Practice Life Magazine Issue 13 September/October 2016

September/October 2016 www.practicelife.biz

Fees: Making it clear & avoiding issues

Tax efficiencies

THE MAGAZINE OF SPVS AND VPMA

In the spotlight: Mark Evans talks exclusively to Practice Life

spend and save

SPECIAL:

Building a vision for your practice

SPVS-VPMA Congress 2017 including editor’ s top picks

VPMA l SPVS l VPMA l SPVS l VPMA l SPVS l VPMA l SPVS

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EDITORS’ LETTERS

Editors’ Letters

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elcome on behalf of SPVS to the September edition of Practice Life. Since our last edition, the society has hosted another excellent final-year student seminar at Lancaster. As usual, Catriona Curtis and the SPVS office provided a packed weekend of talks aimed at students who’ll soon be seeking their first job – and as usual I probably learned as much as the students did from the excellent programme.

I also absorbed some of the students’ energy and infectious enthusiasm for the profession, which has had a rejuvenating effect on me. As veterinary practice evolves, it’s interesting to see the developments in our field and empowering to realise the sheer range of jobs our MRCVS status allows us to carry out – the diversity of

H

ello again and welcome to another packed issue of Practice Life. One of our featured topics is about personality profiling.

I recently came across some paperwork from 1999 in which a member of our own practice team had really been put “through the mill” when applying for a reception position.

The then practice owner must have been pretty forwardthinking to adopt such methods in the recruitment process.

Well it clearly worked since that member of staff is still gainfully employed within our practice! The then-used “Thomas International Programme TST 4 cross functional survey” concentrated on a series of aptitudes – feature

careers represented was breathtaking. I can recommend getting involved to any practitioner, whether you’re a recent graduate or battle-weary veteran. The students get a chance to grill recent grads as well as bosses in a panel session and we would love to have independent practices represented, so if anyone reading is keen, get in touch.

Given the rate of change we are living through since the Brexit referendum, who knows where the country will be by our next issue in December, but at least you can use our dates for your diary to help plan your professional life. Enjoy getting stuck into this issue and, as ever, let us know your thoughts.

Leigh-Anne Brown, SPVS editor

detection, reasoning, number skills, working memory and orientation and came across as a very black and white (literally), pass or fail affair. Today, it seems the route to personality profiling is certainly more colourful, but just how much is it used in practice? A great article by Ben Hardy can be found on p28 – just a small part of what we think is another helpful edition of your magazine, which you can digest during lunch or as those nights start to draw in... now there’s a cheery thought!

Ian Wolstenholme, VPMA editor

Practice Life is the magazine of SPVS and VPMA. If you are interested in joining either or both associations, visit www.spvs.org.uk and www.vpma.co.uk

www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

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Contents Editors

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UPDATE: NEWS & VIEWS 5

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VPMA NEWS

SPVS Leigh-Anne Brown, MRCVS leigh-anne@practicelife.biz VPMA Ian Wolstenholme, Practice Manager ian@practicelife.biz Publisher Mojo Consultancy Ltd 181 Sandpit Lane St Albans AL4 0BT

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Meet the new board g

SPVS NEWS

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Snowcene, Social media guidance g

NURSE TALK

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COLLEGE CORNER

Tel +44 (0) 1727 859259 info@mojoconsultancy.com www.mojoconsultancy.com

Developments in the professional

Advertising and Sales Enquiries

conduct department

Libby Sheridan MVB MRCVS libby@practicelife.biz Tel:01727 859259

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT

vet & broadcaster Mark Evans

Eva Lambe eva@practicelife.biz

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www.spvs.org.uk www.vpma.co.uk The magazine contains articles on veterinary business and management as well as other topical updates and relevant features. The information contained within these articles is intended for general information only and does not replace the need for advice from qualified professionals in the relevant field.

Articles and photographs are welcomed for submission, though publication is not guaranteed and is at the discretion of the editors.

Practice Life is edited, designed, and published by Mojo Consultancy Ltd. No part of Practice Life Magazine may be reproduced, transmitted, stored electronically, distributed, or copied, in whole or part without the prior written consent of the publisher.

A reprint service is available.

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WELL-BEING

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Supporting practice after a suicide g

MANAGING PEOPLE

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How accurate are Personality Profiles? g

CLIENT CARE AND MARKETING

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Are you losing money by not making your fees clear? g

BUSINESS HEALTH AND FINANCE

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28

Choosing the right finance option g

PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT

37

Where is your business going? g

CPD SHARED

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Reviews the Digital Technology & Marketing day g

Š 2016 Practice Life All rights reserved.

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An exclusive interview with

Sales Administrator

Practice Life is the magazine of the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons and the Veterinary Practice Management Association. It is distributed quarterly to the members of both associations as well as a wider mailing list of veterinary practices annually.

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BVNA Congress offers more

CPD DIARY

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Special congress 2017 feature g

WHAT’S COMING UP

Details of the Winter 2016 issue

50 44 28

Opinions expressed in this journal do not necessarily reflect those of the associations, the editors, Practice Life Magazine or its publisher, Mojo Consultancy Ltd. ISSN 2053-1877

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

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News & Views Rita’s ride to Paris

People who are experiencing the challenges of MS were cycling among us and an amazing girl called Kate, who had been partially paralysed in a car accident six years ago, cycled in a tricycle that had been specially made for her – they were all truly inspirational. The weather was extremely hot and the route had “cheeky hills” (mountains in my opinion) and some “undulations” (hills to you and I).

I cycled for the following charities, which are very dear to my heart: Bike4Cancer, GrassRoots Suicide Prevention, Age UK (Heathfield) and East Neuk Wheelchair Appeal. Many of you have already made generous donations and I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity. The total including gift aid currently stands at £3,664 and it would be truly amazing to raise £4,000 so that each charity would benefit from £1,000 each.

Much to my surprise, Evie (my bike) and I managed to cycle all the way to Paris! We cycled with a group of a 115 likeminded people and it was a truly memorable and humbling experience, as well as being great fun and an opportunity to make many friends.

There is still time to donate and if you would like to do so, it is easy – just follow the link and click donate: http://www.bike4cancer.org/l2p-2016-rita-dingwall.

JustGiving sends your donation straight to Bike4Cancer who will then divide the donations by four so each charity will receive the same amount. You will be helping to make a difference to so many people’s lives. Rita Dingwall

INFLEXION ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR Arnold Levy of Medivet has been shortlisted for the Inflexion Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the 2016 Lloyds Bank National Business Awards.

The finalists were chosen from the hundreds of businesses that entered or were nominated across 18 award categories. They will now prepare for live presentations to an expert judging panel who will decide the overall winners.

For the first time, RT Hon Conor McGinn MP hosted a reception for the Business Awards at the House of Commons. This enabled finalists to meet fellow entrants, the National Business Awards Advisory Board members, judges (who they will present to in September) and sponsors of each category.Described as “the Oscars of great British business” by former Prime Minister David Cameron, this year’s prestigious award ceremony will take place on November 15 at Grosvenor House, Park Lane, where the winners will be revealed.

Dr Levy, Chief Executive Officer of Medivet, said: “Having worked hard, with passion and determination, to successfully grow our business over the past 30 years, we are delighted to be shortlisted for The Inflexion Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016. We are very proud and grateful to be recognised in this way, and this will inspire us even more.”

Don’t forget you can send us your press releases on practice successes and initiatives. Suppliers are also welcome to send information on management-related products and services. Email to libby@practicelife.biz

www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

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FOCUS ON PRACTICE TEAM

Focus on

sponsored by

Practice Team CPD Preview BOOK NOW! October 13th, Chesford Grange, Warwickshire Profitable practices need well trained, happy and well managed staff who feel valued.

At a time when good veterinary staff are in short supply, that means being ahead of the game in recruitment, training, promotion and remuneration.

This day brings together some of the best ideas and the best speakers on leadership, management, employment law and staff training.

One stream will concentrate on overall HR issues, the other will focus on the reception team and front of house and how this impacts on your client communication.

Our chairs for the day are Nick Steele from Zoetis, and Brian Faulkner from The Colourful Consultancy.

As always, our exhibition of HR and management related suppliers, consultants and software solutions will help you to find answers to your business needs.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE HUMAN RESOURCES STREAM

Difficult Conversations: Brian Faulkner, The Colourful Consultancy Helpful rules to where, when and how to approach difficult conversations enabling you to have these conversations early, before situations escalate and everyone suffers the consequences.

Managing Absence: James Cronin, Eight Legal Understand your legal obligations as an employer along with you and your employee’s rights. There are essential steps to take right from the start to avoid negative consequences further down the line.

Diagnosing Team Effectiveness: Nick Steele, Zoetis Giving simple models and frameworks that you can use straight away to diagnose the reasons behind poor performance, you’ll then learn to form a people-plan to begin to deal with them.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FRONT OF HOUSE STREAM

Finding and Keeping Receptionists: Georgina Hills, IVC Commonly presented with a very large pool of potential candidates to choose from, this session will help you identify which applicants will make the best receptionists – and then persuade them to accept the job!

Understanding the People Puzzle: Carolyne Crowe

Read more about the day and register now at http://vpma-spvs-events. co.uk/focus-on-thepractice-team/ Just £125+VAT for a full day including lunch

A look at how behavioural profiling can be successfully utilised in veterinary practice to help you understand different personalities in the clinic team, as well as more challenging clients.

Why Mystery Shopping Leads to More Appointment Offers: Alison Lambert, Onswitch Mystery shopping will help you quantify and measure your practice’s performance against yourself and other practices.

Remember that what gets measured and managed gets better!

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

VPMA News President’s Welcome At the time of writing this uncertainty is in the air as we have had the result of the Brexit vote, shortly followed by the resignation of political leaders. VPMA has not made any comment or press release as no one knows the effect this referendum result will have on our industry and really it does not change anything... we will continue to manage any changes as they happen and continue to be a resource and support network for our members as they need it. These are going to be interesting times and, unlike our current batch of politicians, VPMA will continue to strive to lead the way in informing and keeping our members up to date with any legislation changes and how they may affect us in practice – so watch this space!

Since I wrote my last column I have spoken at the College of Animal Welfare Head Nurse Congress, and have also been involved in the VN Futures action group that is working alongside the BVA/ RCVS Vet Futures project.

The topic of leadership was an area for discussion within both of these and highlighted as an area in need of development, not just for practice managers and business owners, but, more importantly, within the rest of the practice team.

We are all required to lead at times and if I am honest I am at times seeing a reluctance from people to stand up, be confident and come forward to lead... whether it’s as a team leader or veterinary surgeon leading a consultation and advising a client. This is often because people are uncertain of their role as a leader and how they feel they have a lack of support from their managers and employers. I would be interested to hear from people as to how they develop leadership skills within their teams, whether through in-house programmes or formal training and what they have found the most effective. We need to share this information as I feel this is a massive issue within our industry.

Please email me at president@vpma.co.uk if you have any information or advice you could share with the rest of our membership.

VPMA are running a “New to Management” stream at VPMA/SPVS Congress in January, for which registration should be open by the time this goes to print. Please encourage some of your other senior team members to come along and see what congress has to offer them... if nothing else to find out that they are not alone and we are all facing the same challenges in practice. I am looking forward to seeing you all there in January!

Renay Rickard RVN CVPM VPMA President

VPMA NEWS

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Certificate in Veterinary Practice Management: Human Resources Question 6 HR, personnel, staff, team manager, leader or boss – however you refer to it, a large part of a Practice Manager’s job is looking after and leading the people who work in the practice, from the part-time cleaner to the full-time head vet.

In practice this is often an area the partners or directors are least enthusiastic about getting involved with; checking the reception rota or discussing maternity leave is not at the top of their daily list. But without a happy, well-managed team there would be no veterinary practice.

The difficult part of assessing HR skills is that it genuinely covers both management and leadership. For the Certificate in Veterinary Practice Management we look at the following areas:

Employment legislation and rights Are you aware of the implications and do you know where to find out the most up-to-date facts. Examples of this are the minimum wage, SSP, SMP, shared parental leave and the new pension legislation.

Recruitment What can you put in an advert, interview techniques, job descriptions, terms and conditions, contracts and inductions.

Protocols and procedures Both best practice and statutory. What protocols have you developed and implemented in your practice; for example, what should an employee do if he or she is going to be late, how do these protocols help keep the practice running smoothly and the teams happy. Legally do you understand the grievance and disciplinary procedures, where can you get assistance should you have to go through this?

PAYE and working patterns Can you explain an employee’s payslip to them if asked, how do you match business needs to the rota and fulfil working time regulations and team members’ needs?

These are all areas that you “manage” and can seek external advice on. The harder part, both for the VPMA to assess and for Practice Mangers to feel confident in is the leadership and interpersonal skills required on a daily basis.

Here we will want to know how you motivate your teams, what is your approach to managing staff conflict or poor performance and, equally, how do you reward your teams and empower them in their roles. There is currently a focus on mental wellbeing, so how do you ensure this for both yourself and for the teams, how important do you feel it is and how do you deal with stress in yourself and others in practice.

This is where the style of the CVPM exam – oral, allows you to show your own thoughts and views on this area through discussion and scenario-based questions – what would you do?

An example of an HR question would be –

You are a Practice Manager in a small animal practice. One of your employees, who has worked for the practice for four years, has taken time off for a stressrelated illness. She has now been absent for four months. What actions would you take?

Human resources is often the most challenging and rewarding part of a Practice Manager’s job and an area we are forever developing, improving and learning about. By taking the CVPM you can gain the recognition you deserve for all the effort and skills you put into managing and leading your teams. To see the full syllabus for the CVPM exam visit www.vpma.co.uk/education/cvpm If you would like to submit your answer to our example question, either written or recorded, please send to c&t@vpma.co.uk. Feedback will be given to those who put forward responses.

Georgina Hills, RVN, CVPM

www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

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VPMA NEWS

Regional News

MEET YOUR REGIONAL ORGANISERS If you are not in touch with your local regional group and would like to get more involved, please contact the VPMA Secretariat: secretariat@vpma.co.uk

The regions have again been busy through the summer months, as we ran more of our SAGE/auto-enrolment workshops, and also have been running a CVPM workshop alongside some other regional meetings. At our board meetings we always discuss ways to engage more of our members at regional level as we are aware that some areas of the country are lacking meetings. If you are in one of those areas you can contact me as, although you may not have a regional organiser, we can help get meetings up and running if there is a demand for them.

If you contact myself or Linda Marshall, who is in the VPMA Secretariat (secretariat@vpma.co.uk), then we will see what we can do to help. I would like, if possible, to work with some of the other veterinary divisions in the next 12 to 18 months to hold some joint meetings at a regional level on leadership and management issues, so let me know of any topic you think we should be running meetings on. Should there be any legislation changes we will ensure you are kept well informed at regional level and have some speakers available to do this.

One group with whom we have carried out some research are head nurses. We surveyed the vast majority who attended the Head Nurse Congress and 90% of respondents listed team management as their responsibility. Among these, 89% wanted more training in people management and 80% wanted more training in dealing with difficult team members. Overall, only 53% felt “reasonably well equipped” in their nonclinical role. There is a strong message here that we have some work to do. Also, 60% of nurses also said they would like to attend local meetings. I urge you all to encourage your head nurses to attend regional meetings – why not make it a team event? Get together and discuss some of the issues that affect us all!

Renay Rickard – VPMA President & Regional Co-ordinator

CUMBRIA Pauline Graham Tel: 07803 228720 ro3@vpma.co.uk

NORTH WEST REGION Janet Hughes & Janie Clare Tel: 07964 505226 ro17@vpma.co.uk

HERTS/BEDS/NORTHANTS Denise Whitham Tel: 07837 058155 ro4@vpma.co.uk

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE Julie Beacham Tel: 07710 317310 ro18@vpma.co.uk

GLOUCESTERSHIRE/SOUTH WALES Melvyn Wilkins Tel: 07887 895274 ro5@vpma.co.uk

SOUTH WEST Suzanne Headington Tel: 01242 680000 ro20@vpma.co.uk

EAST ANGLIA Cath Grimsey & Tamsin Swain ro6@vpma.co.uk

CORNWALL/DEVON Renay Rickard Tel: 01208 872254 ro21@vpma.co.uk

LONDON mark harwood Tel: 01242 680000 ro7@vpma.co.uk

ESSEX LIZ LA-PAGE Tel: 07772 382465 ro22@vpma.co.uk

OXFORDSHIRE/WILTSHIRE/BERKSHIRE Helen Sanderson Tel: 07765 338607 ro13@vpma.co.uk

MANCHESTER Kate Mincher Tel: 01633 745294 Ro2@vpma.co.uk

NORTH EAST/CO DURHAM Claire Bake Tel: 01388 602707 ro16@vpma.co.uk

YORKSHIRE Lisa Winter Tel: 0777 2682617 Ro8@vpma.co.uk

LONDON REGIONAL MEETING Join the London regions meeting on Wednesday September 14 in Uxbridge. The afternoon will start with a CVPM workshop at midday until 1.30. Then at 2pm the regional meeting “Taking Back Wellness” will begin, including an open-floor discussion.

Attendees are welcome to attend both the CVPM workshop and the regional meeting or they may attend one or the other.

For details of up and coming events in Gloucester/South Wales, joint south-west/Devon/Cornwall and others please look out for emails and check the website http://www.vpma.co.uk/about-thevpma/the-regions.html

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

VPMA NEWS

SPONSORED BY

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VET FESTIVAL 2016 VPMA was pleased to sponsor the management stream at Noel Fitzpatrick’s VetFest event, which took place at the beginning of June. Both myself and Helen Sanderson attended the event and had a great weekend. It is very different from other conferences in that it is held outdoors, with the sessions held inside marquees, and the whole atmosphere was really relaxed – often with a live music accompaniment from a band playing outside.

