What's the issue?

When considering future veterinary legislative reform, one of the outstanding questions relates to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) governance.

Governance, in this context, encompasses the structures, processes, and practices by which the RCVS operates to ensure accountability, transparency, and effectiveness in its dual roles as both a regulatory body and a Royal College. This includes how decisions are made, the composition and appointment of council members, and the delineation of roles between regulatory and other functions. Effective governance is crucial for maintaining public trust, upholding professional standards, and ensuring that the RCVS can adapt to evolving challenges within the veterinary professions.

What's our view?

There is a clear need for a holistic approach to RCVS governance reform. Our recommendations, which we would like to see adopted as a package of measures, include:

• RCVS Council members, both veterinary and lay, should be appointed rather than elected, following an open and competitive process and independent assessment against a clear set of competences.
• RCVS regulatory governance should be updated to align with the best practice seen in human healthcare regulators. This includes reducing the number of council members and ensuring a balanced composition of registrants and lay members, who are appointed based on clear competencies through an independent process.
• Allied professions regulated by RCVS should have their own dedicated Councils, similar to the existing VN Council.
• RCVS should commit to external scrutiny against similar standards to the Professional Standards Authority and publish the outcomes of that assessment in full.
• RCVS should strive for greater clarity and transparency of organisational identities, purposes, structure and governance, and communicate it effectively and consistently to the veterinary professions and the public.
• RCVS should articulate more clearly the activities which it considers to be Royal College and Regulatory functions, and the costs associated with each.
• A separate governing Council for the Royal College function should be established, with elected members. The Royal College Council should focus on the veterinary surgeons and veterinary nursing professions, while other allied professions should establish their own equivalent(s) of Royal College(s) if needed.

To find out more about the background to our policy position, read this blog by BVA Senior Vice President Malcolm Morley.