Practice Standards Scheme newsletter - October 2026

Behind the Practice Standards Scheme is a dedicated team of officers and assessors, working with practices to support them throughout their journey with the scheme.

Over the coming editions, we’ll introduce you to members of the team and share a little more about their roles and what they do.

"I'm the team’s Lead Officer. I have worked in the PSS Team for nearly six years and started as an officer. I’ve previously worked as a civil servant as well as in the shipping industry. I have two rescue cats called Theo and Nero who are full of life and character, and can’t imagine life without them." - Amanda Radford, PSS Lead Officer (pictured above, right)

"I’ve worked with PSS for almost nine years and feel incredibly proud to be part of an organisation that is so committed to supporting the veterinary profession. With a background in clinical practice, leadership and consultancy, I’m passionate about ensuring we continue to provide an excellent service and genuine value to our members. I particularly enjoy working with practices and colleagues across the profession and playing a part in helping PSS evolve to meet our members’ changing needs." - Alice Duvernois, Lead PSS Assessor (pictured above, left)

We’ve also asked our officers and assessors to share their top tips for practices. These will feature regularly in the newsletter, giving you practical advice and reminders from the people who work with practices every day.

Meet more of our assessors on our ‘Meet the PSS assessors’ page.

"Consider completing the RCVS Knowledge medicines CPD – ‘Managing Veterinary Medicines: Staying Legal and Promoting Safety’. Open to RCVS registered and non-registered team members, the course is free to complete, worth six hours of CPD, and is useful for compliance with Veterinary Hospital Standard 10.3. It’s also excellent CPD for those interested in medicines management." - Terry Oomerjee, PSS Regional Manager

"A top tip for farm and equine vets is to ensure they have a good supply of practice labels for dispensing medicines from their vehicles.  Also sourcing a supply of QR code stickers related to specific medicines for clients to access the relevant information are very useful (especially where packs are split for dispensing from the car.)" - Bridget Taylor, PSS Assessor

"To keep the post assessment flow efficient, I recommend remembering to press the green 'Ready for post inspection re-review' button in the bottom right-hand corner of the 'Actions to take' box once evidence has been uploaded. This will then notify the assessor that evidence needs to be reviewed and allow the review process to be quicker and prompt for practices." - Amanda Radford, PSS Lead Officer 

Earlier this year, we rolled out the Suicide Prevention Standard as part of the Practice Standards Scheme.

We’ve been really pleased to see the positive impact the standard has had so far, and to see practices engaging with this important area.

The standard gives practices an opportunity to consider suicide prevention within their workplace, raise awareness and think about how they can support colleagues and others who may be struggling.

To help support practices in meeting the standard, alongside the RCVS Mind Matters Team, we have created a range of resources which are available to access via our dedicated ‘Suicide prevention in the veterinary workplace’ page, including a suicide prevention toolkit for veterinary workplaces.

Thank you to all the practices who have engaged with the new standard and shared their experiences with us. Your feedback is incredibly valuable and helps us to understand what works well in practice and where we can continue to provide support.

We’re delighted to have the RCVS Academy joining us for our newsletters.

The Academy team have put together their own feature, highlighting learning and development opportunities and resources that may be useful to you and your practice team.

Supporting the wellbeing of your team

The RCVS Academy is the RCVS’ online digital learning platform, providing free, flexible CPD to help veterinary professionals meet the RCVS professional standards throughout their careers. The Academy offers a range of courses covering professional development, leadership, wellbeing and other non-clinical topics, as well as regular Academy Live sessions exploring a range of relevant topics.

Supporting the wellbeing of your team is an important part of creating a positive working environment. Two courses that may be particularly relevant to practices are ‘Suicide awareness fundamentals’ and ‘Managing mental health in the workplace.’

• Suicide awareness fundamentals - explores how to recognise when someone may be struggling, how to approach conversations about suicide and how you can support someone who may be at risk.
• Managing mental health in the workplace - looks at the role managers can play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their teams. It covers creating a supportive working environment, having conversations about mental health and responding appropriately when a team member is struggling.

Both courses provide practical learning that can help build confidence in supporting colleagues and contribute to a workplace where mental health and wellbeing are openly recognised and supported.

Explore these courses and the wider range of learning available through the RCVS Academy, using your MyRCVS account details to log in.

For any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to the Academy team at: [email protected].

We hope this newsletter will become a useful way for us to stay connected with practices within the Practice Standards Scheme.

If there’s something you’d particularly like us to cover, we’d love to hear from you. Your feedback will help us make sure the newsletter is relevant and useful. You can contact us on [email protected].

Thank you for being part of the Practice Standards Scheme, and we hope you enjoyed the first edition of our newsletter.