Speakers Dr Ernie Ward and Brian Faulkner were informative and definitely provided some food for thought at the well-attended management sessions, covering topics on leadership and management in practice and growing our businesses effectively. Keynote speaker, scientific entrepreneur Sir Christopher Evans, OBE, was inspiring and entertaining, as he told us about his life, the development of his companies and the amazing products they have invented.

The social side of this conference was also different from others, with the highlight being the OneLive event on the Saturday night. It was Helen’s first (and hopefully not last!) festival and we, along with a few others were dancing until the last note was played. Put our names down for next year please! Renay Rickard

MEET VPMA’S NEW BOARD MEMBERS VPMA President Renay Rickard has welcomed four new members to the VPMA’s Board, with effect from July this year. The members were officially ratified during the Association’s board meeting which was held in July. See below for each new member’s profile.

JANIE CLARE

GILLIAN PAGE

I trained and qualified as a nurse at a busy mixed practice in Cheshire. I have been the practice manager of Rutland House veterinary hospital and referral centre for the past 12 years. Managing all 10 branches, including the hospital and referral centre, keeps me out of mischief! In my “spare time” I have two Border terriers and I am a huge vintage VW camper van fan, proudly owning four. I also run alongside my hubby in a disability athletics club as I am a shot, discus and javelin coach.

I am the co-owner and business manager of Ayrton Veterinary Hospital near Edinburgh. The business opened from a cold start in 1999 and progressed to a purpose-built veterinary hospital in 2006.

Initial training as a veterinary nurse at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh was followed by a head VN position in Pinner. As centre manager for The College of Animal Welfare in 2000, I was involved as deputy programme leader in the setting up of Scotland’s first BSc(Hons) degree in Veterinary Nursing. I obtained the ESVPS Certificate in Business and Professional Skills in 2011.

I have a particular interest in practice standards – creating, implementing and maintaining protocols and working processes. In my spare time I like to travel, read, follow Formula 1 and, not always enjoyable, but have had a season ticket at Ibrox for more than 20 years!

GEORGINA HILLS I started as a student veterinary nurse in 1995, back in the days of the “green book” and progressed to nurse and then head nurse. I had one break from veterinary life to run a mountain biking holiday company in Spain then returned to my greens. I moved from head nurse to practice manager at a hospital and referral centre where I took the Certificate in Veterinary Practice Management. I am now a member of the VPMA’s Certificate and Training Committee – sitting on the other side of the table promoting the CVPM! I joined Independent Vetcare as a business support manager and now look after 12 practices in North Wales, Cheshire and Shropshire. In my spare time I play in a brass band and visit Snowdonia to go mountain biking or walk the dogs. www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

STUART SAUNDERS I have been a practice manager for veterinary practices since 2007 and currently look after a three-branch mixed practice in Devon. Prior to that I had a long career as a broker in the City of London and Hong Kong trading derivatives and convertible bonds in both European and Far East markets. I am hugely motivated by the veterinary industry but not from a clinical point of view; my passion is my staff and the service they can deliver to our clients.

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VPMA NEWS

VMA 2016 HOUSE OF LORDS DEBATE ‘PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE’ Pauline Graham, VPMA council member, attended the VMA debate in the House of Lords on behalf of VPMA. The event was hosted by Lord Trees and arranged by the Veterinary Marketing Association (VMA)

T

he debate was on the impact of the potential ban on advertising medicines to owners and farmers and the possible end of online retailing of medicines to owners and farmers and the associated impact of such legislative changes.

The meeting was organised by the VMA, a national organisation devoted to the professional enhancement of its members. It is a non-profit organisation comprised of marketers from more than 50 countries. Membership is drawn from companies involved in all areas of animal health, including veterinary pharmaceuticals, animal health, pet nutrition, advertising and media, marketing and market research.

The meeting was chaired by Phil Sketchley (Chairman of Animal Medicines Training Regulatory Authority) and the speakers were as follows: – John Blackwell MRCVS, Senior Vice-president, BVA – H Knoop independent consultant on e-commerce within the pet industry – Donal Murphy Head of Technical and Regulatory affairs, National Office of Animal Health Ltd – James Davies Dr Ed, online digital solutions for healthcare The debate covered the proposed EU regulations that could limit advertising of prescription medicines. This would prevent the advertising of essential prescription medicines to farmers and restrict this to veterinary professionals and those

permitted to prescribe. The EU regulations are in draft form but it is expected to be completed by mid-2018 and be operational by 2019-2020. It was noted that education and communication is required in the industry and the correct advice must be given.

All delegates were encouraged to contact MPs, MEPs, and people who create the legislation to generate awareness of what impact this legislation could have on the industry.

The panel and attendees debated the opinion that advertising for certain categories of medicines and particular vaccines was beneficial. It was debated that if vaccines are available to help minimise disease and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to prevent pain and improve welfare then these should be communicated to farmers.

It was also felt that if the move in the industry is to reduce use of antibiotics then effective vaccines will need to be promoted and communicated…. The recent “O’Neil” review called for a significant reduction in antibiotic use but an increased use of vaccines. This will be backed by NOAH. There is a need for veterinary input to farming business and the ethos should be “prevention is better than cure”. Restricting what effectively generates conversations and communication with farmers, pet owners and their veterinary/animal health advisors would be a negative step if this was implemented.

As the meeting concluded, the EU referendum had not taken place; so we all wait further progress and change.

However, it is clear the ethos of “prevention is better than cure” and a “reduction in the use of antibiotics” will still be a key agenda for health and welfare.

This was certainly a debate that generated much interest and the VPMA certainly had a voice. This legislation will affect all of us in veterinary practice in these changing times.

NOTE FROM THE EDITORS: Following the EU referendum exit result, we will be watching closely how the situation develops regarding veterinary medicines, along with other aspects that may affect the veterinary profession.

Against this backdrop, the Chancellor promised a budget that “puts the next generation first”.

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

SPVS News President’s letter Stephanie Writer-Davies As SPVS President I have received lots of invitations, but I have to say that the best one has to be being asked to be a VIP guest for the final week of Mission Rabies’ vaccination and neutering campaign in Malawi at the end of May. When I took office at the end of January I had no idea that during my year I would be privileged to be offered such an amazing opportunity. The suggestion was made at BSAVA Congress and then started a race against time to get my vaccinations done before leaving for Africa five weeks later. Amazingly, my immune system appeared to tolerate the multiple vaccinations, although my bank balance took a bit of a hit (I feel I now have plenty of ammunition when clients complain about the cost of their pets’ vaccinations!).

I arrived in Malawi in unseasonably cold conditions (which was a bit of an issue since anticipating warm weather I’d filled a third of my suitcase with donated sterile surgical drapes and so had hardly any warm clothes!). However, I survived and the weather improved over the week and I thoroughly enjoyed my time. It was an emotionally charged week as I witnessed, first hand, life in one of the poorest countries and saw the tremendous work that Mission Rabies does. I came back determined to spread the word about the project and determined to do something similar in future.

There will be a full article with details of my trip in the December issue of Practice Life.

Back at home I have been involved in the VN Trailblazer initiative, setting new standards for apprenticeship training of veterinary nurses as well as being a member of the advisory panel helping Nottingham University’s Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine develop a new course, ‘Using an Evidence-based Approach in Practice’. Being involved with the development of new training has been very interesting and both areas are very relevant to practice.

Another area where SPVS is very involved with training and development is the Lancaster Final Year Seminar, which should probably more aptly be described as “The essential preparation course for life in the real veterinary world that all final year students should attend”. The event is always inspiring and this year’s was no exception; stimulating presentations and workshops as well as thought-provoking conversations with some of the next generation of vets whose appreciation of the course wasn’t dampened by a couple of very late nights and not the most comfortable accommodation in the student campus flats! Next year will be the seminar’s 30-year anniversary and it is hoped that the event will have a celebratory feel to it so look out for information nearer the time.

Since then we have seen the launch of VN Futures at the Vet Futures Symposium; I have been part of the working party for VN Futures and it was lovely to see the aims and ambitions made public when I attended the event at the RVC’s Camden Campus. It was a really positive day, full of energy and lots of enthusiasm for the plans to take both professions forward. I’m pleased to say that both wellbeing and leadership were highlighted as being considered of particular importance; SPVS is actively involved in both areas and our Wellbeing Awards highlights ways of creating happy, motivated and positive teams in our businesses. And SPVS is the logical choice to be a partner in the development of a leadership course for veterinary professionals.

Exciting times all round!

Stephanie Writer-Davies, SPVS President

www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

SPVS NEWS

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SPVS Dates For Your Diary 2016/2017 December 5-6 Officers’ and Council meetings If you have any items you would like to put forward for discussion contact SPVS Honorary Secretary, Hazel Bentall by email honsec@spvs.org.uk.

December 6 at Searcys St Pancras Grand SPVS Christmas Dinner All members are welcome, please contact SPVS office for further details office@spvs.org.uk

March 4-11 2017 Hotel Taj-i Mah, Les Arcs 2000 Snowscene 2017 Five-star accommodation, resort and CPD. Contact office@spvs.org.uk or visit www.spvs.org.uk for further details..

For all the above events, email office@spvs.org.uk or telephone 01926 840 318.

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SPVS NEWS

SNOWSCENE 2016 REVIEW One of the nicest jobs that the SPVS’ President takes on – assuming he or she enjoys snow and snowsports I suppose! – is to run the annual Snowscene CPD trip. Stephanie Writer-Davies shares her experiences and previews Snowscene 2017

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eing a keen skier (and having become more involved in SPVS as a consequence of a conversation with Jacqui Molyneux during a trip to the Three Valleys) it was certainly something I looked forward to. Of course, not only do you have to host the trip, but you are also responsible for choosing the resort and the CPD subjects and speakers.

And because the trip is always popular and each year those attending seem to think it’s been the best yet, there’s pressure to get it right.

Having advocated skiing in North America and told delegates on previous trips how much I loved skiing there, I had hoped to arrange the event in my favourite resort, WhistlerBlackcomb in British Columbia, Canada. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the cost was prohibitive so I settled on Tignes in France.

Not being a great fan of French resorts, and having previously had a bad experience on a trip to Tignes, I was concerned attendees would be disappointed. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried and there was general consensus that, yet again, this year was the best ever. While Tignes may not be the most picturesque of resorts, it is within the Espace Killy ski area, which is so large that even in normal conditions it is virtually impossible to ski/board every run in a week.

However, this year’s conditions were so good that the offpiste opportunities increased the potential infinitely. Heavy snowfalls the previous week were followed by almost unbroken sunshine during our time there. The near-perfect conditions meant that the more intrepid among us, some of whom engaged the services of a guide, spent the first three days only venturing onto a piste in order to access the next delicious serving of fresh powder snow; even as late as the last day, with little significant snow for a week, it was still possible to find places to make new tracks.

Several delegates entered an “off-piste improvers” class at the end of which they indulged in some heli-skiing; but because of French environmental regulations they couldn’t be dropped by helicopter which seemed somewhat counterintuitive! They were, however, able to be picked up from a remote location and so could explore areas outside the usual ski boundary.

Such adventurous skiing isn’t for everyone, but Tignes offers something for all levels and the wonderful conditions resulted in confidence-inspiring pistes. As usual the group broke into smaller ones for skiing, with opportunities for everyone, be they confident intermediates keen to make the most of the day or those preferring a more relaxed agenda of steady runs and lazy lunches; noone needed to feel left out.

As usual our CPD stuck to the well-tried formula of an hour lecture in the morning and two hours in the evening, with a full day on the slopes in between. Speakers this year were Clive Elwood, European Specialist in Small Animal Medicine and managing director at Davies Veterinary Specialists, and

Martin Whiting, lecturer in veterinary ethics and law at the RVC and a member of the Disciplinary Committee.

I had wanted a topic relevant to day-to-day cases that most of us see in our practices and Clive talked about GI disease in dogs and cats but, as a refreshing change, he asked what we wanted to talk about, which resulted in very interactive sessions that encouraged the exchange of alternative views and experience from the delegates. He advocated taking a problemorientated approach: this may seem obvious but sometimes with time pressures of a busy consulting session it’s easy to be tempted to shortcut this process and miss vital information.

It was nice to be reminded to concentrate on doing the “basics” well; obtain a good clinical history, perform a full clinical examination and formulate a problem list and thus create a complete list of differential diagnoses and an appropriate diagnostic/treatment plan. He also reminded us to review and revise our problem list, investigation plan and treatment at each stage, then, if stuck, or things didn’t go according to plan, be prepared to go back to the beginning and start again. Clive’s talks were practical and useful for first opinion practice – exactly what I had hoped he would provide.

Martin Whiting had been recommended as a potential speaker and, since the RCVS disciplinary process is something that concerns many practitioners, I was pleased when he accepted my invitation. A few delegates commented that lectures on veterinary ethics and the disciplinary process seemed destined to soporific; they couldn’t have been more wrong!

Martin was an enthusiastic and lively presenter and kept the audience’s attention. He explained the history and recent changes in legislation and processes, such as the total separation of the Disciplinary Committee from the RCVS, and we worked through interactive cases allowing us to see the disciplinary process from both sides. I think he left all of us better informed and understanding of how complaints are dealt with.

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

SPVS NEWS

I thoroughly enjoyed my week as host of Snowscene. It was particularly nice for me that my daughters and a friend were able to join me. The 2017 trip is to Arc 2000 (Les Arcs, France) 4-11 March with James Cronin (Eight Legal) and Dan Clay (Clay Associates) presenting. I can recommend it to anyone who fancies a week of skiing coupled with 15 hours’ of quality CPD in a convivial atmosphere; new delegates are always made

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very welcome. And unfortunately, Snowscene is suffering from “old codger syndrome” and while we’re not all Dinovets quite yet, regular participants are ageing so it would be lovely to see some new (younger?) faces next year.

For more information or to book, contact SPVS Office on office@spvs.org.uk or telephone 01926 840318.

Stephanie Writer-Davies

POKÉMON NO GO? Advice from Citation Unless you’ve been living in a box, you will no doubt have heard about the new mobile phone app – Pokémon Go!

Every new craze, brings with it concern and frustrations.

And now you’re up against pocket sized cartoon monsters as well! The experts on our advice line have already taken calls from clients who have seen issues brought by the new app – employees spending hours playing during work time and disrupting the rest of the team, desperate to catch that Pokémon.

Whether you’re seeing the effects of gaming and social networking during work hours or not, it might be a good time to review your mobile phone and social networking policies.

Here are some quick tips from us: Implement a robust policy Set out your expectations. Having a clear mobile phone policy in place will allow you to implement your rules and expectations properly. It will also support your ground if issues do arise at a later date.

Communicate Even the best policy is useless if it’s not properly

communicated. Have an Employee Handbook in place to lay out all of your company’s policies and procedures.

A copy should be given to all new team members upon employment and an Employee Handbook Receipt should be signed and returned to the employer to state that the employee has read and understood all of the policies and expectations laid out in the book. Your social media policy should also be included here as well.

Consider your position Good management is all about balance and mutual respect.

Be reasonable. If you can allow flexible mobile phone usage, perhaps in an office environment, a gentle reminder communication, focussing on professional expectations will be helpful.

If you need advice or support on mobile phone policies, employee handbooks or any other aspect of HR management, call us on 01345 844 1111 or visit www.citation.co.uk/vets for more information.

GOLFING FIRST FOR MARTHA

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he 2016 SPVS Crooked Putter golf day was held on June 14, under cloudy skies, at the Forest of Arden Golf club near Meriden. Vets travelled from far and wide to attend the event, for which the Crooked Putter title was first given by the President more than 80 years ago.

There were 52 players who enjoyed a breakfast bap before venturing on to the course with some trepidation. Fears were fully realised about half-way round when thunder, lightening and a storm of biblical proportions came to pass.

Undeterred, all golfers finished and sat down to enjoy a buffet meal.

Host Keith Dickinson conducted an auction and presented Giles Webber of Dogs Trust with a cheque for £900. He then awarded the crooked putter to the first SPVS lady winner, Martha Cannon of the Oxford Cat clinic, who finished with a great 38 points. In second place was Peter Melville of Aspen Vets in Surbiton and third was Diederick Opperman of Lansdowne vets in Stroud.

The event has been revamped in recent years by sponsors Hazlewoods and Keith Dickinson of Dickinsons Financial Management and VIA. Kenelm Lewis spoke on behalf of SPVS. “There were many sponsors who helped to make the day a resounding success. The Rumba foundation were also recipients of a charitable donation. The golf day will continue next year and all interested parties are welcome.” www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

Nigel Greenwood, Martha Cannon (winner), Alwyn Evans & Peter Saunders

Nick Tremlett, Hamish Duncan, David Lonsdale & Diederick Opperman

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SPVS NEWS

TELL US ABOUT YOUR HAPPY, HEALTHY PRACTICE...

AND WIN A SPVS WELLBEING AWARD Nick Stuart, SPVS Senior Vice-president and RCVS PSS Inspector, explains the thinking behind the new SPVS award and what the judging panel will be looking for

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here is a lot of talk within the profession about mental health problems and work-related stress, and there is no doubt some practices are struggling with this. But I visit many practices where there is a fantastic supportive culture resulting in a happy, motivated team who are proud of what they do and look forward to coming to work. SPVS’ aim with the Wellbeing Awards is to seek out those practices, try to understand what it is they are doing that others aren’t, and spread the word. We want to change the conversation from what is going wrong to what is going right!

