UK Alliance of Catteries and Kennels

12/06/2024

😁Defra site visit😁

The Defra site visit has been pending for some months and has recently been pushed back due to the current election campaign. We now have confirmation of the visitation for September the 17th.

We are currently aiding Defra with organisational aspects, it seems that we (our industry) have become a 'hot topic' and a good number will be attending from the Defra officials of companion animals, which is brilliant.

This gives us an opportunity to discuss case studies face to face, show and discuss our members ongoing issues, councils and licensing officers, updated regulations (pending), member reports and again, to highlight the necessity of our industry while seeking to support those facing closure, or already closed, for numerous reasons. Also, they can see a cattery and kennels day to day running and fully comprehend our profession!

We are also seeking a government submission to allocate our industry link to agriculture giving more option for extension of sites for those members who seek to extend but also making our businesses more saleable when that time comes. This is not a quick fix but we are starting the process nonetheless.

We will be liaising with Defra over the next few months in regards to itinerary specifics and in the meantime would like your help. On arrival at the UK Alliance office we will welcome Defra officials with refreshments and would like to present a welcome video. We would love to include landscape images of members sites / yourselves / cats / dogs including members words. This can be whatever you think; length of time in the industry, customer review, how you have found joining this industry, thoughts about our industry being overlooked, making it through the pandemic, struggles with councils / licensing, whatever you think. We welcome any / all images and quotes etc. Please email anything to us at your earliest convenience.

Once this is compiled we will forward to members inclusive of the Defra itinerary.

We are very pleased to confirm this visitation and continue to make progressive steps to enhance our integration with Defra to help members and aid catteries and kennels.

Have a great day,

UK Alliance

04/07/2023

We have this morning been copied into numerous discussions from licensing officers, members, breeders etc re puppy yoga…

Our email response is below.

⭐️ if you know of puppy yoga or such a class happening near you please email the information to [email protected]⭐️

26/10/2022

The countdown is on!

Looking forward to catching up with the Defra team and taking positive steps for the future of Catteries and Kennels.

03/10/2022

🎉MEMBER NOTICE🎉

PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAILS (INCLUDING SPAM) AND COMPLETE THE DEFRA SURVEY ON THE LINK👍🏻

IF YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED THIS EMAIL PLEASE LET US KNOW ASAP (THESE LINKS HAVE AN EXPIRATION)

WE WILL BE MEETING AGAIN WITH DEFRA THIS MONTH

🐾🐾🐾

12/09/2022

UK Alliance of Catteries and Kennels are meeting with Defra officals on September 22nd to discuss the 2023 regulations of our sector.

It's time to have your say!
email - [email protected]
call - 0800 772 3989 (freephone)

13/08/2022

🌟MEMBER UPDATE - IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ🌟

Firstly thank you for all your support for the Alliance and each other.

As you know we started this to be a true voice for our industry, to protect our businesses and for us all to be heard.

Well, that time has come.

Not only do we have confirmation of our involvement in the regulation updates and changes in 2023 but the Alliance now holds a stakeholder position within DEFRA specifically for representation of boarding Catteries and kennels; exactly what we wanted.

Email below received yesterday.

As always, we welcome all opinions, please email to - [email protected]

All members will be kept updated throughout👍🏻

-

Dear Valued Stakeholder,

I am writing to you on behalf of The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ Companion Animal Welfare & Science Team (CAWS). The CAWS Team have identified you as a key stakeholder in relation to The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 (LAIA Regulations).

The LAIA Regulations and associated Guidance has been in operation since 2018. We are undertaking a Post Implementation Review (PIR) of the guidance in line with statutory requirements.

The LAIA PIR will assess if the objectives of the Regulations have been achieved, whether they are still relevant, and if they could be achieved in a less burdensome way. It will also consider whether any unintended consequences have arisen because of the regulations and whether any further changes are required to refine the regulations. The evaluation will play a vital role in setting and delivering on government objectives and helps to improve future decision making in this space.

The LAIA policy objectives are: -

To improve animal welfare by bringing five animal activities licensing schemes up to date and in line with the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Licencing schemes include:-

Selling animals as pets
Providing or arranging for the provision of boarding for cats or dogs
Hiring out horses
Breeding dogs
Keeping or training animals for exhibition

Additional benefits of LAIA:-

The main intended effect of the 2018 Regulations was that local authorities would apply all five of the minimum welfare standards set out in the 2006 Act when issuing licences for the five activities outlined above1:- .

