informed of the change immediately, using the VN Student Change of Details form.

Please ensure that you get this form signed by both your Practice Principal and Head of Centre. You should then either post it to the RCVS or scan and email the form to [email protected]. Failure to notify the RCVS of changes to your employment and/or approved centre may jeopardise your VN training.

Yes, we ask vets who have been out of practice for 5 years or longer to take part in VetGDP. You will be notified when you apply to return to the Register.

Please note there will be an opportunity for vets in certain circumstances to apply for an exemption from VetGDP, which will be determined on a case-by-case basis. This may include having worked in veterinary practice overseas for the period off the Register.

It is now too late to transfer from the 'old' certificate scheme, but you may enrol on the modular certificate system as a new candidate.

We’re hoping VetGDP will provide greater consistency and help to develop a learning culture across the profession. There shouldn't be any stigma in having a VetGDP Adviser; in fact, it shows more professionalism to ask for guidance when you need it than to pretend everything is fine when it isn't. As a veterinary professional, you are in charge of your own progress and development. The VetGDP Adviser training will include how to deliver feedback effectively and how to provide support. The training will also demonstrate what is expected in this programme so your VetGDP Adviser will understand this.

The programme is jointly led by the graduate and their VetGDP Adviser who has agreed to be the primary person providing support to the graduate(s) enrolled in the VetGDP in their workplace. Both the graduate and the VetGDP Adviser have a responsibility to engage with the programme, as indicated in the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct. In addition, the practice/workplace also has a responsibility for allowing the graduate and VetGDP Adviser protected time for support activities as declared in their application to become an RCVS Approved Graduate Development Practice/Workplace

Yes, you can sign up for the VetGDP. Please ensure that you have a VetGDP Adviser in place to support you. 

You will need to send a request to extend your enrolment period in a letter to the Veterinary Nursing department, along with a letter of support from your college and the principal of your training practice (if applicable). Requests are looked at on a case by case basis. The current one-year extension fee (2021) is £90. 

With a few exceptions, such as the College’s award-granting powers, there are few areas of RCVS activity that can be clearly divided into ‘Royal College’ or ‘regulatory’ categories.

For example, the College’s Mind Matters Initiative may once have been considered a Royal College activity, but it can be considered an ‘upstream’ regulatory activity as it works to ensure the profession is fit for purpose and sustainable, and able to meet the standards expected by the public.

It is notable that similar initiatives have subsequently been adopted by other regulators (which are not Royal Colleges) at home and abroad.

Being a ‘Royal College that regulates’ therefore allows the College to take a holistic and progressive approach, and this should be reflected in its structure.

As part of its recommendations for legislative reform, RCVS Council agreed that a holistic Royal College that regulates should be retained..

Yes, the VetGDP has been developed in response to extensive feedback from the profession and stakeholders, through an evaluation of the PDP and also through the Graduate Outcomes Consultation with the UK veterinary profession. We sought to understand what would be of greatest benefit to new graduates and in turn, how they can best be supported in practice. The research found that the profession would like to see a range of ways to support graduates in the workplace involving a balance between professional and clinical skills.

The need was for a programme to reflect their everyday work and professional development in practice, with a focus on structured, meaningful support. The research also found that there needed to be flexibility to accommodate different veterinary roles and graduates driving the programme with appropriate support within the workplace; this informed the VetGDP Adviser role.