The practices that win SPVS Wellbeing Awards will be those practices with happy motivated teams. It isn’t about being able to prove you are implementing a stress management policy according to the latest HSE guidelines or that you have zero tolerance of bullying. Of course we want to hear all of that, but what we are really looking for in the entries are those practices with well-supported and managed teams and some personal touches that show that the bosses put their people first.

Let me give you a couple of examples of practices I know.

In the first, the vet owner has a very clear vision for her practice and has communicated this to every person in her team.

Every protocol is written down and she takes the time to ensure everyone in the practice, from receptionists to nurses to vets, understand those protocols and their role in delivering them. Strong leadership and good communication is at the heart of practice wellbeing.

Another, much larger, practice ensured their team remained motivated and engaged through a very clear management structure. The vets have their spokesperson, as do the nurses and the receptionists, and they hold their own regular meetings, but also meet as a practice. The practice manager is empowered by the practice owners to make decisions and to lead the team.

The happiest practices in my experience are those that feel that care of the animal is the number-one priority. In one practice I visited, two nurses had just done a sleep over in a new dog and cat home as a fundraiser, involving the whole team and their clients in supporting them. This was not only a fantastic morale boost for them, it made perfect business sense as it strengthened the relationship between the practice and an important local opinion-former, and it sent out a message that this team of vets, nurses and receptionists really care about pets.

On the subject of clients, do you as a practice go the extra mile to keep your owners happy? Happy, appreciative clients go a long way to making your team happy and motivated! Do your nurses text clients with updates after operations, do the vets do follow-up calls? Do you have a “£75.00 rule” whereby vets bring up a conversation about price in the consult room if the bill is going to be more. And when there is a complaint, is there

a clear protocol for who steps in to deal with it? Do you share the plaudits with the whole team? Is there a board in the staff room with all those letters from happy clients?

Then of course there is your social programme. Tell us about your summer barbecues and Christmas parties; leaving dos and celebrations for mums returning from maternity leave. Do you have a social secretary who makes this all happen? If so, give us his or her name and include a few photographs from the events he or she organises.

Entering is easy, so give it a go. You may well pick up a few tips from the Wellbeing Check List and we’ll send a report to all those who enter, sharing the best ideas. And for those who win… what better way to boost morale and reward those individuals in your practice who make it a great place to work.

How to Enter • Identify the person in your practice who champions wellbeing. It might be you as practice manager or owner, or it might be a head nurse or younger vet • Direct that person to www.spvs.org.uk/wellbeing • Complete our simple online checklist. Don’t worry if you aren’t doing everything on the list.

• Tell us in no more than 750 words (the length of this article) why your practice is a great place to work.

• Include a few photographs if you want, of your practice having fun.

• Deadline for entries is October 31, 2016.

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

Nurse Talk

NURSE TALK

In association with

BVNA Congress 2016 offers more, more, more!

This year’s scientific programme offers more than 80 lectures plus practical workshops, providing delegates with a vast choice of CPD over the three-day event.

Our 43rd Congress includes topics such as Ophthalmology, Equine, Anaesthesia, Advanced Medical & Surgical, SQP, Behaviour and Infection and is a great way of extending your knowledge and gaining valuable CPD. This year we also welcome our international speaker, Megan Brashear (pictured right), who is a Specialty Technician Trainer at VCA - Northwest Veterinary Specialists in Portland, Oregon.

If you fancy practical hands-on CPD, there are a number of workshops available, including Gold Standard Bandaging, Hydrotherapy, Endoscopy, Suturing and Blood Sampling Techniques.

There is also a large exhibition which provides a welcome break and allows you to mingle with colleagues and learn something new about products and services in the industry. The exhibition hall is a relaxed atmosphere and hosts the happy hour social events on Friday and Saturday afternoon,

where complimentary drinks and canapes will be served.

BVNA Congress wouldn’t be complete without an evening social event and on the Saturday night, Sam Morgan, BVNA President, will be delighted to welcome you to the BVNA Fright Night! If you dare to stay after dark, you can party the night away with fellow ghosts, ghouls and vampires!

Last year’s congress was such a success, with a buzz of inspiration floating around in the air; however, we want to make this year’s congress even better but we need our vital ingredient for that and that is your attendance!

With rates for members, non-members and students for one day, two days or the whole congress there is no excuse not to join us, so book now – http://www.bvna.org.uk/cpd/bvna-congress Looking forward to seeing you all there!

VN FUTURES REPORT PUBLISHED Since October 2015 and the joint meeting between RCVS VN Council and BVNA to discuss the Vet Futures report, it was made the priory to develop a report and actions that are directly relevant to veterinary nurses and their future. Both RCVS VN Council and the BVNA Council has been busy with a series of roadshows and evening meetings to engage with the veterinary nursing profession, to try to appreciate the issues facing the profession and how these might be tackled within the next five years.

Through a programme of research and engagement, along with consideration of those issues already impacting the profession, the overarching aim of VN Futures has been to develop a vision and ambitions for 2020, and a way forward to achieving them.

The ambitions outlined in the report contain the necessary seeds for change that could lead to a dramatically improved and more coherent future for veterinary nurses, to the benefit of animals, their owners, the veterinary team and society at large.

In summary the six ambitions set out in the VN Futures report can be seen in Figure 1.

Importantly this report is not just a setting out of ideas but one of action. Detailed throughout the report are key action points which both BVNA and RCVS VN Council will work on for the years to come, but also it involves other associations, healthcare workers and importantly you, the profession to move forward in www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

the way you want the profession to be so that in five years’ time, we are stronger, healthier and a well-recognised, vital part of the Veterinary team.If you would like a copy of the VN Futures report please visit: www.vetfutures.org.uk/vnfutures

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NURSE TALK

British Veterinary LGBT+ at London Pride On July 25, the British Veterinary LGBT+ group joined the London Pride parade for the first time to represent veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses.

The group was set up just one year ago by vet Matt Hennessey to create an LGBT+ community within the profession so that it could help promote equality and provide support to any of its members.

Joining the Pride parade was BVA president Sean Wensley, and BVNA president Sam Morgan.

Both representative bodies are very supportive of the group.

To find out more or to join the group ‘Like’ or follow their Facebook and Twitter pages.

TOP FIVE PROBLEMS AFFECTING VNS TODAY In the two-year period up until April 2016, the BVNA Members Advisory Service (MAS) received 621 calls. As the representative association for veterinary nurses it is our responsibility to take note of the top issues (we never get personal details from our advisory service, only brief subject titles, any details given are kept confidential by the advisory team).

To give you an idea of the main issues raised to MAS, we have broken them up into topics. These include contractual issues, disciplinary, maternity and sickness advice.

BVNA has discussed these main issues with other associations like VPMA to try to help spread advice and guidance around each association’s membership.

The more issues we try to help with the more we can try to maintain RVNs within the profession as many are forced to leave the jobs they love and enjoy due to correctable issues.

The service is delivered by experienced professionals who offer expert advice on a range of subjects including:

• Legal issues • Employment law • Redundancy • Disciplinary • Grievance • Contracts • Matrimonial • Financial matters The service is totally confidential and no details will be divulged or action taken unless you specifically request it.

Advice can be provided to you in writing; please ask at the end of the telephone conversation.

Find out more about the Members Advisory Service call the BVNA Office team on 01279 408644.

If you are a BVNA member and wish to use the service please visit www.bvna.org.uk, where you will find contact details, and so on.

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

COLLEGE CORNER

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College Corner

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT DEPARTMENT DEVELOPMENTS The past couple of months have seen some major developments for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in terms of its Professional Conduct Department and concerns investigation process – this includes the approval of a new alternative dispute resolution (ADR) trial, investment in extra staff and the launch of a confidential reporting line. Here is an overview of these projects and what it will mean for members of the profession.

ADR trial this autumn Between 900 and 1,000 complaints are received by the College on an annual basis, and of these, relatively few meet the threshold for serious professional misconduct that is needed for a case to go to the Disciplinary Committee, with the vast majority being closed by our Professional Conduct Department at an early stage.

In recognition of the large number of cases where a complaint may be legitimate, but they fall short of professional misconduct, we decided to launch our original ADR trial in November 2014 with Ombudsman Services – an independent, not-for-profit complaints resolution organisation. Since then Ombudsman Services has made decisions on around 100 cases, with both parties having agreed to take part in the trial in order to resolve the dispute.

On July 15, 2016 this trial came to a close and a new one will be started on October 1, 2016, with Nockolds Solicitors, a law firm that currently runs the General Optical Council’s ADR scheme. The firm was identified by our operational board as being a good fit and this decision was approved at the June meeting of RCVS Council. The new trial has also been supported by the Veterinary Defence Society and British Veterinary Association.

The reason for this new trial is to gather more data about ADR outcomes, so that Council would have as many different options as possible before deciding on a permanent ADR scheme.

Nick Stace, RCVS CEO, said: “It is very important we get the permanent scheme right and this is why the operational board made the decision to have a second trial. It was also clear that satisfaction levels from consumers for the previous trial were lower than we would have liked and that we therefore need to explore other options.”

Unlike the Ombudsman Services trial, which relied on cases being referred to it from our Professional Conduct Department, consumers will be able to access the trial with Nockolds directly rather than going through the College. Nockolds also won’t be making decisions on how the issue should be resolved but, rather, will be facilitating communication between both parties to try to find a satisfactory solution to the concern.

Throughout the trial period, Nockolds will be promoting the trial to both the public and the profession as an alternative www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

to our concerns investigation process, with participation in the trial being voluntary.

Visit www.rcvs.org.uk for further updates about the new ADR trial in the autumn.

Confidential reporting line Another major initiative from within the Professional Conduct Department is the launch of a three-month confidential reporting line trial, which will allow veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses and other members of the practice team to discuss concerns about colleagues on a confidential basis.

The trial was launched on July 11 and will allow the College to determine levels of demand for such a service and, therefore, whether it should be made permanent.

Eleanor Ferguson, Acting Registrar, explained how the service will work: “This was a potential service identified in our strategic plan as a way of allowing veterinary professionals to have informal, confidential, discussions with members of the Professional Conduct Department about potential fitness to practise issues, short of formally raising a concern.

“Although any discussions via the new reporting line or email address will be confidential, if a veterinary surgeon or a veterinary nurse subsequently wishes to raise a formal concern about another veterinary professional, then they generally will need to identify both themselves and the individual in order to take it through our investigation process.

“We have developed a bespoke concerns form for members of the professions who do want to raise concerns about other professionals.”

Veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses who wish to contact a member of our Professional Conduct Department, in confidence, can do so by calling 07599 958294 between 9am and 5pm, or by emailing reporting@rcvs.org.uk. The bespoke concerns form for members of the profession can be downloaded from www.rcvs.org.uk/concerns.

Investment in Professional Conduct As well as these new initiatives there is, of course, the day-today running of the Professional Conduct Department, which includes giving professional conduct advice and guidance to

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COLLEGE CORNER

members of the profession and investigating concerns raised by animal owners about the conduct of veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses.

Regarding our concerns investigation process, the past couple of years have seen a steady increase in the number of complaints that we have received and, this year for the first time ever, the number is expected to exceed 1,000.

As a result of this, the College has invested an additional £225,000 in the concerns investigation process to increase the speed at which concerns are either closed or referred, ensure that our service standards are met and reduce the stress and anxiety for the public and profession.

The extra investment will mean that the number of case managers will be effectively doubled and will be able to deal with the backlog of cases while ensuring that any new cases are dealt with within the service standards targets that we have introduced at each stage of our concerns investigation process. Eleanor Ferguson explained: “Currently we are only closing or referring just over half of concerns we receive at

stage 1 (case examiner stage) within our four-month target.

For the system to run more smoothly we will be investing in extra staff to help clear the backlog and ensure that these targets are met going forward.

“Similarly, in order to deal with the increase in the number of cases being referred to Preliminary Investigation Committee (stage 2), we will be increasing the frequency of these committee meetings from one to two per month.

“It is important to add that this investment is not just about dealing with concerns more quickly, but is also about quality of service, and having more staff on hand will ensure that this quality is maintained in terms of how we communicate with complainants and members of the profession. Speeding up the process will reduce the stress and anxiety felt by all involved.”

Further information about the RCVS’ concerns investigation process, including the three different stages and targets for each, is available from www.rcvs.org.uk/concerns

Not a member? Join the VPMA NOW VPMA membership benefits The VPMA is open to everyone working in veterinary practice management, whether their background is as a practice manager, a veterinary surgeon, a veterinary nurse or a lay member of the veterinary team, as well as to those coming into practice management from outside the veterinary sector.

There are many benefits to becoming a member, whether you are brand new to management or have been managing veterinary practices for years. Here’s a taster of just a few of the benefits.

The VPMA offers members opportunities for networking regionally and nationally, both online and through formal and informal events. A network of Regional Organisers maintains contact with members, reports to Council and runs local meetings for members and non-members, including all staff categories in veterinary practices.

One of the key aims of the VPMA is to provide a communication network through which members can exchange information, ideas and

experiences. Two online resources separate from the VPMA website provide this means of communication between members on a dayto-day basis: the Egroup and Vetpol.

VPMA membership also entitles you to discounts on a huge range of products, from training providers, CPD companies and utilities, to SMS communications systems and telephone service providers.

Benchmark Travel offers discount rates on trips and holidays. Special deals are available for VPMA members, never seen by the public.

The VPMA has negotiated with Hospital & Medical Care Association to offer discounted rates for medical plans, dental plans, hospital cash plans, personal accident plan, travel plan, life cover, income protection and vehicle breakdown products.

Visit the website for more information http://www.vpma.co.uk/join-the-vpma/ member-benefits.html

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

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in the Mark Evans, seasoned broadcaster and presenter, vet, charity worker, animal welfare advocate and part-time engineer tells his fascinating life story in a frank and revealing exclusive for Practice Life Mark, tell us a little about your career journey so far.

As a young lad, I wanted to be a farmer. Still do! My two big interests have always been animals and engines and I spent as much time as possible during my school days in Warwick working on local farms, driving tractors and milking cows.

I had thought on and off about being a vet but part of me was also attracted to a life as an engineer, like my dad. But, when I was 13 or 14, I was introduced to ‘James Herriot’ thanks to the massively popular BBC drama series. That was it. Decision made.

But, the engineering obsession didn’t die and, having turned 17, I spent more time restoring my first car – a Triumph convertible – than I did studying for my A’ Levels. The result?

I failed to get the grades I needed to take up my provisional place at the Royal (Dick) Vet School in Edinburgh. But I did end up with a great car.

So I took a year out and decided to approach retakes as if it were a job. I spent the year in Warwick library reading, re-reading and reading again my notes and books. I was there when the library opened every morning and the lovely librarians threw me out every evening when they wanted to lock up and go home.

It worked and I ended up at the RVC. I qualified in 1987 and my first job was with the PDSA in Eastbourne. I was really keen to get as much surgery experience as possible. I had won the Professor Formston Medal for Surgery during my finals (still convinced it was a clerical error!) and the vet I worked with at the PDSA didn’t like operating. So, from www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

day one, I did everything that came through the door, much of it following the step-by-step instructions in well-thumbed surgery tomes. My plan was to move on fairly quickly to mixed practice, and that’s what I did, joining a team in the Surrey hills where I worked mostly with pets and horses. From there I went back into small animal practice and developed a growing interest in behaviour and, more broadly, ‘welfare’. That’s a word that causes some confusion. How often do we hear the expression ‘health and welfare’ as if they are different things. It’s even in the oath we swear when joining the RCVS. Welfare is about physical AND mental wellbeing and the latter is something that vets don’t tend to focus on. Behaviour was barely mentioned when I was at vet school.

Although I was keen to specialise in surgery, I became increasingly conscious of, and concerned by, the fact that so many of my patients were suffering from predictable problems as a result of the way they were bred and fed. Shocking levels of disability, deformity and inherited disease; far too many animals overweight or obese. In an effort to do my bit to tackle some of these preventable problems, I set up one of the UK’s first pet weight watchers clinics. Not everyone shared my enthusiasm for this new venture, but no one could ignore its positive impact on the health AND happiness of the animals that came along.

And that of their owners.

Things seemed to be going well, career-wise. I had been qualified for three years and a partnership was in the offing.

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT

But then, one morning, an unexpected turn of events tipped my life and career upside down. TVam – ITV’s flagship morning show at the time – announced a competition to find the fattest cat in the country. The prize, a massive cake. Pure genius! Every morning I would have the TV on in the background over breakfast and I would never have noticed this ‘fat cat’ feature if it hadn’t come on just as I was switching the TV off. I called Directory Enquiries to get TVam’s number. No Internet in those days! Amazingly, I got straight through to the producer responsible and I am confident she regretted accepting my call.

Unlike me, she was charming, patient and incredibly polite. I was late for morning surgery that day but it was a good cause. I had no idea, of course, what a dramatic impact that one call would have on the rest of my life.

What attracted you to working in media in particular?

Working in the media was never part of my plan. It had never even appeared on my radar. As a boy I was pretty shy and always hated being photographed. Still do! When school plays came around, I did the lighting. But, about 10 weeks after my call to TVam the phone rang. It was the producer, perky and polite as

before. She said they had found a super-fat-cat that belonged to a lady who was super-sized herself, and proud of the fact.

Would I come into the studio to tell this lady a few home truths?

