19 Sept 2024
Widespread support for college’s public advisory group’s role to be continued when its work was discussed at the latest RCVS council meeting.
Allister Webb
Job Title
Public input into the work of the RCVS is set to continue amid calls for a longer-term view of how the process could evolve.
A review of the public advisory group (PAG) set up by the college last year has been delayed until the spring to enable its current work to be completed.
But there was widespread support for the group’s role to be extended when its work was discussed at the latest college council meeting on 11 September.
Elected member Will Wilkinson said the body’s role gave the college “credibility”, while lay member Derek Bray said future debates should not be focused on “whether we continue with this”.
College president Linda Belton added: “It’s really important we continue to work with that voice.”
The current PAG was given the green light two years ago and launched as an initial 12-month pilot project in September 2023.
The meeting, held at the Royal College of Nursing in London, was told that 34 members were recruited, of whom only one had subsequently withdrawn for personal reasons.
The group’s primary work has focused on the development of a new animal owners’ section of the college’s website, which a report published ahead of the meeting said was intended to help clients have “more informed interactions” with practice teams.
But the meeting was told that work had been put on hold in June to enable members to discuss the impact of the current Competition and Markets Authority review of companion animal services and has only just resumed.
Although a review of the pilot was planned at the end of its initial 12-month term, council members overwhelmingly voted to delay that process until next March to allow time to complete the website project.
In her report to the meeting, college chief executive Lizzie Lockett said the review would be “more effective” after the current project is completed and would need to consider whether the PAG’s current set-up “meets our needs”.
But she also argued that any move to reduce public input now was unlikely to be deemed acceptable either.
She wrote: “Now more than ever, the question is likely to be less around whether animal owner/keeper input is necessary, but the vehicle via which it is achieved”.
PAG chairperson Louise Allum said she felt the initiative had made “a really great start”, adding: “We’d really like to push ahead.”
She acknowledged a need for greater diversity among the group’s membership as well and said longer-term plans would be drawn up once the current project is completed.
Dr Allum also indicated that consideration would be given to the structure of its future work and whether only forums, such as smaller focus groups, might also be used.
Some concerns were raised about the need for new members to be recruited and the risk of current members becoming “institutionalised” as they continue their roles.
Questions were also raised about whether current group members could also be deployed in a form of outreach role to promote the college’s work to the wider public.
But Mr Bray said ensuring members felt they were being listened to, regardless of whether their ideas were taken forward, was key to ensuring the project’s continued success.
