Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Accepted
Recruitment and retention of government vets significantly challenged by mental health, pay, and conditions.
Recommendation
APHA explained that difficulties in recruiting and retaining government vets are not unique to APHA or the UK. Key factors include: mental health issues relating to activities such as culling animals; pay and conditions; and working hours. APHA set out a number of strategies it has put in place to improve recruitment and retention of vets, including using its specialist pay provision to increase the pay of vets and introducing mental health and wellbeing support for its vets in the field. APHA recognised it needs to do more and has recently completed a national listening exercise with its staff, including vets, on understanding health, safety, mental wellbeing and what more it can do to support staff. The Department highlighted that The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and the British Veterinary Association are doing work on recruitment and retention, and APHA said that, for vets in general, 44% leave the profession in the first four years of their service post-qualification.15
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to the Committee’s recommendation and will manage vet capacity challenges through pay allowances, consider the Home Office's regulatory reform programme, establish a government veterinary services working group, and consult on reform of the Veterinary Surgeon’s Act.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Target implementation date: March 2027 2.2 Current vet capacity challenges are being managed through initiatives such as pay allowances for vets. These allowances are used by certain departments to support recruitment and retention within the Civil Service, including APHA. The Home Office underwent a regulatory reform programme last year, recruiting a small cadre of temporary inspectors loaned from Other Government Department veterinary teams to temporarily fill vacancies –a model that will be looked at in the Defra/AHPA led workforce strategy. 2.3 The department is establishing a government veterinary services working group to create a workforce strategy in line with this recommendation. The strategy will support the vet profession particularly in government and ultimately the delivery against animal health and welfare objectives. It aims to build cross-departmental collaboration around veterinary recruitment and retention. 16 2.4 In addition, and as announced in the 2025 Autumn Budget, the department will consult on reform of the Veterinary Surgeon’s Act. Proposed reforms will bolster veterinary workforce capacity by widening the professional team, through the introduction of regulation for Allied Veterinary Professionals and legal protection for the title of Veterinary Nurses which will also allow vets to focus on more specialist tasks and provide better understanding for both the profession and the public of the veterinary profession.