ARCHIVE: England Implementation Plan: Regional implementation

The EIG believes that England’s regions should help implement the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy (AHWS) for Great Britain.  The AHWS said little about regional delivery, though it did say that existing regional structures should be used, rather than create new, overlapping, ones.

Regional structures introduced to implement the Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy (SFFS) may provide part of the answer.  The AHWS is essentially a “daughter strategy” of the SFFS, as regards livestock.  Indeed, Government committed to introduce such an AHWS, in the SFFS, launched in 2002.  This was a recommendation of Sir Don Curry’s Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food, which inspired the SFFS.

The EIG has been exploring how existing regional SFFS structures can help implement the AHWS, holding a Regional Workshop (PDF 140 KB) to that end, on 6 December 2007.  This identified some of the good things that regions have been doing in support of the AHWS and also some of the challenges and opportunities for further progress.

The SFFS delivery structure varies among regions.  Each region introduced an SFFS Regional Delivery Plan in 2003 facilitated by the Government Offices and Regional Development Agencies.  These plans covered animal health and welfare issues to varying degrees.  In developing the plans, each region brought together a steering group of local farming representatives, environmental groups, health and food bodies, businesses and other stakeholders, to set regional priorities.  In most regions, these groups have been retained to co-ordinate and oversee delivery.

The Animal Health agency (formerly the State Veterinary Service) had a target in its 2007-08 business plan to facilitate the development of regional action plans for the AHWS. With that in mind, it worked with each Government Office to collate material, in a standard format, on “Regional Delivery of the AHWS”. Some Government Offices, such as West Midlands have published these on their website. From April 2009, Animal Health is restructuring along regional lines in England, which should help consolidate their work in the regions.

There is a lot happening in the regions and to keep on top of it the EIG collates and reviews a Regional Progress Report every few months. 

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Page last modified: 9 September, 2009