I declined. Being an ‘expert’ guest on a live TV show was well outside my comfort zone. But, producers are nothing if not persistent. She cleverly reversed me in to a corner from which there was no escape. Less than 24 hours later, on my way home from the studio, and still shaking, it dawned on me that, in just a couple of minutes, I had raised the issue of pet obesity with more people than I would ever be able to speak to in several lifetimes working in practice. I remember making a conscious decision that day to learn more about TV. Within 12 months, and more by luck than judgement (or talent), I ended up being offered a presenting job on a new BBC wildlife series for children that was due to be made at the Natural History Unit in Bristol. I blame my dog, Katie.

I took her with me to the audition and she was a big hit with the children the BBC had invited along. Everywhere I went, Katie followed. Everywhere Katie went, the children tagged along.

The BBC producers didn’t work out the connection and thought it was me. The rest, as they say, is history. Since then, I have Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

fronted over 1,000 programmes for broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, National Geographic, Discovery and PBS. In most cases, I work as both a producer and presenter.

Your programme, ’Inside Nature’s Giants’, won lots of awards, including a BAFTA. You travelled around the world filming this and helped anatomists dissect and explain the internal workings of some enormous animals; do you have an experience or creature that sticks out in your mind, and why?

Yes. Inside Nature’s Giants was a truly extraordinary project.

In the end, we made 18 films from all over the world. We started by dissecting an elephant, a Nile crocodile, a giraffe, a lion and a tiger in the postmortem facility at the RVC in front of an audience of around 200 vet students. The first episode to air was the elephant. She was called Crumple and she had been euthanased because of chronic lameness. Some of her joints were a real mess. All of us involved in this first programme were incredibly nervous about how it would be received. Broadcasting the autopsy and dissection of an elephant – and a well-known elephant at that – on prime-time TV was breaking new ground in natural history programming. We were acutely aware that revealing the inner workings of one of the most iconic species on Earth, in all its gore and glory, could be too much for many people. But, the production team were all scientists and we were all convinced that if we could get viewers past the blood and guts, they would never look at elephants in the same way again.

Conventional natural history programmes focus on what animals do, how they behave.

We wanted to show how they are able to do the things they do, how their bodies are built and how they work. Our focus – a genuinely new perspective – was the brilliance of biological engineering. After the first day of filming, we already knew we were on to something special, but would the audience get it?

Would they share our enthusiasm for animal anatomy or be shocked and horrified? We all knew that, despite our best efforts, despite our deep determination to treat the animals and the subject matter with due reverence, the whole project could fall flat on its face with us squashed beneath. But that didn’t happen.

The reviewers loved it, even those who desperately didn’t want to. The Guardian’s review was a double page photo of the giraffe in bits, from above. Two pages, no words, just that extraordinary image. Over the next three years, we travelled the world taking animals apart – a giant squid in New Zealand, a great white shark in South Africa, a leatherback turtle in Florida, a polar bear in Greenland, hippo in Zambia, a kangaroo in Australia and two whales – one in Ireland, the other in Kent. Removing the sperm whale’s heart required not just knives, but also an industrial digger, a chainsaw and a slightly bewildered tree surgeon.

Prior to your full-time media career, you were Chief Veterinary Officer at the RSPCA. What were the most challenging parts of that job?

I joined the RSPCA in 2007. Many years before, I had helped create a Channel 4 series called Pet Rescue that explored behind the scenes at RSPCA rescue centres around the country. I presented the first 350 or so programmes and during that time I got to know how the organisation worked, on the front line, pretty well. The RSPCA does some truly amazing work but, at

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times, it is an irrational and blinkered behemoth. I had always been a critical friend – and I still am. When an opportunity cropped up to join the RSPCA, friends urged me to go for it.

Their argument was that the best, perhaps only, way to help change the RSPCA was from the inside. I was offered the job and tasked with setting up a new science department focused on the welfare of pets, working animals and animal athletes.

When I started, I had a desk (in what can best be described as a cupboard), a computer and a telephone. I quickly recruited a small band of brilliant, passionate young animal welfare scientists and, together we set about rattling the china. Sam, Claire and Rachel were – are –amazing. In our first year we initiated a new campaign – we called it Operation Bulldog – to stimulate action, inside and outside the RSPCA, to address the really serious, frighteningly common, but largely ignored welfare problems suffered by dogs as a result of selective breeding. We were fortunate that, at the same time, the BBC broadcast a shocking, now legendary, documentary called Pedigree Dogs Exposed in which, famously, I referred to Crufts as ‘a parade of mutants’. Together with others, most notably the producer of the BBC documentary, we called the Kennel Club to account and we convinced the BBC to drop ‘the world’s greatest beauty pageant’ (as the Kennel Club described Crufts) after 40 years of annual coverage. It was a difficult time. We had thrown a hand grenade in to the secretive and shady world of dog showing and, not surprisingly, overnight, I became a hate figure among a small but hard-core band of breeders who claim to care but who, in practice, appear to put winning above welfare. It all got

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT

painfully personal but, sometimes, that’s a price you have to pay to give animals a voice. Someone had to say what needed saying. Someone had to support the BBC producer who had stuck her own neck on the line to raise awareness of an issue that others – including animal welfare charities, the vet profession and the dog-loving public had largely ignored. And the support we received from the public at large, and dog lovers in particular, was overwhelming and unprecedented. I am very proud of what we did and the way we conducted our case. We were passionate, we were evidence-based, we stepped up to the plate.

In the end I spent three and a half years at the RSPCA. I built a science team – perhaps surprisingly, the first such team dedicated to protecting and promoting the welfare of companion animals in the charity’s long history. I left to return to broadcasting with mixed emotions. Proud of what we, as a team, had achieved, often against the run of play. Frustrated that, so often, the RSPCA was, while I was there, and still is, it’s own worst enemy.

Did I help change it? I don’t know. That’s for others to judge.

I certainly stirred things up a bit!

During your time at the RSPCA, the controversy over Crufts and pedigree dog conformation erupted, leading the RSPCA to withdraw its support of the event that year. With concerns about brachycephaly and other exaggerated features surfacing again among vets and the media, where do you feel we are now on the pedigree dog issue?

It’s now almost eight years since the BBC’s Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

Some things have changed for the better, which is great, but nowhere near enough has been done as far as I am concerned. In particular, I struggle with the fact that the veterinary profession – our profession, a profession I love – failed to maintain the momentum we created back in 2008 and 2009. Back then, a journalist questioned why vets, as a profession, had been so

quiet in the debate and so reluctant to take the lead on such an important and widespread welfare issue. He suggested the answer might be because no one else has such a vested interest in a nation of disabled, deformed and disease-prone dogs. It’s an interesting and thought-provoking perspective but I genuinely believe (hope?) he is wrong. But, I couldn’t give him an alternative answer then, and I still can’t. I worry that, without constant pressure for change, we will head backwards. And, I believe our profession (vets and nurses, en masse) should lead on this, not follow.

Last year, I tweeted during Crufts about some of the welfare issues illustrated by the coverage, now, sadly, on More4 and Channel 4. Believe me I have tried and tried again to convince the broadcaster to ditch it. One young dog-lover tweeted me back to ask why I was so hot under the collar. What was the problem?

It suddenly dawned on me that, like many first-time dog owners today, she may well have been in her early teens back in 2008. It was clear that she had never seen the BBC documentary or heard the debate. A generous public gives millions to welfare charities every year to help protect and improve dog welfare. To my mind, more of it should be spent on long-term, proactive projects to promote and deliver better breeding. At present, the number of puppies sold each year in the UK is thought to be similar to the number of human babies born – around half a million, one born every minute. But the dog supply chain is a chaotic mess populated by puppies of varying ‘quality’ from a diverse range of sources – some from great homes but far too many brought in to the world by irresponsible breeders, born in breeding factories, for example, or the by-products of bizarre beauty pageants. And, it is the dog-loving majority, ordinary pet owners who have to pick up the pieces. They are the ones who, all too often, ride an emotional and financial rollercoaster trying to care for their much-loved but poor quality pets. They should be more demanding. Welfare charities could ensure that’s possible. Dogs deserve better.

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Your work on Dogs: Their secret lives, with Bristol Uni’s Dr Emily Blackwell revealed 85% of dogs suffer anxiety when left alone and the results of your investigations have been submitted for publication. Although not a clinicallypractising vet right now, your work has contributed to the wellbeing of dogs and owners’ understanding. How important is it to you that your programmes have an educational element?

Massively important. Over the years, I have become increasingly interested in citizen science, made possible thanks to the everexciting and on-going evolution of the internet and social media.

When we did the pilot study in to the behaviour of dogs left home alone, we also ran an online survey. Over just a few days more than 20,000 dog owners completed it. We were expecting around 200. It became very clear that dog owners want to share their experiences and help grow our understanding of man’s best friend. Last year, Emily and I set up a simple website portal to connect dog owners and dog scientists. It’s called the ‘Dog Science Group’. Interested owners can register to receive news by email of scientists looking for help with any kind of dog-related science project. The website is at www.dogsciencegroup.org and the Twitter username is @mymoderndog But, it’s not just dogs. A couple of years ago I fronted a big, live Channel 4 event from Battersea Power Station to conduct the biggest ever survey into urban foxes. Over two weeks we broadcast six hours of live TV on Channel 4 and More4 from a pop-up, Thames side studio and streamed footage online 24 hours a day from a number of fox dens as cubs began to emerge. The project was in collaboration with Brighton and Reading universities. We generated the second biggest web traffic in Channel 4’s history, second only to the most popular ever ‘Big Brother’ eviction. And, a while later, a peer reviewed paper was published.

These are challenging and often expensive projects to pull off. But they are amongst the most exciting and fulfilling things I get involved in. I enjoy hanging out with scientists much cleverer than me and acting as their connection between Science and Society.

Do you have any advice for other vets or veterinary nurses who would be interested in combining their veterinary degree with a media career?

Tricky. I don’t feel I am in any position to give anyone career advice. Mine has been all over the place. Much more in tune with the verb, ‘to career’, than the noun!

I think quite a few people see what I do as a dream job.

And they have a point. I feel very fortunate to have had some incredible experiences. But, it’s not been a bed of roses. And, financially, it has been a bit of a rollercoaster. If it hadn’t been for the selfless support of my wife – she is also a vet, much brighter and more effective than me and with a more orthodox career – I would never have been able to do half the things I have done.

I have worked very hard and very long hours, much of it unpaid. Seven days a week for many, many years. When my kids were little, I was hardly around. And, neglecting my family is one of my big regrets. You can’t get that precious time back. I was too stupid to realise that at the time. Broadcasting is a bad-ass business, addictively exciting but also soul-destroying.

There are so few opportunities as a presenter, and the competition www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

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is fierce. And, TV execs are always on the look out for new faces so, paradoxically, the more experience you have, the less employable you become. Unless, of course, you are a really big, household ‘name’, and becoming one of those is to a large extent a lottery. Big winners are thin on the ground.

This year is my 26th in TV. I know I have been incredibly lucky but you can improve your chances through hard graft.

I am constantly working to identify and create new opportunities.

I find it impossible to switch off. I don’t have an agent, I do everything myself – networking, negotiations, generating new business.

As with any career, there have been highs and lows.

Unfortunately, as a presenter your lows play out in public.

And, like most people, I have made plenty of duff decisions and had my fair share of bad days at work. Increasingly, thanks to Social Media and Generation Gogglebox, people these days are quick to judge, quick to let you know when you are at the bottom of a curve. And that can be hard to take. But then, as my wife says, I made the decision to do it. No one forced me.

Bless her!

Despite a quarter of a century producing and presenting recorded and live TV, I have never got to a position where I feel I have cracked it, that I am totally in control. I always get nervous and I always feel a bit out of my depth. But may be that’s how I like it. My career history reveals that every time my feet touch the bottom of the pool, I get out and find a deeper place to swim.

That was also true when I was in practice.

I have had an exciting, unexpected and unplanned career.

And, I feel very, very fortunate on so many levels. But I miss being in practice. Looking back, a big part of me wishes I had set up my own clinic or hospital before getting so involved in TV. That was the plan. Way back in the mid 90s, I worked with a bunch of MBA students for 12 months to develop a business plan for a new chain of veterinary hospitals. No such thing existed at the time. We called it NOAHs – No Ordinary Animal Hospital.

Cheesy, but we won a major business competition in the UK and came third in the European finals. But, I never put the plan in to action. I was too busy with other stuff, too scatter-brained to focus on one thing, too easily bored. Mega mistake? Financially, perhaps. But I reckon it was meant to be.

What’s next for you?

Currently, I am finishing off the series for Channel 4 about floating homes and I am helping out on a new puppy series for ITV with my friend and mentor, Dr Emily Blackwell.

In a couple of weeks, I will start producing a series of films behind the scenes at Jaguar as a small team of engineers and automotive artisans resurrect one of the world’s first supercars.

And, I am in discussions with the new vet school at Surrey University about a possible science communication collaboration.

My life, as ever, is anything but dull.

I am also about to start the nut and bolt restoration of a 1953 Series 1 Land Rover. The 60th long wheel-based Landie ever made. It’s a wreck but one of my most cherished possessions.

I may film it. But, I’m not sure. Part of me wants to keep it to myself. www.markevans.co.uk facebook.com/MarkEvansTV Twitter: @MarkEvansTV

WELL-BEING

SUPPORTING PRACTICES AFTER A SUICIDE Every suicide is a tragedy, and for many people bereaved by suicide, the impact stays with them for the rest of their life. People used to say that each suicide impacted on average six other people, but the figure is now thought to be much higher. Rosie Allister looks at practical measures to take following a death by suicide

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ets are three to four times more likely than the general population to die by suicide (Platt, 2010). The effect of this on families, friends and colleagues can be devastating.

There aren’t accurate figures for the suicide rate among veterinary nurses but there are some aspects of their work that suggest that they also may be at risk.

As a profession with an elevated suicide rate it’s important that veterinary practices know how to respond if there is a suicide in their practice. It’s an event noone wants to prepare for, but there are several reasons why knowing what to do after a death is important.

A lot of focus on suicide in society is on suicide prevention, and rightly so, as well as a human tragedy, suicide is a preventable public health problem and efforts to reduce risks and support people in crisis are vital, but an aspect of suicide prevention that is often overlooked is support for people bereaved by suicide, and what is called suicide postvention.

Postvention is responding to death by suicide in such a way that helps and supports those bereaved without increasing the risk of further suicides. Suicide clustering and suicide contagion are complex phenomena that aren’t fully understood, but some types of response to a suicide can increase the risk in those left behind or trigger behaviours in those already vulnerable.

Bereavement as a risk factor Recent research suggests that people bereaved by suicide are themselves at increased risk of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. Young people bereaved by suicide are more likely to go on to attempt suicide compared to young people who have suffered a sudden bereavement due to other causes. This effect holds whether the young person was a blood relative of the person who had died or not (Pitman, 2016).

Suicide clusters, although rare, are an important consideration when responding to a death by suicide. There are two types of suicide cluster: point or space-time clusters occur where there are unusually high numbers of suicides in an institution or small geographical area in a short period of time; mass clusters are where suicides occur in a time period following and related to the publishing or broadcast of a fictional or actual suicide death (Joiner, 1999; Haw, 2013). There is evidence that the way suicide is reported in the media can influence future deaths, and

there are media guidelines on the responsible reporting of suicide to help minimise this effect (Samaritans, 2013).

A review of the evidence on suicide clustering found that those at increased risk are teenagers and young adults, men, people who have been directly involved with the person who died by suicide and people with other known risk factors for suicide.

Clusters tend to occur in isolated or closed communities like schools, hospitals, prisons, the armed forces, and isolated rural or deprived communities (Haw et al., 2013; Niedzwiedz et al., 2014).

Complicated grief As well as increasing suicide risk, bereavement by suicide has other profound impacts on those left behind. Grief in suicide bereavement shares characteristics with grief due to other causes but can also be more complex and last longer than grief where death was not due to suicide. The Survivors of Bereavement

by Suicide charity is a good resource for information and the charity coordinates support groups for people affected.

People bereaved by suicide describe experiencing a range of emotions, from shock and disbelief, anger, guilt, shame because of the stigma and taboo of suicide, anxiety, fear, despair, and sometimes post-traumatic reactions, especially if they have been the one who has found the person after they have died.

Sometimes if the person has been suffering for a long time people can report experiencing feelings of relief, which in turn can lead to feelings of guilt. People can also feel guilty that they have survived while the other person has died. There is no right or wrong way to feel in suicide bereavement and it’s normal to return to different feelings, sometimes called stages of grief, at different times. Grief is not linear and people can return to stages they may already have experienced.

Practical considerations in the workplace Suicide in colleagues can have other complications. If the person has died at the practice the police may close all or part of the building for a time to investigate the death. Police have responsibility for investigating the circumstances of a death, and for making a report to the Coroner in England and Wales, or Procurator Fiscal in Scotland. If drugs or equipment from the practice may have been used in the death the police may want access to order logs and recording books and may also want to see CCTV. Colleagues in the practice may be in shock or grieving and may not feel able to continue with work immediately, especially if there are investigations occurring at the practice. As vets we Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

WELL-BEING

still have responsibilities for the animals under our care. In the immediate aftermath it can help to reach out as a practice and arrange for another practice to cover emergency and 24 hour responsibilities so that police can access the practice and staff can make personal arrangements for support. Such arrangements can also be needed at the time of a funeral so all practice members who wish to can attend.

In England and Wales Coroners will hold an inquiry into the death, and in Scotland the Procurator Fiscal will investigate.

