16th October, 2026: Such An Important Event Took Place...

This is a copy of the social media post the WCB put out on 19th October, 2026...

"I’m so pleased to be sharing such an important update…

Back on 10th May, the WCB put out a Facebook post that began: “In the BWRC’s own words: “The British Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (BWRC) is convening an in-person meeting to support a coordinated and collaborative approach to wildlife rescue and rehabilitation across the UK. […] This meeting has been developed in collaboration with partners across the sector, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the Wildlife Care Badge.”

This meeting is set for October 16th (exact location tbc).”

And now - how exciting - I can share that the stakeholder meeting took place, in Mansfield, and was SUCH a success.

It came under the BWRC banner & they did an amazing job of organising a fab venue, a perfect setting & great facilitators who kept important conversations going & always positive.  It must have taken such a lot of work to organise.  BWRC, RSPCA & the WCB all contributed towards the final attendance list, from which new connections & opportunities have already arisen.

It was a wonderful day: it featured topics in wildlife rescue that need addressing in the most supportive way possible, like education, professionalism, greater well being within the industry for Wildlife Carers & higher welfare standards AND these topics were broken apart into smaller themes too, to be considered in more detail in the future.  Really importantly there’s every sign that it can be built on, for organisations like the RSPCA, WCB & BWRC to continue to work together (and to invite SO many other organisations to also come on board to work together) to unite in our efforts to regulate / self regulate the wildlife rescue industry in the best way possible, to the end that every wildlife casualty & orphan always ends up being taken in by Rescuers who can provide them with the high welfare rehabilitative care that they deserve.

I want to use this post to thank a lot of people…

Thank you to Lee, at RSPCA Stapeley Grange, who suggested that, since the WCB, the BWRC & the RSPCA had all been having ‘one to one’ meetings, it made much more sense for us to not only all meet up, together, in person, but to invite other organisations - and, very importantly, Wildlife Rescues & Veterinary Professionals - to also attend, for us all to chat about how we can unite & work together more.

Thank you to Emily Elliott, RVN & Head Of Animal Care at RSPCA Oak & Furrows, for helping to develop the starting attendees list.

A big thank you to Liz Mullineaux, who made such significant contributions to the event’s success.

Finally, the most important ‘thank you’ to Paul Reynolds, Lucy Bearman-Brown, Jason Palmer, Emma Onyejekwe, Susan Schwar, Richard Edwards, Dr Dan Forman & Simon Allen: all of the BWRC trustees, for taking ownership of this event and making it happen to such a degree of excellence.  The event provided a very welcoming, warm space in which to enable connections & conversations to move forward in working together, and that was no small achievement.

I am really looking forward to seeing what happens next."