[If you like what you read below, please DONATE as we need urgent funds for our monthly running costs & over £200 to equip some new UKWT Drivers.]
Here’s a reminder as to what the end vision is, for ALL of this work...
Summing Up On Recent Progress...
The WCB is still going & growing (woohoo!)
UKWT is doing what we set out to do, bit by bit: filling in the transport gap across the UK, so that every wild life gets the emergency care that they deserve.
Wildlife Care Badge Progress (A self regulation structure set up BY Wildlife Professionals, FOR Wildlife Professionals, across the UK)…
[UKWT relies on the Wildlife Care Badge (or any equivalent that may come about) to provide a foundation to know where wildlife can be taken to, as the wildlife rescue industry is currently unregulated in England, Wales & Northern Ireland. I set up the WCB - as a Founder & Co Developer, amongst lots of Wildlife Rescuers & Veterinary Professionals - and run it as well as running UKWT]
I have been working with WCB Holders who are organising their annual renewals for their WCB Badges (confirming their Veterinary Visit Reports of their premises and creating & sending them their renewal certificates). Renewals involve: letting us know what CPD they have done over the last year, having a veterinary visit of their premises & letting us know about any new fosterers they may have (their premises need approving too, through pictures).
One of the renewals of a WCB Holder - a wonderful Hedgehog Rescue who are on their 3rd renewal - prompted this blog post, a call to action: https://www.wildlifecarebadge.com/post/why-wait-for-others-to-act-especially-based-on-current-events
I have been running WCB Knowledge Assessments & sending out certificates.
I have been organising & running one to one video calls with WCB Holders to help keep on top of their ‘accountability’ (proving that they’re keeping records & drafting treatment plans for each wild patient, as well as working regularly with a Vet). These have proven very successful, not just at making it super easy for WCB Holders to show their paperwork and vet documents in a way that only takes around 10 minutes every quarter but I have also found much closer relationships building with WCB Holders through these video calls and some new ideas being put forward through them, to further the WCB.
I organised a ‘Virtual Veterinary Visit’ for a WCB Holder. A RVN, who has supported the WCB a lot over the years, stepped in to help a WCB Holder by doing an extensive video call with them, to look around their premies. (This WCB Holder’s own Vet Practice were too busy to visit their premises in the necessary time frame, in order to fill in the WCB Checklist Report that we required for the renewal). The kindness of the RVN - who did it for free - allowed the WCB Holder to keep on top with their WCB renewal without too much trouble and it was really appreciated.
We have accepted one new WCB Holder application (a potential new Hedgehog Rescue WCB Holder).
Up to 10hrs was focused during October/November on a new WCB Challenge (one we hadn’t experienced before)… We were requested to look specifically at how to enable local communities of Wildlife Rescues to not only prove their practices through the WCB but also to trust & support one another more. To meet this challenge, I was lucky enough to chat to a Wildlife Vet for an hour on zoom, who gave me a great many ideas that I was able to share with WCB Holders: it became a template on how to ‘boost/celebrate’ one another.
I started to collect Case Studies/Articles for our first publication - due out in January - of the Wildlife Care Journal.
2 WCB Grants have been issued over October/November (one of them today). These ‘WCB Grants For WCB Holders’ are for £100 each, every month. The application process is just a short form on what the £100 would be used for and WCB Holders all vote - as a community - as to who wins the funds: Rehabbers voting to support Rehabbers to help wildlife.
The WCB launched 2 bits of research: ‘Respecting & Enabling The Wildness & Autonomy Of Wildlife Patients.’ AND ‘How Do You Use Technology For The Well Being Of Wildlife Pre-Rehab, During Rehab & Post Release?’ These bits of research are to collate advice & info from high welfare, experienced Wildlife Carers, especially to benefit those who are perhaps less experienced.
A very large animal welfare organisation in the UK has been communicating back and forth with the WCB to use some of our policies & documents to help Vet Practices to help wildlife. A number of emails have passed back and forth and a day’s worth of admin was committed to sending over the info and the documents that they wanted to use. (Hopefully I'll be able to share more on this soon).
I looked more into understanding Hedgehog rehab/release legislation, on the request of a WCB Holder. After a number of emails back and forth with an expert, the question that the WCB Holder had was answered.
UK Wildlife Transporters Progress...
I funded - out of my own pocket, as a ‘thank you’ to our wonderful Drivers - an online training session on ‘Capture & Containment’ run by Lucy from Wild Things Rescue.
