About Laura 

Laura Smith is an R-SQP and dispensary advisor at the Cullompton practice of The Vale Veterinary Group, which serves both small animal and farm animal clients. 

She said that after winning the Veterinary Practice SQP of the Year category, it was “an even bigger shock”. 

Laura said: “I read the National SQP Awards supplement, which came out with the November issue of OvertheCounter, and I started to see who would be in the running for the big award. To win the Veterinary Practice SQP of the Year was amazing; so many of the finalists were so switched on. Being named National SQP of the Year still hasn’t sunk in yet.” 

Laura said the best part of her job is the variety of the work. “I work on a dairy farm as well and when I’m there, I’m very much on my own most of the time. However, with the variety in practice, I get to follow different avenues all the time. The sheer variety of being in a mixed practice is brilliant.

“Because we’re an independent practice, the partners are all vets; we have two small animal partners and four large animal partners. They are very much involved – we see them every day.

“As with every practice, it is like one big family, but we all know that if you’ve got a problem inside or out of work, there’s one of the partners you can talk to. They are very supportive.”

The practice sadly lost its stock manager, Kate Bevan, in January 2020 and Laura said it had been a really tough time.

Towards the end of 2019, Laura started to look into Harper Adams University’s veterinary dispensing qualification, but with the loss of Kate, that’s been shelved for the moment, but Laura would like to go on to do that Master’s qualification. 

Laura said that she would welcome the proposed name change from SQP to Registered Animal Medicine Advisor. 

“A lot of the time you have to explain what an SQP is,” she said. “The guys on reception now say ‘we’ve got an animal health advisor here that you can have a chat to’. I think it’s great that it’s going to be something that is more universally understandable for the general public; I think farmers are already aware of what an SQP is because they’re used to them in places like Mole Valley and Wynnstay. 

“On the companion side, SQP is sort of an alien concept to them, whereas a registered animal advisor is a bit more understandable for them. 

“A name change would take that initial conversation out of the way.” 

In terms of advice for SQPs entering the National SQP Awards 2021, Laura said: “Definitely go for it. The day before the cut-off date for entries, we’d been talking in the practice about our late colleague, Kate, and I kind of thought, life’s too short – we’ve seen that first-hand. 

“I thought that if Kate was here, she would have encouraged me to go for it. 

“I sat up until midnight that night, but I got the entry done and sent off. As I said earlier, I wrote it off and didn’t think I would win.”