Ȥҹapp

There are several major areas of work for Ȥҹapp this year.

My presidential theme is A Profession prepared and united behind national disease resilience, so that will be a huge focus for me and the team. If the UK faced a major notifiable animal disease emergency tomorrow, how prepared would we really be? Not just government vets. Not just farm vets. All of us.

The next major outbreak may require veterinary skills and capacity on a scale that crosses our usual professional boundaries. Some roles will clearly require specialist species or disease expertise. Others may rely on transferable veterinary skills: clinical observation, welfare assessment, sampling, biosecurity, communication, triage, data gathering and working within protocols. So, one of the things I want us to explore is what it would mean to be genuinely prepared as a whole profession. 

Disease resilience is something I care about personally because of my background in farm animal medicine, antimicrobial stewardship and policy, but I also think it raises a much wider question for the profession around our preparedness to tackle a major notifiable disease outbreak.

Do people understand how they might contribute? What training would be needed? What capacity exists outside the traditional response structures? How could people actually be mobilised quickly? And what needs to be put in place before an emergency rather than invented in the middle of one?

We’ve already begun that work by bringing different parts of the profession together to discuss what is needed. Preparedness is not just about contingency plans. It’s about relationships, trust, shared responsibility and understanding how our different skills fit together.

We’re a diverse profession, and we should value that diversity. But some challenges demand that we act as one. If, by the end of my presidential year, we have helped build a profession that feels better connected, clearer about its role and more ready to respond when the country needs it, I will feel we have achieved something really worthwhile. 

Other key priorities

We’ll also be supporting members in small animal and mixed practice to implement the Competition and Markets Authority’s Final Orders, now its investigation has finally concluded, helping ensure everyone knows what they need to do, when, and making it as straightforward as possible following a long and tough few years during the process. We’ll build on the suite of practical resources already available on our dedicated webpage including client-facing explainers. We’ll also keep a watchful eye on how the CMA’s measures are working in practice, so we can inform any future CMA review.

Reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act is another major priority. The current legislation is badly outdated, and this year we need to keep building momentum for reform having secured a government White Paper, towards securing parliamentary time for a Bill. That includes getting cross political party support from parliamentarians. That’s why we’re encouraging our members to invite their local MP into practice to get ‘beyond the consulting room’ insight into how we serve their constituents and the wider role vets play in society, and the positive impact reform will have. Alongside this, we’ll press the UK government to progress commitments from its Animal Welfare Strategy, play a leading role in the launch of the new Welfare at Slaughter Alliance.

Our member research earlier this year flagged that you want more careers and workplace support, which will be another top priority. We’re also launching a new public campaign celebrating the difference you make every day and championing the value of being part of the veterinary profession.

Bringing people together

Taking on the role of Ȥҹapp President, what really excites me is the opportunity to bring people together. The veterinary profession is incredibly broad, and increasingly specialised. That gives us enormous depth of expertise, but it can also mean we operate in quite separate worlds – farm, companion animal, equine, government, public health, academia, research, industry and many others. Ȥҹapp is in a fairly unique position because it sits across those boundaries. 

I’m looking forward to listening to different perspectives, bringing people into the same conversation and helping turn that collective expertise into policy that is practical and useful. I’m particularly interested in collaborative policy development. I‘m instinctively suspicious of solutions developed for people without involving them. In my experience, the strongest policy comes from involving the people who understand the problem from different angles right from the beginning. There is also something very special about having the chance to represent the profession as a whole. That feels like a real privilege. 

I genuinely don’t remember ever wanting to be anything else other than a vet growing up. There are photos of me aged about three with a stethoscope around my neck, examining long-suffering teddy bears and apparently taking the whole thing very seriously.

Growing up in rural Wales, I think I was drawn to the version of veterinary medicine represented by James Herriot. It wasn’t just the animals. It was the idea of being part of a community, of having a role that extended beyond treating the individual animal in front of you. That still appeals to me now. 

I certainly didn’t grow up wanting to be Ȥҹapp President. That bit was very much an accidental evolution but as I look to the year ahead and what we’re hoping to achieve for our members, I’m certainly ready for the challenge.

Find out more about our new policy priorities.