I have been waiting to finalise a number of Drivers Lists for WCB Holders, as a lot were going through WCB Renewals or catching up on bits of paperwork. In the last 2 months, thanks to WCB video calls catching up on paperwork and renewals going through, I have managed to now set up Drivers Lists for another 6 WCB Holders. [A ‘Drivers List’ is a WhatsApp group with someone from the Rescue in it, myself in it and of course the Drivers. Rescues can use the group to ask for transport help and I can support Drivers, making sure they get home ok and are offered fuel reimbursement if wanted.]
I have caught up with a number of Rescues that I have been struggling a bit to connect with, with regards to our new WCB Driver List Procedures. In the last 2 months I have caught up with almost all from whom I have been waiting and that has resulted in finally confirming ongoing & long term transport support procedures for another 6 Rescues (mostly larger centres but 2 small home based WCB Holders too). These transport support procedures are to mostly act as recruitment channels for these Rescues, sending Drivers their way who would like to drive for them. (These wonderful, kind Drivers would already be equipped by us with carriers & disinfectant and we would still cover the fuel. We would also provide a UKWT WhatsApp group just for me and the Drivers so that they can let me know when they’re out on a transport and I can check that they’re home ok, which lots of busier Rescues struggle to do. Safety is very important to me).
UKWT has set up transport support for another Vet Practice, woohoo!
You may or may not know that a major UKWT focus is on funding staff for the first time, so that we can help a lot more wildlife, a lot faster, going forward. Donations can be very hit & miss and we ideally need a solid, staffing income of £5000 a month. I have been working on ways to fund this now & forever (I ran 2 trials of my fundraising idea, which were very successful too) and in October I launched what is now officially known as the ‘Play Your Way Game’. This game is, as far as I know, absolutely unique but the trials have proven it to be very popular. Based on the trials, it is estimated that it will take up to a year to grow to providing a reliable, monthly income of £5000 to fund the WCB & UKWT’s wildlife loving efforts. Come & play - it’s FREE to play but you’ll still be helping us to fund our work.
We are still growing our ‘Vet Practice Database’ and are now at 1600 Vet Practices, out of an approximate total of 5000 across the UK. (Most of these practices have already been offered transport support & the Vet Wildlife Support Package’ to support them to treat wildlife that are dropped into them from members of the public, earlier in the year - we have added another 100 that need to be reached out to). This Database is a priority for me, to grow, as it will help us to help wildlife more effectively across the UK.
We get a lot of requests to transport wildlife in Scotland and I have been on the phone to Scottish Councils - as Wildlife Rescue is regulated to some extent there, although it is early days and still a bit unclear on which places are regulated - to try and put together a full list of licensed Wildlife Rescues in Scotland, to take wildlife to. (We get a lot of requests from unlicensed Rehabbers). It’s turning out to be much trickier than I supposed to get an accurate list - some Councils have told me that they don’t have a list in their area - so watch this space…
I have been recruiting more Drivers and am now focused on funding the equipment (carriers & disinfectant) for those Drivers who have the time/willingness to transport but not the £80 in upfront funds to equip themselves. [Part of the point of this blog post is to ask for help to fund these Drivers, as every Driver on the road can be the difference to literally 100s of wild lives, over the coming years.]
I have been collecting names of kind supporters who are willing to pop up UKWT Driver Recruitment Posters in their local community hubs. I have also just received a quote of £240 for 500 Posters (on recycled paper using vegetable inks.). - To my mind, there’s little point trying to help wildlife and then cutting down a tree to do so, so recycled paper is a must. My next step is to fundraise to pay for these posters, as I think that they will significantly grow our Driver Database over the rest of 2024/2025.
I have been drafting ‘recruitment campaign’ plans and have started speaking to WCB Holders about localising bits of the plans to help to add more Drivers to their Lists.
I have chased up UKWT Drivers who hadn't yet had time to allocate themselves to Vet Practices/Wildlife Rescues transport teams.
I have been over all of my UKWT Databases & maps, to ensure that they are all up to date with the latest info.
I have sent info back and forth with a Wildlife Rehabber who wanted transport support, to explain what we needed, in order to provide it (this might sound like a small step but there was a loooong conversation).
Finally, some Drivers Lists are performing better than others (more ‘yeses’ to transports, even if there is a lower number of Drivers) so I am focused on boosting those lists that need a larger pool of Transporters. I am also getting to grips with balancing how involved I am in each WhatsApp Driver Group for a Rescue, to support the Drivers in getting the info they need for the transport without putting too much pressure on the Rescue asking for help. It’s a work in progress but we’re all in it together..
