Tag Archives: news

Allied Veterinary Professionals to be regulated

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For the last 16 years I have been saying that regulation of the behaviour and training sector is a priority and if we (the stakeholders in the sector) don’t voluntarily present a viable regulatory structure that function will be imposed on us by the RCVS. That day has now appeared on the horizon.

With the review of the Veterinary Surgeons Act (1966) currently under way right now it is clear that services labelled ‘Allied Veterinary Professionals’ (AVPs) are to be included in future legislation and there is a plan to get the legislation in place before the end of this Parliamentary term (August 2029 at the latest). There is obviously a lot of detail to be sorted out but one clear indication at this stage is that practitioners will need a licence to practise. That licence will be based on the individual holding suitable qualifications and demonstrating the practical skills required to competently carry out their chosen role, along with insurance and monitored annual CPD.

The management of such a system will fall to one organisation for each AVP activity under the authority of the RCVS and for behaviour and training the ABTC is the only possible candidate that comes close to having the infrastructure to support established practitioner standards, policies and procedures to deliver that function. Their assessment processes have already been confirmed as complying with ISO 17067 and work towards achieving Certification Body status is in advanced stages. All practitioners will have to work to an ABTC standard and satisfy the requirements associated with it in order to gain their licence to practise. Other organisations that would hope to fulfil this role are known to be active critics of ABTC but none have the required credentials to offer a credible alternative.

The forthcoming changes will affect everyone working in the sector to some degree or another, more than anyone it will impact those who do not meet the ABTC standards for the role they currently work in or are planning to work in. There will be a need to qualify for registration with ABTC on one of the four role registers, this is typically achieved by completing a recognised course and being assessed by one of the approved assessing member organisations. Anyone who does not fit this profile could end up with difficulties when it comes to acquiring a licence, that includes anyone whose parent organisation is not an approved ABTC member or the course(s) they have completed are not recognised.

There is another route to an ABTC register which is known as APEL (Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning). It is a complex and lengthy process that assesses an individual’s knowledge and skills based on their experience carrying out the role. It should not be seen an easy option however and does not guarantee success, places are booked well into the future.

I have been predicting this development for a number of years and many people in the sector have chosen to ignore the message or offer disparaging comments in an attempt to bolster their differing opinion. Now that these predictions are beginning to come to fruition it will undoubtedly start to generate a great deal of discussion and emotion as people discover that the various routes they chose or are choosing to become ‘qualified’ turn out to be of less value than they were led to believe.

The message now is that there are just three years to get prepared, the alternative is to continue ignoring the signs in the blind hope that it will all be OK and nothing will change but that seems a bit risky when you are dealing with something as important as your career.

The only Bona Fide certification scheme

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This is a particularly short blog as it doesn’t require much explanation and is more of a news flash than a discussion. The repercussions for the animal behaviour and training sector however should not be underestimated.

In October 2023 I wrote a blog about what it means to be certified and explained the requirements of creating a valid certification scheme. At that time there were no such bona fide schemes in existence despite their advertising suggesting otherwise.

There are still a number of organisations that declare they certify or certificate their individual practitioners but sadly, none have had any of their certification schemes validated through independent accreditation from an authoritative body. This means that they do not amount to much more than a marketing scheme aimed at attracting people to sign up with them. It has to be admitted it sounds more impressive to be called a certified animal trainer or behaviourist than not. The reality however is that the addition of the word ‘certified’ in these cases actually has no real value at all.

Two years on from that last blog real progress has finally been made by ABTC as it has just announced that its certification scheme has achieved UKAS recognition. All the policies, procedures and standards associated with the certification scheme have been examined and reviewed by UKAS and found to be compliant with ISO/IEC 17067. This is a huge milestone for the industry which means that there is now a genuine certification scheme for the animal behaviour and training sector.

The way it works is that the ABTC member organisations that assess their individual practitioners will be approved to certify them by ABTC as the certification scheme owner. This means that all stakeholders can have confidence that the practitioners they engage have met the high level of competence they claim and their assessment has met internationally recognised standards. No longer is there a need to rely on self declaration of skills.

No doubt the unverified systems will continue outside of the influence of ABTC for the time being but if someone presents as an expert on the basis that they say they are or their professional assessment was not part of a genuine validated certification scheme the advice would be ‘buyer beware’.

For anyone already in the industry and registered with ABTC, well done, you are officially at the fore front of professionalism. If you have doubts about the way things are going you should be aware that the government is actively discussing regulation of the sector and UKAS accreditation is very much a factor in their decision making. There is a clear desire to bring all practitioners up to ABTC standards.

Qualifications, Ofqual and regulation

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I have written on the topic of course provision before (see: The erosion of quality education and Ofqual regulated qualifications v Accreditation from Ofqual regulated body) because it is a complicated subject and there is so much misinformation out there that many people are being drawn in and convinced to part with large sums of money for something that will eventually not live up to the promises being made.

As we progress towards regulation of animal training and behaviour services getting the right education is becoming more and more important or you could be wasting a lot of time and money on something that is not going to be acceptable when it comes. Some will tell you that regulation will never happen but the government is actively discussing it now and will be working to achieving it within this parliamentary term.  

So what will regulation mean in terms of course provision? There are several factors to consider but the most important is whether the course covers all the requirements of a given role (trainer or behaviourist for example) at the right level and in sufficient depth. It is possible for a course to cover some of the requirements but if it is essentially not in sufficient detail or examine all the required topics satisfactorily it will not be acceptable.

I am now frequently asked about Ofqual qualifications because they are ‘recognised’ but you have to understand what this means because it is undoubtedly not what you would assume to be the case. Ofqual recognition says that the course is provided at a given level and written to an educational standard, it is NOT saying that its content meets an industry standard in any way. Ofqual cannot and never will regulate the animal training and behaviour sector so when you are told it is a regulated qualification it only refers to academic characteristics NOT what value that provision has in the workplace. That will be determined solely by an industry regulator.

While I am on the topic of Ofqual and misinformation there is a mistaken belief that an Ofqual regulated qualification is somehow a superior product than one accredited by an Ofqual regulated Awarding Body, this is not the case as they have both been through the same rigorous process of approval. Once again I say what is more important when comparing such courses is the content, the level and the total learning hours required to complete it. I recently had someone saying they had done a level 5 Ofqual regulated programme with someone else and now wanted to undertake a level 6 course but on investigation it was discovered that the level 5 she had completed had less than a quarter of the content required and therefor did not provide a suitable basis for progression. The real difference is that Ofqual regulated qualifications belong to Ofqual not the writers, unlike the alternative that remains the intellectual property of the provider.

So who will be the industry regulator? Currently there are a few groups that seem to offer some form of voluntary regulation but only one that comes close to having the infrastructure, policies and procedures in place to carry out the role for the whole sector. One absolute requirement of government is that such a regulator would be UKAS accredited, something that ABTC has had in preparation for two years and is being assessed for right now. It is highly unlikely that any other potential candidates are likely to achieve such accreditation.