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Animal Health and Welfare Strategy for Great Britain
Chapter 9: Putting the strategy into practice
Delivering this strategy is dependant on a strong partnership approach between everyone interested in animal health and welfare. Animal owners are primarily responsible for the health and welfare of their animals and best placed to deliver tangible and continual improvements in standards. Government also has a crucial role to play in delivering a wide range of activities. The Implementation Plans for England, Scotland and Wales will initially concentrate on how Government will play its part in putting the strategy into practice. We will, however, encourage other stakeholders to reflect their contributions in future versions of the Implementation Plans to reflect the partnership approach. The Implementation Plans include information on:
This section sets out the framework for measuring the success of the strategy. The framework will provide indicators and specific goals and milestones for delivery. Progress will be measured, monitored and communicated over the lifetime of the strategy and we will carry out evaluation studies to measure the impact of the policies. There will be an annual reporting process that will ensure transparent communication of progress with the strategy.
9.1 Measuring success
Alongside this strategy, we are publishing the
Animal Health and Welfare - The Evidence Base. This sets out the statistical evidence describing the current animal health and welfare landscape and contains details on the livestock industry, and companion animals, contrasting the situation today with the past. It will be regularly updated in consultation with stakeholders, to ensure that the strategy adapts to a continually changing environment.
To measure progress towards the strategy's vision there needs to be a clear and common understanding of the baseline from which we are starting and the outcomes and targets we are aiming for. The Evidence Base also provides details of the work currently in progress to develop a framework of indicators which will measure the strategy's progress towards its objectives. It describes the indicators identified so far and explains how these will be developed further. For indicator purposes the objectives of the strategy have been separated into four broad categories:
To reduce the impact of endemic disease in animals;
To improve animal welfare;
To guard against and mitigate the effects of exotic diseases in animals; and
To reduce incidence of zoonotic diseases in animals which might imperil human health.
The indicators will help to guide policy, inform priorities, target resources and focus discussion. They will be developed in consultation with stakeholders, and improved over time as better veterinary and other data becomes available, particularly in those areas where data has not previously been collected, such as for companion animals. We intend to present more developed proposals for these indicators to the first GB Animal Health and Welfare Conference this Autumn.
9.2 Managing the strategy
The strategy will be managed through a partnership between stakeholders and Government. The key components to be put in place include:
A Strategy Steering Board of representatives from across the animal health and welfare sector, and Government officials tasked with providing strategic guidance and direction on the prioritisation, development and communication of the strategy.
A science group to provide an annual overview on scientific issues to the Strategy Steering Board.
These groups will provide a transparent framework for discussions on the priorities, direction and progress of the strategy to take place.
National arrangements will differ to reflect specific policy priorities and delivery arrangements. For example, within England, where possible existing regional structures will be used to ensure input into the local and regional delivery of this strategy rather than creating new overlapping arrangements. This will need to reflect the wider role that animal health and welfare plays as a key component of the whole sustainable agriculture and rural agenda. In Scotland the Scottish Executive will continue to use its standing animal health and welfare stakeholder group to inform its on-going policy development and communications with the stakeholder community.
In some areas stakeholders may decide to draw up their own strategies to address the animal health and welfare priorities of their sectors. The formation of such groups is left to the discretion of the sectors concerned and need not be operated on a GB basis. Government will play its part in helping facilitate such initiatives where appropriate and ensuring their work is recognised as contributing to the strategy.
9.3 Communicating the strategy
The groups outlined above will formalise the partnership process for the whole strategy, though appropriate communication arrangements will also take place in development of individual policies. There will also be regular annual communications on the strategy's progress and priorities. This will include:
A GB animal health and welfare conference at which progress on the strategy will be reported and the priorities and delivery of the strategy reviewed.
Annual publication of Implementation Plans setting out detailed objectives of the strategy and providing a high level report on progress against milestones of the component strategy policies.
Wider communication of policies and initiatives within the strategy will take many different forms; from the use of instant information technology to face-to-face explanation, depending on the message that is being delivered and the target audience. The communication of animal health and welfare must draw in anyone who can help get the message across including vets, interest groups and delivery agents.
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