Celebrations — a new Royal Charter!

The festive period will soon be upon us! It is also time to celebrate a momentous occasion in the progression of Veterinary Nursing in the UK.

Earlier this month the Privy Council approved the new Royal Charter and RCVS (Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons) council approved new rules relating to the registration of veterinary nurses. These new bye-laws and rules need to be in place when the new Royal Charter officially comes into effect. The new Royal Charter also sets out the objectives of the RCVS, essentially stating the functions of the RCVS encompassing the College vision.

A Royal Charter is a formal document issued by the monarch and therefore official sealing of the Royal Charter printed on vellum is to take place very soon.

It is interesting that the Privy Council approved the new Royal charter on the 5th November, a rather significant date in England's history when Guy Fawkes decided to try and blow up the House of Lords. The rather tenuous connection is that we too need to persuade parliament that we would like a change in legislation to introduce statutory regulation of veterinary nurses. Rather than resorting to violence, the RCVS has worked closely with the Veterinary Nursing council during the past few years on various activities in preparation for this to happen. A profession seeking regulation via legislation must first demonstrate that they are serious about going down this route. We have already met a number of these requirements with the introduction of self regulation by way of the Register in 2007 and more recently, the disciplinary processes in 2011. Now, the new Royal Charter formerly recognises the veterinary nursing profession as associates of the RCVS and has strengthened their powers to regulate VNs. The RCVS continues to work on ways to protect the title in legislation by getting our voice heard in parliament. The way forward is most likely to be from a Private Members bill, but getting a foot into parliament can take time. The e-petition on regulating veterinary nurses (http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18700) put forward by BVNA in 2012 received only 2525 signatures, 97 475 votes short of the required amount to be considered for debate in the House of Commons. In the words of Lord Kitchener's poster, ‘your country (and its pets) needs you’ (and your support) to help us move forward.