These processes can be prolonged and distressing for those bereaved, and inquests can sometimes occur some time after the death, they can be especially difficult if the case attracts media attention.

Practices also have considerations such as how to inform clients of a colleague’s death, and, in time, whether to formally remember the person in the workplace. It’s natural to want to remember someone, but some types of memorials can trigger risk in vulnerable people, and permanent public memorials are generally discouraged by organisations working in suicide postvention. Online tribute pages can also pose risks, with comments often published elsewhere without permission, and such pages attracting attacks and bullying. The Samaritans advise that public memorials are time limited, and after a period, tributes are sent to the family in private not displayed publicly.

Handling the media There is often media interest in veterinary suicides, and contact from the press can feel intrusive and upsetting. It can help to have a planned response to this as a practice. Nominate a single person as a spokesperson and discourage others in the practice from making comments to the media. Prepare a statement and do not deviate from it, avoid sensationalising the death, and don’t give details of the suicide method or anything written in a suicide note. Samaritans’ guidance also encourages people to avoid giving simple ‘explanations’ of the suicide such as ‘… was stressed about a complaint’.

Support It’s vitally important that people can access support after a suicide, in their own way, and at their own pace. Some people may want to talk with friends, family and colleagues, whereas others may feel they need more professional support. There is no right or wrong way to cope.

Sometimes after a death organisations arrange formal counselling for staff. There is mixed evidence on this, where people want counselling it can be helpful, but some types of debriefing, such as formal group debriefing or critical incident stress debriefing, after a traumatic incident can actually increase the likelihood of developing PTSD, so it is important to be guided by what staff want, offer support but do not force people to take part if they don’t want, or feel ready to talk.

Some people find support groups and meeting others who have been bereaved by suicide helpful, Survivors of Bereavement

by Suicide coordinates a network of groups around the UK.

How Vetlife can help Vetlife, the charity that supports the veterinary community, also offers services to help after suicide. Vetlife Helpline is available by phone or email 24 hours a day for listening and emotional www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

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Our Family’s Story “I cannot adequately describe the panic of finding out that my husband had died by suicide. From the police phone call after midnight, to my repeated vomiting with fear and turmoil while talking to the officer who came to my house. How was I to tell my beautiful children, sleeping, blissfully unaware for the moment of how their world would be catapulted into chaos, misery and despair.

The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was to tell my innocent children that their father had died, and by his own hand. A close second is my attempt at maintaining some semblance of normal life for years after when all around was grief, fear and fury.

Suicide is so cruel to those left behind. Children are devastated and will always wonder “why” and “why us”, while the remaining adult is unfairly blamed for the death and is left to cope with absolute chaos. In a rural community, where my husband was the local vet, I had to endure hateful behaviour directed at me, the survivor. I can’t describe the depths of grief my children experienced. We were living in a nightmare. Every minute of every day was a nightmare.

I can honestly say that the number of people who genuinely helped beyond the first two week period are few and far between. I guess people just can’t cope with misery. Folk do not know what to say, or do, to help, and quite frankly, everything is upsetting anyway because noone can understand the depth of trauma and despair.

This is where Vetlife is crucial to the families left to cope with the aftermath of suicide. Noone else is equipped to deal with this particular devastation.

I was phoned immediately by Vetlife when they received my application forms requesting financial help. All my husband’s bank accounts were frozen, so, in addition to dealing with traumatised children, I was immediately plunged into financial instability, with fear of repossession. I’ll never forget their kind, reassuring words, telling me that Vetlife were going to help me financially. I was given monthly cheques initially for a three-month period, which was then extended for another three months.

This represented an immediate safety net, releasing me from fear of repossession and of not being able to pay credit card bills. We also received wonderful, gentle, professional counselling from Vetlife Health Support. The National Coordinator came to our home and spoke to me and the children. I still phone him, years later, when I am concerned about an aspect of my children’s behaviour, because even now, there are consequences to deal with and worries to talk about. On several occasions, he has talked me out of a panic with his calm reassurance. His words give me the strength to carry on when all I want to do is to hide away from worries.

The kindness and empathy of the people in this organisation is overwhelming. Vetlife quite literally have saved me and my wonderful children.”

support. Vetlife Health Support can support practices in more practical ways; where a practice requests, Vetlife can visit the practice and support staff who want to talk.

Vetlife financial support can also support the families of vets who have been bereaved by suicide. Some life insurance policies do not cover deaths by suicide, and bank accounts can also be inaccessible to family for a time. Practices can let families know that Vetlife can often help with grants or loans in these situations.

A powerful story from a family who have received Vetlife support and have given permission for their words to be used, can be read above.

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WELL-BEING

Language Suicide is stigmatised and it can be a very difficult subject to talk about. Organisations working in this area recommend to consider the language used when talking about a death. For example saying someone has “committed suicide” dates back to when suicide was a criminal offence, and can be stigmatising and upsetting for those impacted. “Died by suicide” or “taken their own life” are less stigmatising alternatives. Similarly, talking about “completed suicide” or “successful suicide” to differentiate someone who has died by suicide as opposed to an “unsuccessful” or “incomplete” attempt, is said by some who have lived experience of suicidal thoughts to increase their distress, as they feel it suggests that they’ve “failed” at suicide, and that dying is a success, or that death makes them complete.

When talking about someone who has died by suicide or who has attempted suicide, using alternatives to “successful”, “committed”, or “completed”, is preferable.

Summary We know from research evidence that the way people respond to a suicide is a key part of suicide prevention for others, and in managing difficult and complex grief.

In the shock and grief in the immediate aftermath of suicide it can be difficult to know what to do, but there are organisations who want to help, and who can support your practice. Vetlife Helpline is available 24 hours a day, and can signpost you to further resources. The resources below may also be of help.

If you need to talk, support is available 24 hours a day; Vetlife can be called on 0303 040 2551, or freephone Samaritans 116 123 Resources Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SOBS) website: http://uk-sobs.org.uk/ Support after a suicide, SOBS booklet: http://uk-sobs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ 2014/02/SupportAfterASuicide.pdf Samaritans postvention advice: http://www.samaritans.org/your-community/ supporting-schools/step-step/step-step-frequently-asked-questions Vetlife website: www.vetlife.org.uk Vetlife helpline: 0303 040 2551, or email via the Vetlife website Part of this article was first published on the author’s blog, which can be found at: https://veterinarywellbeing.wordpress.com/ Rosie is a vet and researcher at the University of Edinburgh who specialises in veterinary mental health and wellbeing. She is Chair of Vetlife Helpline and a Director of Vetlife. She has also volunteered with Samaritans for 11 years.

References HAW, C et al (2013). Suicide clusters: a review of risk factors and mechanisms. Suicide Life Threat Behav 43(1) 97-108.

JOINER, T E (1999). The clustering and contagion of suicide. Current Directions in Psychological Science 8 89-92.

NIEDZWIEDZ, C (2014). The definition and epidemiology of clusters of suicidal behavior: a systematic review. Suicide Life Threat Behav 44(5) 569-81.

PITMAN, A L (2016). Bereavement by suicide as a risk factor for suicide attempt: a cross-sectional national UK-wide study of 3432 young bereaved adults. BMJ Open 6(1).

PLATT, B (2010). Systematic review of the prevalence of suicide in veterinary surgeons.

Occup Med (Lond) 60(6) 436-46. ISSN 1471-8405.

SAMARITANS (2013). Media guidelines for reporting suicide http://www.samaritans. org/media-centre/media-guidelines-reporting-suicide

Join the SPVS TODAY!

Becoming a member of SPVS has all kinds of rewards We make sure you get access to the best advice and support, as well as the first look at new industry stats and benchmarking. Plus we give you great deals on new and upcoming events and much more! Here are just a few things we offer…

We publish the invaluable annual SPVS Fee Survey and SPVS Salaries Survey, both free to members. Our Profitability Survey (Profitability survey in bold) helps you with an objective assessment of your own practice.

We keep members up to date with current issues via Practice Life, the journal we share with VPMA, along with regular e-zines.

Our active email discussion group, exclusive to members, offers quick and confidential access to a large group of others in practice who have often already “been there and done that” and who will be happy to share their experiences or learn from you.

In partnership with VPMA, we run a programme of events, including regional business and

management CPD and our Joint Annual Congress, the largest non-clinical veterinary conference in the UK. Members are eligible for significant discounts.

We have negotiated a range of preferential rates and affiliation schemes to save you or your practice money. Some of these will more than cover the cost of your membership.

The SPVS Member Employers’ Helpline, provided by Citation, is available Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays.

We encourage wellbeing in practice through our Well-being Awards (in association with the RCVS’ Mind Matters initiative).

And the SPVS Benchmarking Scheme helps you to analyse, benchmark and monitor your practice’s performance.

Visit http://spvs.org.uk/member-benefits for more information.

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

With my Pet Health Plan, I get regular check ups and preventive treatment throughout the year

And I get a good belly rub!

We believe that every pet’s health matters.

And a key to maintaining a pet’s health is regular visits with you, the vet.

If you want your clients to keep their pets coming to you regularly, consider giving your clients the option of a Denplan Pet Health Plan. By offering a way to budget monthly for the preventive care their pet’s need, clients will return for routine treatments like vaccinations, boosters, health checks and advice throughout the year.

This gives you and the practice team the opportunity to connect with the owner and keep a close eye on the everyday health of their pet.

Denplan Pet Health Plans can be tailored to your business model with inclusions and exclusions relevant to best suit your practice. Pet owners on monthly payment plans are more likely to remain loyal and will provide your practice with a regular income.

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To find out more about offering Pet Health Plans, call us on 0800 169 9958

MANAGING PEOPLE

THE USES AND ABUSES OF PERSONALITY PROFILING There is a long trend of using personality profiling as a basis for selecting candidates for job roles, but how accurate are such tests? Ben Hardy takes a critical look at the pros and cons

‘Not one of them is like another, don’t ask us why, go ask your mother’ – Dr Seuss

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eople think differently, act differently and perform differently from each other. This difference can look odd to us, as these people don’t think, act or perform like we do ourselves.This unpredictability may be difficult to deal with as it means we may not get the outcome we hope for when we hire someone or work with them.

To try to understand what makes people different, studies have looked at physical factors, such as bumps on the skull (phrenology) and genes. They have also tried to understand intangible factors, such as personality. The profusion of techniques tells us one thing – that none of these methods has actually captured what makes people different. If they did then there would be only one technique used to examine human behaviour.

Personality profiling has its roots in Hippocrates’ theories.

He believed the body contained a mixture of four elements

or “humours”: black bile (µέλαινα χολή), yellow bile (χολή), phlegm (φλέγμα), and blood (αἷμα). Each of these corresponded to one of the four fundamental personality types, sanguine (optimistic and social), choleric (short-tempered or irritable), melancholic (analytical and quiet), and phlegmatic (relaxed and peaceful).

Modern personality profiling began with Alfred Binet, a French educationalist who aimed to discover which students needed extra teaching. He devised a test of intelligence that quickly morphed from being a test of who needed extra teaching into a grading system. In the years that followed, numerous other intelligence tests were developed along with those for many other traits. Today, there are a huge number of traits which can be “measured” with the International Personality Item Pool (http://ipip.ori.org/) listing over 250 different tests – and these are just the publicly available ones.

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

MANAGING PEOPLE

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intelligence is malleable to some extent. If we view IQ as Tests range in rigor from those in a glossy magazine (“mostly fixed and immutable then we are not seizing the opportunity Bs, then you like cake”) to highly rigorous psychometrics. to develop others’ capabilities.

All of them are trying to capture some element of difference So, how best to use personality measures? The first thing and help us understand who is different and how.

The personality measure with the strongest scientific support to understand is that all personality measures are inaccurate.

They do not capture the complexity of the human character. is the so-called Big 5 measure of personality. This looks They present a simplified and skewed view of the world. at, unsurprisingly, five different aspects: extraversion (how In effect, they are not true. But just because they are not outgoing you are), neuroticism (how emotionally stable you true does not mean that they are not useful. are), openness to experience, conscientiousness (how diligent The best way to use any personality measure is as a starting you are) and agreeableness (how well you play with others). point for exploration, not as a yardstick for classification.

Other tests, such as Meyers Briggs, Insights, Firo-B and Personality measures do not tell us the answer but they many others are also commonly used. enable us to ask a better class of question.

But so what I hear you say? Well, these tests are useful in What do I mean by this? Say you’ve got an employee telling us something about other people. If someone is an introvert, then they may need a bit of decompression time after who tends to beat themselves up about things that go wrong.

You might get them to fill in the reflection/rumination scale dealing with the public just to relax. Knowing that they are an that accompanies this article. In doing so you might find introvert may make this conversation a bit easier. that they tend towards rumination rather than reflection.

The danger with these tests is that they’re used to define Rumination is repetitively thinking about the causes, people. One of my clients has implemented a personality test consequences, and symptoms of one’s negative mood. based on colours. “Blue” people are meant to be introverted, This then could spark a conversation about the difference detail orientated and analytical. So when a known blue person between reflection and rumination and a deeper exploration asks for more information, there’s a groan of “that’s such a of why the employee behaves the way they do and what blue person’s way to behave”. People end up being placed in can be done to help. boxes and the richness of their personality overlooked.

Personality measures can be an invaluable tool in all Actually, it’s worse than that. Defining people by their sorts of areas. They can help us track our progress on personality tests may not simply hinder people in displaying particular behaviours we want to change. They can help other facets of their character, it may actually preclude them spark conversations and deeper understanding among groups doing so. IQ, for example, may not be fixed. There’s a great Medivet_PracticeLife-SEP16[proof2].pdf 1 15/07/2016 11:47 of people. They can help label feelings and ideas which we deal of disagreement about this but it does seem as if

caring FOR OUR

PROFESSION

Medivet treats staff, patients and their owners like family members.

That’s why we help Vetlife in their valuable work. It’s a natural extension of Medivet’s commitment to the future of the profession.

Medivet’s generous financial donation was welcomed by Vetlife President, John Moffitt. This is “a valuable addition to the organisation’s welfare funds,” he said.

Vetlife, an independent, registered charity, provides confidential support to members of the UK veterinary community and their families who have emotional, health or financial concerns.

If you need confidential emotional support, contact the Vetlife helpline on 0303 040 2551 or email them anonymously via their website (www.vetlife.org.uk).

Want to partner with us or join our amazing team?

Contact Daniel on 01923 470 046 – he’d be delighted to hear from you!

www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

Call Daniel on 01923 470 046 vetrecruitment@medivet.co.uk www.medivet.co.uk

30

MANAGING PEOPLE

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly agree disagree

1

My attention is often focused on aspects of myself I wish I’d stop thinking about

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I always seem to be “re-hashing” in my mind recent things I’ve said or done

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Sometimes it is hard for me to shut off thoughts about myself

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Long after an argument or disagreement is over with, my thoughts keep going back to what happened

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5

I tend to “ruminate” or dwell over things that happen to me for a really long time afterward

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6

I don’t waste time re-thinking things that are over and done with

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Often I’m playing back over in my mind how I acted in a past situation

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8

I often find myself re-evaluating something I’ve done

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9

I never ruminate or dwell on myself for very long

10 It is easy for me to put unwanted thoughts out of my mind

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11 I often reflect on episodes in my life that I should no longer concern myself with

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12 I spend a great deal of time thinking back over my embarrassing or disappointing moments

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13 Philosophical or abstract thinking doesn’t appeal to me that much

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14 I’m not really a meditative type of person

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15 I love exploring my “inner” self

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16 My attitudes and feelings about things fascinate me

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17 I don’t really care for introspective or self-reflective thinking

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18 I love analysing why I do things

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19 People often say I’m a “deep”, introspective type of person

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20 I don’t care much for self-analysis

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21 I’m very self-inquisitive by nature

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22 I love to meditate on the nature and meaning of things

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23 I often love to look at my life in philosophical ways

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24 Contemplating myself isn’t my idea of fun

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Scoring: Total up your scores for items 1-12.

TOTAL ______________

TOTAL ______________

Total up your scores for items 13-24

Items 1-12 look at Rumination. The average score is 41.5. If you are scoring over 41.5 you may be at risk of ruminating excessively on events. Rumination is a self-conscious process which is motivated by losses and failures, threats to one’s individual identity and injustice.

Items 13-24 look at Reflection. The average score is 38. If you score below this then you may not be adequately reflecting on your experiences. Reflection is a self-examination process which is motivated by curiosity about one’s self.

Trapnell, P. D., & Campbell, J. D. 1999. Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(2): 284-304.

could not define. But it is important to remember that they are like an unreliable lab test. They don’t necessarily measure things accurately, they don’t necessarily capture all the complexity and they don’t necessarily remain the same.

So long as you bear these things in mind you can harness their benefits and avoid some of the pitfalls that can attend their use.

Dr Ben Hardy is a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management, SOAS, University of London; Fellow in Management, Finance and Physiology, Cambridge Judge Business School; and Guest Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at the London Business School.

Ben started as a veterinary surgeon then joined a pharmaceutical company offering technical support. He undertook an MBA, MPhil (with distinction) and a PhD at Cambridge. He has taught on the MBA, EMBA and Masters in Finance at Cambridge and the Master’s in Finance and EMBA at London Business School.

Ben’s research looks at the role of hormones and emotions in risk taking and financial decision making, linguistics and communication in surveys and morale in organisations. His work has been published in science and management journals globally.