Other intended effects included replacing the existing licensing laws with one set of Regulations; and that local authorities be allowed to issue licenses running beyond the existing fixed 1-year term, depending on where business fall on a risk-rating matrix. This was intended to encourage businesses to gain earned recognition, become low risk, and thereby save money. In the process, good compliance and higher standards would be encouraged.

An important element of this review will be to engage with a wide range of stakeholders to gather evidence to understand the effectiveness and impact of the measures. Businesses, organisations, and local authorities that fall under these Regulations will be invited to give feedback. This evidence gathered will feed into any potential recommendation, which may include the renewal, amendment, removal, or replacement of the regulation. The evaluation will play a vital role in setting and delivering on government objectives and helps to improve future decision making.

We will shortly be approaching you to invite you to contribute your views and supporting evidence on aspects of the LAIA Regulations. In due course, a survey will be shared to enable you to begin the first step in doing this. Subsequently, we will contact high interest stakeholders to offer a face-to-face meeting to discuss any issues they may have. We plan to launch our engagement in late August/early September, and details regarding dates/forums are still in development.

All engagement will be carried out via this shared mailbox, so we would ask you to send here any questions that you might have in the meantime.

Those reviewing different aspects of the Regulations will be contacting their identified stakeholders separately regarding engagement, so you may receive further emails, and those stakeholders concerned with multiple areas of the LAIA Regulations may receive a number of surveys.

-

24/05/2022

Good morning!!!

This week we are -

😁 Chasing up the last few councils (all still in funds)

😁 Finding solutions for member specific problems

😁 Hearing back from defra officals re specific member issues raised then liaising with JMW

😁 Finalising our website update

😁 Updating our new member affiliates

😁 Distributing more welcome packs

😁 Starting work on ‘member hubs’

😁 Awaiting a response from our industry ‘levelling up’ pitch to Micheal Gove’s team

👍🏻

05/05/2022

🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

…and this is why we started!

While we actively work through a variety of issues our members are facing it is great to receive this feedback and share this feedback with Defra officials.

A fantastic result for Barehams Kennels and for the UK Alliance of Catteries and Kennels.

✨Brilliant!!!✨

29/04/2022

🤩Did you know Facebook is visited billions of times every day to find a business🤩

Are you advertising your business the best you can on this platform?

Is your business represented correctly and is it attractive to potential customers?

All Alliance members can now benefit from a 🙌🏻Facebook Setup🙌🏻

This includes -

- business page set up
- profile image and cover
- tracking / algorithm set up
- website integration
- action plan going forward
- opening post x 2
- sharpened / enhanced business logo (high res pdf and jpeg sent to you)
- full hand over on completion (including 30 minute training)

Make the most of social media for your business!

😁

28/04/2022

🤩Members discount - new affiliate🤩

We have teamed up with ECOHEAT for a 5% discount on a full heat installation and a FREE annual check and service.

‘We at Ecoheat are a friendly reliable company with over 25 years experience in all aspects of domestic and commerical work. We are fully insured, approved and MCS certified for your peace of mind. We guarantee a promt and tidy service so please get in touch now to book your no obligation quote.’

https://ecoheatashp.co.uk

Air Source Heat Pump Maintenance and Fitting. Preston Based EcoHeat ASHP offers servicing, maintenance and repairs of air source heat pumps.

26/04/2022

🤩Amendment made by Defra from direct communication with the UK Alliance of Catteries and Kennels🤩

You may remember we highlighted specific member cases to George Eustice SOS and the defra officials✅

One of our well established members was threatened with license / star rating loss if they did not add external runs to their newly renovated kennel block. They were given an allocated timeframe by their licensing department to add the external runs at a substantial cost to their business.

The UK Alliance of Catteries and Kennels have raised this issue, supplied evidence that this is nil and void and offered an insight to how our individual establishments operate.

Consequently, as of this afternoon, this negatively impacting guidance to our sector has been amended!!!!

✨We did that. The UK Alliance of Catteries and Kennels✨

And we could not be any prouder🤩

- defra email below -

‘Hi Claire,

I wanted to let you know that we have published a revised version of the dog kennel boarding statutory guidance on gov.uk this afternoon. The changes are summarised below for information and our Local Government contacts have been informed of the changes. Whilst it might take a while for the information to filter down to individual authorities, …………….. should be able to speak to their licensing officer and have them look at the updated guidance straight away.