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

CLIENT CARE & MARKETING

FEES: MAKING THEM CLEAR AND AVOIDING ISSUES Are you losing business by not discussing fees clearly enough during your consultations, asks Kay Irvine

T

here has long been a public perception that “vets are rich, charge a fortune and are trying to rip off the unsuspecting public”. Many vets carry this belief with them, making them feel too uncomfortable to broach the subject of fees with their clients.

We know that this perception is untrue and unfair, yet it can still be the “little voice in our head” that holds us back when we have to talk about money. In the UK, we are fortunate enough to enjoy a “free” health service, but this means our average client will have very little understanding of how much treatments, operations and drugs really cost; if they’ve never owned their own business, or have experience, they also won’t understand how high your running costs might be.

In a recent post, online blogger Will Easson said of the veterinary sector: “Fees are a subject as emotionally charged as any other in this profession”, but added, “nobody can work for free”.

Will has a good point. To have a healthy practice you should be making between 15-20% net profit (international figures) yet, in the UK, the average is just 5%. This means that for every £100 income, after costs, you will have just £5 left to pay tax, drawings and to reinvest.

But if you, or one of your vets, shaves a bit off the bill due to a fear of charging what is the correct fee, your profit’s gone and that consultation has just made a loss. Add those figures up for your whole team over a year and you might get a frightening wake-up call.

Confidence and communication The first hurdle to overcome may be in your own head – do you believe you are worth it? (Did you toss your hair back then or have you pulled it all out?). Can you justify your practice’s fees to yourself? If you don’t or can’t then you are probably going to struggle to persuade a client. If you are the business owner and you find your team either undercharging, allowing clients to leave without paying or creating angry clients disputing fees they weren’t expecting, then some education on the true running costs of the business together with some communication protocols could be your simple solution.

Imagine your car is in the garage and the mechanic has just called you to say he has found it needs a new water pump. You feel a bit suspicious. He says “why don’t you come in, I want to show you something?” He’s just around the corner, so you go in and he opens the bonnet, shows where it’s leaking and the damage it’s causing. He then shows you what’s involved in taking it out and replacing it and educates you on what would happen if you don’t replace the water pump. The £250 he has quoted you, including four hours’ labour, now seems like a pretty good deal. www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

If you’d turned up to collect the car expecting a £40 bill for the MOT but found you had an expensive water pump you weren’t aware you needed, how would you react? Pretty simple, and yet we can do this regularly to our clients. We do the right thing for the pet but the wrong thing for the client (which could be the wrong thing for the receptionist who may have to deal with the angry client for you).

The same principle applies when talking to telephone clients who are shopping around based on price – your front of house team should be educating the client on the value first and then telling them the price. When you’ve listened to them and wowed them with your service, the true cost is less important to them.

We know that veterinary medicine will rarely follow a simple path or be as predictable as maintaining a car, but we can be structured and predictable in how we communicate with our clients. We can have clear protocols on estimates and client communication and make each team member accountable.

Estimates every time Does every client who leaves their pet with you walk out of the surgery with an estimate in their hand? There really shouldn’t be a single instance when this wouldn’t happen. If it’s a scheduled procedure the estimate could be printed off the previous evening and be waiting with the admission forms; if a vet hasn’t followed protocol and completed an estimate then here’s the opportunity to follow that up and not just have to bypass it when the client is there. Routine procedures could be estimated by a nurse – are they clearly defined on your practice management system and are all the extras, such as pain relief, Buster collar and so on, included and have to be opted out of rather than remembered?

Speak to your clients We are mainly in the good habit of giving post-op calls, but what about pre-op calls? A call from a nurse the day before the procedure can serve many useful purposes both for the practice and client. It should eliminate the no-shows and the “forgot I shouldn’t give him breakfast!” clients, as the memory-jogger list will cover all that together with “and are you happy with your estimate, Mrs Client?” You could even discuss payment and your practice’s insurance terms at this point. Just this one phone call could make all the difference to the client experience, alleviate any pre-op apprehensions – and it shows that you care.

Speak to them again So it doesn’t always go to plan; just like when a mechanic lifts the bonnet, the unexpected may happen. It could be an emergency and you have to make a judgement call. Well that’s

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fine and with a clear explanation as soon as is possible, there won’t be many clients who aren’t grateful to hear what you’ve done and why. If, for example, it’s three more teeth that need to come out and extra surgery time incurring additional costs, then a quick call from one of the team asking permission to do it now rather than another anaesthetic at a later date is an easy option. This approach is appreciated by the client, they arrive happy and informed and won’t attempt any violent acts on the unsuspecting receptionist.

ADVICE FROM THE RCVS ON FEES For any queries about fees, see Chapter 9 (Practice information, fees and animal insurance) of the supporting guidance to the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct www.rcvs.org.uk/fees The Vet Futures Action Plan, launched on July 4 at the RCVS/BVA Vet Futures Summit, states a key action point going forward is “Communicating veterinary fees and value,” which will entail the following:

Confident consultations How do vets overcome their fear of selling and talking about money? You know you can fix the pet – you have the equipment, knowledge and expertise – but you also have a nagging feeling the client standing in front of you may not have budgeted for the treatment or procedure. This assumption and potential fear of rejection that vets experience on a daily basis can create a whole host of problems.

You’ve x-rayed their wallet and decided your estimate is too high and start to knock a few “nice to haves” off the list for them. The ideal mindset is to start the explanation of your treatment plan discussing why this is the very best for the pet, the reasons you have reached this conclusion, and these are your expected outcomes. Then tell the client how much and pause… that first wince might be “I’d planned to put a new set of tyres on the Ferrari this month and this might hold me back”.

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Undertaking research to identify key information to be disseminated, including focus groups to investigate public understanding of veterinary fees and costs; Establishing where data on this subject is currently held – for example, the SPVS salary, fee and profit surveys, and the BVA’s Voice of the Veterinary Profession survey findings –and where gaps exist; Developing public-facing communication tools, such as infographics.

The Vet Futures Action Plan can be found at www.vetfutures.org.uk/resources

But we could have rushed in with a discount before the client has had a chance to process that he could use some of the £10k available balance on his credit card. Making assumptions on behalf of our clients’ financial situation is really NOT part of our job. Our job is to offer a gold standard service to pets (a good rule is to ask yourself, if this consult were an exam question, would I pass with this treatment plan?), it’s the client’s job to work out how to pay for it – do keep that in mind.

Team consistency In an ideal world your whole team should be comfortable talking about money. This may require some education.

We often find that team members (and often even practice owners) don’t know how much it costs just to keep a practice open for an hour – do you? It’s important that everyone has some basic knowledge of costs to be able to justify in their own heads what they are charging, before they can talk to a client about it.

When your team is comfortable discussing fees, they will do it confidently and consistently, your clients will trust you more and you will have taken a huge step towards maintaining their loyalty. A happy team and happy clients, what more could you want – well, maybe the Ferrari?!

Kay Irvine ANA, VPAC Kay is a Practice Development Coach with Vet Dynamics, and has spent time both in industry and practice. She has experience in marketing, PR, communications, business development and holds the VPAC qualification. In her spare time Kay loves art, horses, writing, parapsychology and travel.

12/07/2016 10:51:28

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

BUSINESS HEALTH & FINANCE

SPEND, SPEND, SPEND AND SAVE TAX! Always a hot topic within veterinary practices is what to spend money on.

This will of course differ from practice to practice, but equipment will often feature highly on the list. Mark Harwood offers some tips on choosing the right financing option to save tax.

W

hatever your practice chooses to spend its cash on, there is no substitute for setting a budget and preparing projections to identify how affordable your spending plans are. Ideally, this will be an integrated projection of cash flow, profit and loss account as well as balance sheet. This can be a real eye opener and highlight cash “pinch points” within a practice’s year when cash flow is tighter, which might influence how and when you decide to spend cash.

Let us assume that you have already prepared some form of projection and that you plan to spend £80,000 on new equipment within the practice over the coming year. You have been holding back on investing in equipment for the past year, but recall your accountant mentioning something about the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) being at a favourable level at the moment after a U-turn by the Government, so now might be a good time.

You pick up the phone, dial the number for an equipment supplier that you have used before and are greeted by a likeable chap. You explain you are interested in a digital x-ray machine, an endoscope and a few other items. He talks you through various options including paying in cash, taking out a loan (eg, from a bank), finance lease, lease purchase, operating lease, contract hire, renting and hire purchase. You explain you just want the best deal they can do.

You jot down some details and before you know it, you are back with a client undertaking clinical work. That evening you look back over your notes and while you feel you understood everything that was explained, it does not appear to be clear cut about what the best option is. You phone up another supplier the following day and while the terms of what is on offer differ slightly, the options offered are the same. What to do, you ask yourself?

As is often the case, there is no right or wrong answer, although breaking the decision-making process down into chunks will help you conclude what is best for your practice.

One good way of doing this is as follows.

Step one Consider: do you wish the practice to own the equipment or not?

There are many variables that could drive your decision on this, although typical ones might include: – The rate of technological and scientific change and, therefore, how soon you may wish to replace it for a new and more advanced model.

www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

– How quickly it depreciates and therefore its future secondhand value.

– How costly it will be to maintain over time.

– How much it will be used in the practice.

– The effect on practice cash flow (although to a great degree this is driven by which option you choose for acquiring the equipment – more on this below).

Let us say that having considered these areas, you decide that provided it works from a cash flow position, you wish for the practice to own the digital x-ray machine and other items of equipment, but not the endoscope.

Step two Understand the tax position. Looking back over your notes, you focus in on “paying in cash, taking out a loan (eg, from a bank), finance lease, lease purchase, operating lease, contract hire, renting and hire purchase.”

Agreements for acquiring equipment are sometimes worded as “lease purchase”. This is not a term recognised in HMRC’s tax legislation. Not to say that it does not have a tax treatment; rather, for tax purposes it is quite a woolly term and one that – depending on how the agreement is worded – could actually be treated for tax as if it were hire purchase or finance lease.

An operating lease, contract hire and renting are normally one and the same. All very well and good, you may be thinking, but does that make any difference? Let us take a closer look at this and the other options.

In broad terms, the AIA allows for 100% of the VATexclusive cost of equipment to be deducted from a practice’s taxable profits. Strictly speaking, it relates to “plant and machinery” which includes equipment as well as fixtures, fittings and commercial vehicles, although we are focusing on equipment here.

AIA has been set at various levels over the past few years, being as high as £500,000 and as low as £25,000. It was due to go back to £25,000 on January 1, 2016, although a U-turn saw it set at £200,000 per annum, which for those practices investing in equipment, can potentially be great news for saving tax.

If your year end was not December 31, 2015, then you will have had an AIA pro-rated based on the old threshold and the new. Space dictates that we do not explore this in more detail here.

In the event the AIA is exceeded, any excess does still receive tax relief, albeit at a slower rate in the form of writing down allowances, meaning 18% of the excess cost of the equipment

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is deducted from the practice’s profits on a reducing balance basis each year. Both the AIA and writing down allowances are a form of capital allowances. Capital allowances are essentially the Government’s form of depreciation for tax purposes, as when calculating a practice’s taxable profits, depreciation has to be added back to the accounting profit (ie, it does not itself save tax), instead to be replaced by capital allowances, which do help to save tax. The good news is that at the moment, capital allowances are usually greater than the depreciation cost in the accounts. We will assume for the below that the AIA threshold is not exceeded.

The VAT position is also relevant. We summarise the VAT, capital allowances and tax relief (the amount by which the practice’s profits are reduced by) position in Table 1.

Going back to step one where you decided that you did not want to own the endoscope, the only option is contract hire.

You phone the supplier back, run through the costs, which you are happy with, and decide to sign on the dotted line.

So what about the digital x-ray and the other equipment you were keen to own? The options we have set out are buy in cash, bank (or other) loan, hire purchase and finance lease. Again, there is no right or wrong answer, although there is a school of thought that if the practice has sufficient funds to be able to buy the equipment outright while retaining a comfortable cash buffer, then this is a sensible way forward. This is where your projections can come in handy to confirm that this is likely to be the case at the time you expect to acquire the equipment.

The advantage of buying in cash is that you will save the interest cost of financing the equipment through a bank loan, hire purchase or finance lease. A common misconception is that financing must be better than buying in cash because it results in a tax saving on the interest costs. While this is true, if we said interest costs in the year were, say, £3,500 and your practice was a company, then applying the current company corporation tax rate of 20% would result in a tax saving of £700. Not to be sniffed at, although in this case there is still a net cost to

the practice of the interest cost less the tax saving; ie, £3,500 less £700 being £2,800, which would not apply if the equipment was purchased outright in cash, all other matters being the same.

If you conclude that for cash flow reasons it would be better to finance the purchase of the digital x-ray and other equipment, then the options are: – Bank (or other) loan; – Hire purchase; or – Finance lease.

From the table above, it is clear that a loan or hire purchase is likely to result in a tax saving more quickly than a finance lease (albeit often a similar tax saving eventually depending on the interest rate). It then comes down to what terms can be obtained, such as interest rate, length of term/agreement and any early repayment fees, as to whether it might be best to go for a loan or hire purchase. This does not mean that a finance lease is not the way to go as a particularly attractive interest rate under such an agreement might sway the decision making balance, but it is often the case that hire purchase or a loan will be more attractive.

Having gone through the decision making process, you conclude that this time you will go for hire purchase for the digital x-ray, contract hire for the endoscope and buy outright in cash for the other equipment. You tot up the payments over the year and you find that the cash outflow in the year of purchase is actually only £65,000 out of your original planned £80,000 spend, with some further payments in later years as you have chosen to finance some of the equipment.

Final word Buying equipment is part and parcel of every day life in veterinary practice. The range of options on offer might seem mind boggling at first. However, considering whether you wish to own the equipment or not, then assessing cash flow before you go on to consider the tax position and the terms of Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

BUSINESS HEATH & FINANCE

35

Payment options

VAT reclaimable?

Capital allowances available?

Tax relief (at the prevailing rate of tax)

Will the practice own the equipment?

Buy outright in cash

Yes, in full at purchase

Yes, from the start

Yes, eg, on a VAT exclusive price

100% of purchase price excluding VAT,

of £60,000 will receive a £60,000

due to the capital allowances

reduction in practice taxable profits

Take out a bank (or other)

Yes, as for buying outright in cash

Yes, in full at purchase

100% of purchase price excluding VAT,

loan and buy using these funds

due to the capital allowances,

plus interest on the bank (or other) loan

Hire purchase (HP)

Yes, in full at purchase

Yes, as for buying outright in cash

Yes, from the start

100% of purchase price excluding VAT,

Yes, from the end of the

due to the capital allowances,

agreement (check the wording

plus interest on the HP

of the agreement as to any

Finance lease

Yes, on the monthly

repayments

No

final payment)

Depreciation charge per the accounts

Potentially, typically a final

plus interest on the finance lease

payment (which could be small

or large) will be required at the

end of the agreement, to pass

ownership to the practice

Contract hire/operating

Yes, on the monthly

No

lease/renting

payments

No

On the monthly payments (excluding VAT)

Table 1. Payment options for purchasing practice equipment

purchase is important. There is no substitute for taking advice and having someone cast an eye over the purchase documents before you sign on the dotted line, to ensure that what you want is what you get, while ensuring you get the best possible tax position.

This article has been prepared as a guide to topics of current financial business interests. We strongly recommend you take professional advice before making decisions on matters such as those discussed here. No responsibility for any

loss to any person acting as a result of this material can be accepted by us.

The author welcomes questions from readers and can be contacted on 01242 680000 or mark.harwood@hazlewoods.co.uk Mark Harwood has been with Hazlewoods since 2003 and advises veterinary practices on a wide range of topics including profit improvement, tax planning, valuations, change of ownership and buying and selling practices. Outside work Mark enjoys running, mountain biking and skiing as well as playing the piano and spending time with his family.

CASE STUDY: GETTING YOUR BOSS TO AGREE TO NEW EQUIPMENT Jason Rogers looks at how to present your case to the boss in a way that demonstrates its return on investment

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repare yourself for some tough love. You desperately want some new equipment for your practice, you really need some new equipment for your practice.

You have told your boss many, many times, but he or she doesn’t seem to listen and you still do not have that new equipment. It’s so frustrating!

Well, I did say prepare for tough love. The problem may not be your boss, it is probably you.

Put yourself in your manager’s position. You are probably one of many in the practice who is constantly asking for new equipment. Asking them to spend more money. You are like that small child at the supermarket checkout asking for a chocolate bar. Pester, pester, pester. So annoying.

To really make an impression and be more effective, think like a business owner. Present a business case and show how your investment will help both improve animal care and www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

positively impact the revenue of the practice. How is this new equipment going to help the practice grow, retain or grow clients and business?

Prepare a business case Presenting an opportunity for investment is so much more effective than asking a boss to spend money. Spend your time doing a little homework and then demonstrate how this will improve the practice and how quickly it will pay for itself, and then start delivering a profit for your business.

At BCF, we specialise in veterinary imaging equipment, so this is my own area of expertise. To make your life easier we have created a very simple to use return on investment calculator for both ultrasound and X-ray equipment, which can be found on our website www.bcftechnology.co.uk. You can just add the figures into the calculator and it will work out the answers for you. From these you should be able to work out how quickly this kit is going to pay for itself and in the expected lifetime of the unit how much revenue it is going to generate for your practice.

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Be careful though. If you are promising your boss increased usage of equipment, you will have to deliver this when the new equipment arrives. Otherwise, next time you present a business argument for new equipment, your boss will simply not believe you.

An investment for your business

Remember also to add service costs and training costs. And bear in mind using equipment such as ultrasound takes skill, practice and confidence. You may need to dedicate time and money to training staff. Make this clear in your proposal. The very last thing your boss wants is to buy a shiny new piece of equipment and then it gets put in a corner, gathering dust and not being used due to lack of knowledge.

Print out your calculations and then take your boss through the figures. “If we purchase for £x and did so many scans a week at £x amount, it will pay for itself in x months. With a lifespan of five years then that’s x years’ profit at £x. And that includes all the service costs. So when can I place the order…?”

This also works well for for those practices with multiple partners. You can present all the calculations on one sheet of paper that you and your boss can share with all the other decision makers.

And hello… you are now approaching your boss as an adult, with a properly prepared business argument, demonstrating how an investment in new equipment will help improve animal care and also increase the revenue of the practice. Give it a go, what have you got to lose? From your boss’s perspective, he or she can see you are serious, have done the background research, put the effort in, and, more importantly, you can show the impact on the growth of the practice. Just remember, once that shiny new equipment arrives you have to back up your figures in real life.

See our handy ultrasound and X-ray return on investment calculators at www.bcftechnology.co.uk.

You can now book your place at the VPMA/SPVS Congress 2017 – see page 44 for details Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT

Building a vision for your practice: If you don’t know where you are going, how will you get there?

The road to success can be made a lot smoother by planning your practice’s development journey in advance and making use of some standard business tools, writes Peter Orpin

L

ife is a journey. Practice life is no different. The day starts and finishes and then the week and then the month.

The risk is that the direction of your journey may not be ideally mapped out and you can end up somewhere different rather than in a better place. Is there a better way? Can you plan your journey or are we merely victims of circumstance?

Working as a consultant for Anval over the years has given me a great insight into how practices succeed or struggle within the same market place. We all start off our careers with the same qualifications. The opportunity to work with clients is broadly the same so why is the outcome so different? Why do some practices succeed while others struggle?

Darwin’s classic misquote “survival of the fittest” explains part of the reason. The actual quote is “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”. The veterinary market place has changed substantively over the past 30 years, from a product or supply led market to a demand-led one where the client defines the services and products we supply. This is not a unique phenomenon, but it is clear the practices that have embraced the changes and opportunities and have created a plan to expand and develop within the market place have expanded.

Most changes are incremental and every year brings new challenges and opportunities. There is a wide variety of “success factors” that can be identified for practices that wish to build a vision for themselves and plan for a better future. I will seek to outline some of the key areas that practices may wish to improve further to build a better future.

The overarching success factor appears to be a willingness to plan and flex to meet the needs of the marketplace. Rather than become a victim of the market you seek to shape and alter your delivery of services to meet the increasing demands of the client.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail – the only benefit of not planning is avoiding the period of worry before you fail!”

This is something I believe is true.

Developing a proactive planning or proactive approach to practice life requires the key core elements of communication, consistency and competence. The lack of effective communication approaches can lead to inconsistent execution of management and a discordant approach developing, which undermines the whole ethos. Successful practices put great energy into communication with their staff using a variety of tools (well-prepared meetings, emails and open discussions with all members of the team). www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

A coherent ethos for the business has to be adhered to by the whole practice team with an open honest approach and discussion of the business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis). This ethos has to be all-pervasive and cannot shrink from the challenges that lie ahead. Weaknesses and threats can often be turned into opportunities if enough energy is applied.

Planning sessions at practice and local level have to be repeated to identify opportunities using a simple flip chart SWOT analysis for the performance of the relevant business unit. Successful practices often use weekend breaks or planning days to stop and think about their next steps.

Figure 1. Typical SWOT analysis for a small animal practice

Strengths Weaknesses Good reputation Vet recruitment Quality staff Ageing team Highly motivated team Personnel management Communication Opportunities Threats Develop new services No clear succession plan Expand marketing Recruiting new owners E news Increased competition Social media In-house training A tool that is used less often but can be valuable is the PESTLE analysis (Figure 2), where the challenges and opportunities for a practice are identified using the following criteria: political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental analysis.

This will often identify areas which may lie beyond the SWOT analysis planning process, which tends to be more inward-looking.

Figure 2

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PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT

Successful practices will take the outcomes of their planning processes to the implementation stage by clearly defining their Objectives, Strategy and Tactics (OST) for the practice. An example of this approach is: Objective: increase fee income, Strategies: develop Referral business, Tactics: recruit or develop vets, invest in facilities/ buildings, and so on. If you define your direction of travel you can seek to then build on the OST to achieve your plans.

The struggling practice may not seek to develop a plan but deliver a series of individual tactics to deal with the competition such as price matching, cutting, discounts to retain business and miss the overall opportunity to expand the market that truly secures the business. This often undermines the overall brand and ethos of the business. The website may promise a “quality practice” and the overall delivery can fall short of the expectations set or result in confused and demotivated members of the team.

The veterinary business is a people and knowledge business.

The success of a practice is driven by motivated people delivering

an excellent service at a price point that delivers sufficient income to reinvest in current facilities and ensures overall returns facilitating succession.

CASE STUDY: SEVERN EDGE ‘Where do we all see this practice in five years’ time’ seemed an innocuous question at a partner meeting three years ago – but it got eight different answers!

W

hen I first started working as a practice manager at Severn Edge Veterinary Group, one of the first things that struck me was how different each day was. There was so much to do! I enjoyed the variation and thrill of always having a new challenge, or as was usually the case, several challenges at the same time. There was no time to get bored; the day started and finished in record time and the weeks passed by in a flash. I’m sure this isn’t an unfamiliar tale…

Traditionally our monthly partners’ meetings were held at 7am. There was no other time for us all to get together during the busy days. As we were munching through breakfast, one of the partners asked the rest of the group “where do you see this practice in five years’ time?” Bearing in mind we were two years into a merger between two medium-sized neighbouring practices and had, since merging, opened a new branch and bought another ‘two-vet’ practice, it was not surprising there were a few different opinions and it sparked some debate.

A lot had been learned from acquiring the new practice, but if we were honest, it wasn’t really part of the game plan; the opportunity had arisen and we took it. Other vet practices asked us if we were stopping there – we didn’t really know!

Should we close branches and consolidate; should we open more? What was going to happen in the marketplace, and with

the UK economy? How did we manage succession planning?

A crystal ball wasn’t available. We had already undertaken the usual SWOT analysis and had numerous reports from our PMS system and management accounts – but it was actually coming up with the ‘how’ that was the most difficult. There were so many routes we could take – which was the right one? There simply wasn’t enough time during the day to think about all this – let alone make it happen.

We engaged an external business coach who helped guide us through the process of deciding what our goals were and also, more importantly, to agree how we were going to achieve them.

It wasn’t easy; the meetings were held during the working day to acknowledge their importance. Attendance was mandatory for all eight partners. Over a period of 6 six months we began to see a much clearer picture of where we were going and more importantly how we were going to get there. Communication with staff being the critical element.

Several fairly major things happened over the course of the next two years. We incorporated: restructuring the business into five companies. We bought two more veterinary practices; one small animal, one equine.

Size isn’t everything (it brings with it its own complexities), but by becoming larger we have been able to build a practice support team of 10 people. It is still early days, but we have specialist functions: HR, Finance, Marketing/Graphic design, Credit Control, Purchasing, and a Trainer/Project Coordinator.

Having this support means we can now make things happen – instead of having to juggle many tasks at once. Things feel more organised.

We still have regular meetings with our business coach. We are refining and reviewing our plans regularly and measuring the success of our journey so far.

One thing is for sure – there is no crystal ball!

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT

39

driven by staff motivation, which is often poorly measured or driven in practice.

All too often clinical work is used as an excuse not to progress any of the more challenging aspects of the practice development.

Difficult conversations or decisions do not get any easier the longer they are left!

Planning is easier than not planning. All that needs to be done is to commit to a process of identifying where your practice should be next year, in five years and 10 years’ time and, once you have decided on the route, you are best placed to consider how to get there. This whole process can be achieved using external expertise or completed in-house with sufficient organisation. If you haven’t completed a team SWOT analysis now is a great time to start.

Peter Orpin, BVSc, MRCVS

The key area to get right is the ability to retain and motivate the team. Planning to develop and enrich your staff is essential.

The successful practices will find ways to ensure the whole team is motivated by removing unnecessary processes, establishing career progression, training and committing to a system of two-way feedback.

Practices that are doing this successfully will have measures in place to track staff motivation, client satisfaction and financial performance. Arguably, the financial performance is largely

Peter graduated from the University of Bristol in 1983. He worked in New Zealand in dairy and beef practice for a year and returned to the UK via South East Asia and China. He went on to chair the British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA) strategic review in 1996 and worked as part of the BSE and Health Planning working groups; becoming BCVA president in 1999.

He is currently Director and Senior Manager of a 28-vet practice, Park Vet Group, in Leicestershire. Alongside this busy role, he is also a consultant with Anval where he has a particular interest in practice planning, staff development and profit improvement programmes.

Peter’s major interests are in preventive medicine, health planning and practice development and he is Director of Myhealthyherd and Vetco, as well as lecturing in cattle medicine at the University of Nottingham. www.anval.co.uk

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CPD SHARED

Focus on

Digital Technology & Marketing Day Review HAVE A BASH AT BLOGGING! There was so much to talk about during the Tech Day event that speakers split their talks over several sessions. Emma Dahm shares tips on “Blogging without the blah” as told by the force of nature that is Bash Halow…

Bash Halow

1. Title Research your keywords to see what your audience is searching for and incorporate these into your title where possible. A good tool is Google Adwords; you’ll need to set up an account but you can use it for free.

2. Meta description This is basically your opening sentence and describes the page’s content. It appears as the snippet of text displayed by search engines.

3. Header This is the title of the next paragraph and helps boost the visibility of your blog. Don’t repeat content and don’t cheat by copying stuff from elsewhere, it must be original content on your blog, warns Bash.

Wordpress: Probably a familiar term for most of you, and one that makes the life of a blogger much easier.

Around 22% of websites are built on the Wordpress platform and, being originally a blog platform, it is the “go-to” tool if you want to start blogging about life in your veterinary practice.

If you are thinking about changing/updating your website and are looking for inspiration, just search around and find a site you like the look of, advises Bash. There is a clever little site that can tell you whether a certain website is built using Wordpress, and, if so, it will also helpfully tell you which template it is built to. Visit www.isitwp.com and type in the URL. When setting up a blog, it is wise to speak to your web developer to find out whether this can easily be added to your existing website or whether you need to make adjustments to accommodate it. There is also nothing wrong with setting up a separate site just for your blog. So, once you have the infrastructure in place the hard work starts – who, how, what and when to blog!

Anatomy of a blog Although there are no set rules about what a blog should look like, to get you off to a good start Bash suggested some guidelines that will set you on the right path.

4. Content Make what you write attention-grabbing and, most importantly, relevant to your audience! What is it your clients want to know and what is the best way to tell them? Don’t use too much jargon or difficult veterinary terms as this may put them off. Also include an action point: a hyperlink to one of your other blog posts. However, if you want to link to an external site (not within your own website) then set the preferences to “open in another tab” – in this way you will keep the value of the links/traffic.

5. Images Good images help optimise your site/blog. Again, Bash warns against “borrowing” these from another site as you can get prosecuted. Either download images from a free source, buy them from a picture agency or take them yourself. Always check the rights! You will only ever need the smallest size to put on a website. Use keywords to describe your images as “Alt text” – this helps Google “read” the image and is a descriptor for blind users. Use hyphens to link your description words as this helps Google think it’s a stream of words rather than a list of random ones.

6. Outbound links Linking to reputable sites can help build up your “link equity” which helps bring you up through the search engine results (ie, Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

CPD SHARED

appear towards the top of Google’s search pages). Choose wellrespected sites and encourage sites to back-link to your website or blog too. To maximise the effectiveness of this, the “anchor text” which describes what you are linking to should include the named site or keywords, not just “click here”.

7. Call to action You want to keep your clients (or potential clients) on your website for as long as possible; therefore, encourage your visitors to read another blog post or page within your website by putting a link at the end of each blog post.

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8. Frequency The frequency of your blog posts is really up to you – but it has to be realistic to meet your workload and expectations.

According to Bash, “one good blog a month is okay; better than lots of not good ones. It takes him around 2.5 hours to write a good blog post – and that’s quick! So set your expectations to suit the amount of time the lucky blogger has to complete the task – and get blogging without the blah!

Many useful resources can be found on Bash’s website, which is htcwebsites.com

“MINI-CONGRESS FEEL” FOR TECHNOLOGY AND MARKETING DAY Ryan Davis, SPVS council member and business owner, attended the Focus on Technology and Marketing day, run by SPVS-VPMA Events, and was very pleasantly surprised by what he experienced Susie Samuel

T

his being my first Focus on Technology and Marketing day as a SPVS councillor, I was keen to see what I had heard so much about. I was pleasantly surprised by the mini-congress feel – I wasn’t expecting such a comprehensive range of exhibitors and stands. Being directly involved with marketing within my own business, it was very useful to network and explore some of the novel and innovative marketing solutions on offer.

The opportunity rarely presents itself in my typically hectic vet schedule to spend time contemplating new ideas and ways of solving problems.

The lecture streams were well structured and having two streams really appeals to me as I feel like I can maximise my time with content that is really relevant. While it was difficult to choose between lectures at times, I felt I used my time very effectively by the end of the day. The international speakers offered a wealth of information and have left me raring to implement a brain full of new ideas. I hoped my management team were ready for “the morning after”! I have to admit to being in awe of a good spreadsheet, so when I saw that www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

Debbie Gatehouse of SV Training was doing a session on Excel I felt it would be rude not to go. Having a mediocre grasp of Microsoft’s famous program, I was keen to get practical, down-to-earth tips on how to help with my day-to-day data work. I was not disappointed.

A whistle-stop tour of profit and loss sheets through to cash flow forecasts kept me captivated, and really motivated me to reinvent my Excel sheets at the practice. Importing and exporting from Sage obviously gives headaches occasionally but some great advice was given to make this as painless as possible.

I can honestly say I never expected to be making that comment in writing, having a long-term Excel phobia!

From Excel we went to the world of digital learning. Mark Johnston from Vetstream showed the audience how veterinary staff can benefit from the world of online CPD. The big surprise to me was the variety of training available. The whole team can get involved with both clinical and non-clinical courses taking equal importance. I thought this was particularly important as I have sometimes found it difficult to get the nonclinical CPD I need in my practice. It was interesting to see the value that was on offer and I was genuinely impressed at the number of free courses available. I think people can be a little trepid about free CPD but it became obvious the quality on offer was excellent.

My last lecture of the day was from Susie Samuel on the subject of paid adverts in social media. With the interweb spider googlebots monitoring your every move, and giving you a rank in the search engine pages, you would be forgiven for not paying out on online advertising. But Susie made it clear that just focusing on rankings was a false economy. It became clear investing in online advertising will actually complement and support both online and offline marketing campaigns. The interactive environment had participants sharing their successes and failures and gave great depth to the session. We finished up with the merits of the better-known online forums for advertising and how they could impact veterinary businesses.

For those involved with advertising the advice was practical and easy enough to start the day after we got back.

So if you missed the day this year make sure you book in for next year – you won’t regret it!

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A SHOWCASE FOR NEW TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCTS VPMA board member and practice manager Ian Wolstenholme reviews the talks and exhibition at the Focus on Technology day

I

t was a genius move to combine two areas of practice under one roof (albeit a leaky roof towards the end of the day when a huge storm hit Leicester!). Tech and marketing often go hand in hand and, with a really good cross-section of companies exhibiting, lively and dynamic presentations from speakers, and great organisation by Jenny Stuart and team at Keystone, this annual event was another great success. Right from the word go, one of the things I noticed was how some of the exhibitors had gone through rebranding in one way or another.

I talked to Ali and Steve from Vet Space (formerly JupiterSystems) and Mark Lafferty from Practice Point, whose latest product, Assisi, announces on its display banner “a product you don’t know from people you do”. For many years this company produced the Ventana practice management system. Only a few days before this mini-congress, our local supermarket (the Co-Op) had undergone a similar face lift.

No forward announcements or publicity – just a change of signage and reprint of plastic bags – and a get on with it approach.

Back to Tech Day, and in the exhibition hall itself, there were many familiar names and faces from across the industry and everyone seemed remarkably upbeat in the run up to the EU referendum! Some of the exhibitors also presented lectures during the day and for me (and others I talked with) the CPD element of the day was excellent and left the visitor wishing they could attend everything. Luckily for Practice Life, my colleagues Emma and Ryan were also at the event so at least

we could cover most of the presentations! These are covered in these pages, so do read on.

Once again, as at the SPVS/ VPMA Congress in January, Bash Halow from New York was on hand to liven up the audience and give pointers for great website design and this paved the way for the the main theme of the day: content marketing. I spoke with Andrew Rastall from The Connected Vet, whose company works with some of the biggest names in industry on this subject and he told me that something until recently could only be done successfully by the corporate vet sector, simply because of costs, was now very much in the reach of the independent vet in practice. You can hear his illuminating comments in our conversation at: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoZdFmzs8ISh9CbU-QYJnAY-VdT4 With the development of websites and social media, protecting your online reputation has never been of greater importance. Susie Samuel and Charlie Barton presented on this topic and had some revealing thoughts on what to do when things go wrong! Again, you may wish to spare a couple of minutes to find out more here: https://1drv.ms/u/ s!AoZdFmzs8ISh9Cd6y11DgTPWi_nX

What do you think of Practice Life?

Send us your feedback to libby@practicelife.biz ‘’I look forward to reading Practice Life as one of the few publications that actually features the whole team including those in customer service or running the practice. Not being from a veterinary background I find it an easy read and very informative, in a language I can relate to and share with the whole team.’’

Collette Rednall Client Care and Marketing Manager, Pennard Vet Group

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

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Customer experience congress offers a few surprises The Cx Congress held by Onswitch offered something a little different and gave food for thought to the delegates, reports VPMA’s Ian Wolstenholme

T

alking to Dawn Kent, Practice Manager at Willows Veterinary Centre in Newport Pagnell, from a passing comment to Onswitch guru Alison Lambert a couple of years ago, so was born the idea of a whole day devoted to “the front line troops” in vet practice.

The Customer Experience Congress (Cx, get it?) strives to present thought-provoking presentations and activities that don’t simply train receptionists and nurses (and, incidentally, vets and managers are welcome) but gives them access to what I found out is a unique day. From the moment you enter the venue (in this case the Radisson Blue Hotel at East Midlands Airport), the delegate is immersed in what it is to feel valued as a consumer. The Onswitch Cx Club team thrust badges, bags and gifts galore at you before you can draw breath. And so the copious coffee stream begins amid the hubbub of networking in a packed exhibition area.

Everyone attending is made to feel important. The day is structured to (almost) perfection and it is little wonder that dates and venues are already booked for 2017 and 2018. As you might expect, the organisers are pretty adept at listening to feedback – that’s what they do for a living – collecting data, video and telephone snippets, filling up Bertha the Bus (well posh coach these days), publishing and presenting – and the result of that hearing what delegates want, resulted in a massive oversubscription for places at this year’s event, but there was no feeling of being cramped.

A very spacious conference hall looked more like a party reception with huge round dressed tables, cabaret seating, an audio-video rig to rival that of any theatre company and… jelly beans and bonbons galore. Alison’s welcome introduction preached the very unusual instruction to “leave your phones switched on and tweet and Facebook away to your heart’s content – well that’s a first – and what do you know – not one mobile phone rang all day during the presentations!

So followed five speakers – Jolanda Jansen leading off with a session on using body language to improve the customer experience. Jolanda works as a senior communications consultant for St Anna Advies in Nijmegen in the Netherlands and is also the co-author of Communication in Practice, The Vet’s manual on Clienthusiasm. This book has recently been translated into English and is available from Onswitch, among others.

Following quickly on was Carolyne Crowe, whom many will know as an experienced equine vet, performance coach, mentor and the recipient last year of the prestigious Life Coach of the Year Award. We used to say that we like to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves, but sometimes this leaves everyone with a sense of “why don’t they get what I’m saying?” www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

Carolyne’s contribution revolved around DISC profiling and its many practical applications in our industry.

The final speaker was Shailen Jasani, who has spent the past 14 years working in emergency and critical care as a primary clinician and supervisor/trainer. He is the founder of The Ralph Site, a non-profit online pet bereavement support resource and is about to embark on a new multidisciplinary specialist referral hospital in the south-east due to open next year. He presented a very interesting session on how to better understand and handle emergency situations with an eye to maintaining a good client experience.

Lunch was on the horizon but not before a most unusual and unexpected appearance by Gillian King. Gill is an actor and director and has worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company, The National Theatre and has directed in the West End. Her hands-on, lively and animated presentation skills were put to great use as she taught the assembled gathering about breathing, physical presence and status types in a really fun and engaging way.

Kirstie Faulkner tackled the often-difficult subject of how to feel more comfortable talking about money and looked at ways to understand how important it is to meet customer exception levels, brand image and consistency and also to try and regain a sense of pride in clinical services.

Once again it was great to be able to chat with most of the speakers in bitesize audio interviews, which I have pleasure in sharing with you, whether you were at the Cx Congress or not.

Simply scan the QR code on your smartphone for an on-thego listen or click on the links.

Yolanda Jansen and Carolyne Crowe: https://1drv.ms/u/ s!AoZdFmzs8ISh9FwV8ahyk3gsfZ9f

CONGRESS SPECIAL

VPMA-SPVS Congress 27-28 January 2017 Celtic Manor Resort, Newport

The veterinary event that creates a buzzz!

More than 10 streams, a lively commercial exhibition and a full social programme.

For anyone with an interest in business and management, VPMA and SPVS’ flagship event is not to be missed.

There are multiple streams over two days, with dedicated equine and large animal management sessions. High performing teams, profitable practice and marketing are on the agenda this year, plus a whole day of lectures specifically for the Front-of-House team. From ‘Nudge Theory’ to building resilience; practical Health & Safety to managing social media, there is a wealth of learning up for grabs. www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

CPD DIARY

45

LECTURE HIGHLIGHTS • Brenda Tassava, a veterinary practice management consultant from the USA brings a wealth of experience in leadership, business and HR •M ind Matters – in partnership with RCVS, will be chaired by Dr Radha Modgil, GP and co-host of Radio 1’s ‘The Surgery’ Andy McCann

• Congress Opener from Andy McCann – performance coach to high profile business leaders and Olympic and World Championship level sports men & women.

He is joined by Ryan Jones, ex Wales Rugby captain • Equine Stream – this popular stream returns with sessions on personality profiling, marketing and pricing, all illustrated by examples from equine practice • For head nurses and budding practice managers – the New to Management stream returns, led by VPMA

Radha Modgil

• New to Ownership: brand new for 2017, this session led by Brian Faulkner, SPVS, is for those considering setting up from scratch or taking up a partnership • A stream just for the reception team – focusing on customer care • A repeat of the popular ‘in conversation with…’ session – this year featuring Richard Dixon, CEO of Vets Now Richard Dixon

EDITORS’ TOP PICKS!

Sooo hard to choose, but here are some of the talks that our editors think you won’t want to miss!

LEADERSHIP H Trust Yourself to Become a Better Leader, Brenda Tassava Friday 27th 13.30pm If you are a frustrated practice owner or manager who is looking for ways to turn apathetic employees into engaged ones, then you need to learn what motivates and drives today’s team members. Your management style might just be what’s standing in the way of taking your team to the next level! Learn how to connect with your 21st century employees, beginning with the trinity of trust: Character, Competence and Caring. In this extended session, Brenda will touch on how to manage upwards or sideways, influencing your bosses or partners to turn them into effective leaders or team players.

HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS H Managing Change in Practice, Margaret Burnside and Richard Artingstall Friday 27th 10.40am Whole books have been written on Change Management but there are some very simple principles of what to do and crucially what not to do. The first mistake many people make is to plan the change themselves and then try to ‘sell it’ to their staff, particularly if the sales pitch is largely about the benefits to the business. For change to be accepted, those concerned need to feel consulted and engaged. In this session Management Consultant, Margaret Burnside, brings her wide experience including her work with CVS and many companies outwith the profession. Richard Artingstall is a vet who has studied Change Management in veterinary practice as part of his MBA and will share some case studies. www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

more top picks on pg 48...

Leadership Workshop Brenda Tassava, Halow Tassava Consulting

13:30

14:00

13:00

15:30

Managing the Equine Vet

Equine Personalities Carolyne Crowe, plus case study practice

Lunch in Exhibition

Marketing the Modern Equine Practice Darren MacIntosh, IVC

Pricing for Equine Practice Anthea Pike & Laurie May, Zoetis

Drinks reception followed by Presidents’ Banquet in Caernarfon Suite ( The Oscars After Party)

Putting Customer Care First Case Studies from practice

Coffee in Exhibition

Training for 5 star Customer Service Tracey Israel, Celtic Manor

11:40

10:40

19:15

15:30

13:30

Lunch in Exhibition

The Ultimate Front of House Experience Brenda Tassava, Halow Tassava Consulting

Selling for the Reception Team

Richard Dixon, CEO Vets Now, in Conversation with Martin Whiting (Beaumaris 1/2) or Happy Hour in the Exhibition Hall

Resilience continued With contribution from Rosie Allister

Resilience - what is it and why it matters Andy McCann & Jamie Barker Double Session

14:00

15:30

Lunch in Exhibition

13:00

11:40

Wellbeing Case Studies

11:40

12:30

10:40

Work related mental health Dr Radha Modgil

10:40

Coffee in Exhibition

Stream D: Equine

16:30

15:30

Vets from Abroad in a Post Brexit world Luis Sainz-Pardo , VetAbroad - plus case study

Lunch in Exhibition

12:30

15:00

Managing Change in Practice Margaret Burnside, ERAS Richard Artingstall, Pro Vets

10:40

10:10

Stream C: Front of House

Presidents’ Welcome and Congress Opener, Andy McCann and Ryan Jones (Caernarfon Suite)

09:00

Stream A: High Performing Teams

Citation Business Boardroom Breakfast: Employment Law and ‘Brexit’ (Beaumaris Lounge)

08:00

Stream B: Mind Matters (in partnership with RCVS) Chair: Dr Radha Modgil

Networking Dinner & Comedy Night - Augusta Suite (The Lodge)

19:00

FRIDAY 27TH JANUARY

SPVS AGM (Conwy) / VPMA AGM (Denbigh)

17:00

THURSDAY 26TH JANUARY

15:30

14:00

13:00

11:40

10:40

Basic Understanding of a P&L and Balance Sheet and what it can tell you about your practice

An Introduction to KPIs: what to look for, where to find it and what does it tell you Georgina Hill and Helen Sanderson

Lunch in Exhibition

Veterinary Organisation: RCVS, VDS, BVNA etc. How they support you and your surgery and understanding veterinary terminology and legislation

Leadership: What does it look like and how do you start with your team. Plus the basic HR need to knows

Stream E: New to Management

Putting the ‘me’ in Team Work Life Balance Brenda Tassava, Halow Tassava Consulting

15:05

Draft Programme - subject to change

16:00

CVPM and other Management Qualifications

14:10

13:10

14:10

12:15

How to Manage Despite your Boss Adi Nell & Erwin Hohn, Medivet

12:15

The Business Case for Evidence Based Veterinary Medicine RVC funded by RCVS Knowledge

Calculators & Trackers Zoetis & John Goulding, IVC

KPIs that Matter Brenda Tassava, Halow Tassava Consulting

14:10

11:20

09:55

Veterinary Safety Culture Survey Catherine Oxtoby

09:55

11:20

09:00

SPVS Profitability Survey

09:55

11:20

14:10

Tea & Coffee and Close

Dentistry: A Marketing Opportunity Bash Halow, Halow Tassava Consulting

Lunch in Exhibition

Nudge Theory: Applying Behavioural Economics

Creating a Stress Management Policy Sean Gillgallon, CVS

Health and Safety in Practice Citation consultants with practice manager and vet

Employment Induction & Handbook Brenda Tassava, Halow Tassava Consulting

Fair Farewells James Cronin, Eight Legal

Stream D: Keeping it Safe and Legal 09:00

Coffee in Exhibition

Investing Online: Where to put your time and money Susie Samuel, VetHelpDirect

New Approach to Personalised Marketing Andrew Rastall, Connected Vet

Stream C: Marketing

NexGard Spectra Business Boardroom Breakfast (Beaumaris Lounge)

09:00

Women Leaders are Different Fiona Briault, The Vets Group

Mindsets Robin Launder, Behaviour Buddy

Stream B: Profitable Practice

11:20

10:50

09:00

Stream A: High Performing Teams

08:00

SATURDAY 28TH JANUARY

15:05

14:10

12:15

11:20

09:00

Going it Alone or in Partnership The legals and the pros/cons James Cronin, Eight Legal

Raising the Finance; What the bank wants to see

Creating a Business Plan Brian Faulkner, The Colourful Consultancy

Ownership Options JVP vs Independents; MRCVS vs nonvets Case Studies Brian Faulkner, The Colourful Consultancy

Setting up from Scratch Brian Faulkner, The Colourful Consultancy

Stream E: New to Ownership

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CPD DIARY

HIGH-PERFORMING TEAMS H Moving mindsets, Robin Launder Saturday 28th 9.00am Carol Dweck’s Mindset Theory has amassed a huge following in education, sport psychology and people management. Her premise is that too often people adopt a fixed mindset in which they believe their intelligence or talent are fixed traits and by definition their potential for success is also fixed. If, however, this is challenged and they adopt a growth mindset, their brains and their talent are just the starting point. In this 90-minute session, Mindset expert, Robin Launder describes the theory and how it can be applied to any business to improve team moral, performance and resilience.

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT H How to Manage Despite Your Boss, Adi Nell and Erwin Hohn Saturday 28th 12.15pm Has your boss hired you to make changes, but then stands in your way? Vets are trained to come up with answers but outside the consulting room that doesn’t necessarily make them the easiest of bosses. Adi Nell and Erwin Hohn, both vets and both bosses within Medivet, have written a book on the subject aimed not just at vets, but any manager frustrated by his or her boss. In this session, they outline some of the common causes for this frustration and offer some insights into concepts and ideas that might help. This is a must for managers of all levels struggling to get change past their direct superiors and also a salutary warning for those ‘bosses’ who think they know best.

Adi Nell

Erwin Hohn

PROGRAMMED BY THE VPMA

New to Management Stream Friday 27th from 10.40am Starting to undertake some people management as part of your head nurse role? Not sure of the difference between a profit & loss and a cash flow sheet? Trying to get your head around employment law and what you can and can’t do or say? And what on earth does VMD, KPI, MSRP and EBITDA mean? Come along for a no-jargon, no-knowledge-assumed, common-sense introduction to the nuts and bolts of practice management.

PROGRAMMED BY THE SPVS

New to Ownership Stream Saturday 28th from 9.00am Considering dipping your toe into ownership? Or already decided and not sure where to start?

This session is led by SPVS Junior Vice President, Brian Faulkner who will share his experience of setting up two successful practices from scratch. Various models of ownership are explored from JVP to traditional founder/owner models. Get advice on going it alone, or finding a partner who shares your vision. Learn how to raise finance, and get straight on business plans. This day will be your best investment ever.

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

CPD DIARY

Bigger, better exhibition

49

And for relaxation...

with chill out zones

The exhibition will move to a new hall, with more space for delegates to chill out while they meet a wide range of suppliers with advice on marketing, management and business development.

OUR VENUE We’re back at the 5 star Celtic Manor so make sure you enjoy its luxury spa, multiple restaurants, comfortable bedrooms and spacious bars… we’ve negotiated full access to facilities for all Congress delegates, not just those staying in the resort.

‘Oscars After Party’ is the theme for this year’s Presidents’ Banquet so expect lots of glamour! Having sold out for the last three years, we’ve moved to a larger space so no one should be disappointed. The networking dinner on Thursday night will be a ‘comedy night’ with different acts sure to tickle your fancy.

SO WHAT DO I DO NOW? Congress sells out every year, so don’t miss out! There are discounts for group bookings and early bird discount until October 31. Book today by visiting www.vpma-spvs-events.co.uk www.practicelife.biz z September/October 2016 z Practice Life

50

WHAT’S COMING UP

Regional CPD

sponsored by

Media Partner

vbj

Date Course Location 14 September

How to be a Fair, Reasonable & Legal Boss

Edinburgh

29 September Pricing Policy Newbury 20 October Moving Up Preston 2 & 3 November

Working Safely (2 day course with IOSH certification)

Coventry

Focus Days sponsored by Zoetis Date Course Location 13 October

Focus on the Practice Team

Midlands

KEEP THE DATE! SPVS-VPMA Congress 2017 – 27th-28th January 2017, Celtic Manor Resort To book any of these days, visit www.spvs-vpma-events.co.uk or phone 01453 872 731

Focus on the Practice Team 13th October, Chesford Grange, Warwickshire This year we are extending the scope of our very successful ‘Focus on HR Day’ to cover the reception team.

Along with the workshops, there will be a very focussed exhibition of HR and management related suppliers, consultants and software solutions.

For more details take a look at the website or give us a call 01453 872 731 Mail info@vpma-spvs-events.co.uk

Look out for the Winter issue of Practice Life; it’ll be here before you know it!

Out December 2016 TOPICS INCLUDE: • Social media • Sharing the knowledge • Investigation: passive income that is really passive

Practice Life z September/October 2016 z www.practicelife.biz

Having trouble recruiting the right people?

Running your practice can be a tough job – especially when it comes to managing your workforce:

• • • •

Recruitment Performance Management Sickness and Absence HR Management

Partner with us to allow yourself the expert support and free time to concentrate on what’s important to you – looking after your clients and your practice.

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0345 844 1111 citation.co.uk/vets

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National Veterinary Specialists

moore scarrott

Representing in excess of 550 practices all across the UK, our benchmarking and comparative data allows us to provide a unique service to our Veterinary clients.

We offer a free of charge, no obligation initial meeting and discussion, anywhere in the UK. • Financial and management accounts • Practice management and development advice • Practice structuring, restructuring and finance • Taxation planning, advice and strategies • Full outsourcing service and payroll bureau • Computerisation and Sage® supply & support • Full Benchmarking service & KPI reporting • Forensic services including practice valuations and resolution of partnership issues or disputes Veterinary team partners:

Andy Moore andy.moore@moore-scarrott.co.uk Marcus Longbottom cmsl@moore-scarrott.co.uk

Steve Headon steve.headon@moore-scarrott.co.uk Nick Lawrence nick.lawrence@moore-scarrott.co.uk

www.moore-scarrott.co.uk

moore moore scarrott scarrott

Head Office: Calyx House, South Road, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 3DU Telephone: 01823 282100 Fax: 01823 254396 Regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales for a range of investment business activities.

Accounts, Taxation & Business Development Specialists

Our Service is completely flexible which enables us to fit within the practice management team at any level in a cost effective way.