Dog Kennel Boarding Guidance

Part A
Guidance for Condition 5.1 – Definition of a kennel removed to mirror the 2018 version.
Guidance for Condition 5.4 – Clarified the toileting requirements.
Part B
Guidance for Condition 7.6 – Clarified the exercise requirements.’

GOV.UK - The place to find government services and information - simpler, clearer, faster.

25/04/2022

🙌🏻We’ve got a brilliant week of exciting Alliance affiliates this week…🙌🏻

Here is the first one of many…

Great Harwood Windows - all alliance members now receive a 10% discount off every order!!!

This is the company we used for Rhoden Manor Cattery. They deliver Uk wide, are bespoke, knowledgeable, reliable and very competitive👍🏻

https://www.greatharwoodwindows.co.uk

Great Harwood Windows serve both homeowners and the trade in Lancashire & the North West, with a suite of high quality windows, doors and conservatories.

21/04/2022

We have progress!!!

Please read about our work for our industry.

Our initial vision in March 2021 was to gain recognition of our industry from the Government to access Covid-19 tourism / accommodation grants. By April we were informed to seek parity from local councils Covid-19 funds. We commenced Save Our Industry and launched an online campaign running over Easter last year. We drafted grant documents for all our industry. We also wrote to Rishi Sunak, the council Chief Executives and Portfolio Holders regarding the exclusion of our industry and lack of support during the pandemic. While obtaining grants was the pressing issue due to our incorrect industry coding, we also found, from a wide range of case studies, phone calls and messages that there were other inconsistencies such as disparity with star ratings, licence regulations interpretation, licence fee was not harmonized, VAT, our association with Defra, no acknowledgement to the Tourism sector and more – our industry was seemingly overlooked, ignored, pushed out and disregarded from all angles.

Last year we sought invaluable advice from Sir Lindsay Hoyle (Speaker of the House), attended a zoom meeting with Paul Scully (under-secretary of BEIS), and bombarded Cabinet ministers and Defra ministers with letters concerning our exclusions. Our social media platform brought us together, to discuss, to listen and to save our industry from collapse and now, this, our Alliance with the backbone of our legal team, JMW. We have, and are, saving businesses and families. We have been heard and respected by a spectrum of MPs, Ministers and Secretary of States.

Then we upped the game!...

On November 3rd 2021 our sector was heard in the House of Commons under the UK Alliance of Catteries and Kennels via adjournment debate (link on our website)

So far this year,2022, we have -

-attended a zoom meeting with Secretary of State Michael Gove regarding levelling up our hindered industry and are now submitting a ministerial essay, under the UK Alliance of Catteries and Kennels, to confirm the financial support our sector needs, specific to our industry, specific to our members.

-attended a zoom meeting with Nigel Huddleston, Tourism Minister, to confirm our place within the tourism chain. Nigel Huddleston has confirmed our link within his sector; Tourism.

-attended Westminster on February 10th for a meeting with Defra Secretary of State, George Eustice, where we discussed in detail the issues our industry has faced during the pandemic and what we are facing currently; the amount of closures within our sector, the impact of regulations, issues with licensing officers, disparity of councils, grants, and lack of an overarching representative body to be our voice. George was incredibly approachable and fully understood our plight. He relayed this information to his team to arrange a ‘Defra official meeting’ with the UK Alliance of Catteries and Kennels.

-attended the business Conservative Conference on March 19th on behalf of our sector.

-On the 7th of April the UK Alliance attended a ‘Defra officials’ meeting to discuss our actions so far but most importantly to discuss our future together and to address the issues we face now; to seek resolution and move away from charity / welfare. To have correct licensing and regulations suitable to our industry as the individual businesses that we are, an integral link in the Tourism chain. We now have direct communication with Defra, we have submitted to the ONS our tourism code via the defra officials who all agree and recognize our work and tenacity. Once this is returned from the ONS we will be officially coded to tourism, with the full support of Parliament, meaning, come what may, we will be recognized correctly and will not face the inequality and the struggles we have all faced over the last two years. This is something many said we would never achieve and this is just the start of our journey. In the meantime we are keeping close communication with defra officials re specific issues for members, inconsistencies and evidence including licensing officers. Things are getting interesting! We can now confirm the UK Alliance of Catteries and Kennels (members of) will be consulted regarding regulation changes in 2023; finally a strong voice for our industry.

- 12th April we attended a second zoom meeting with BEIS Paul Scully to follow up from our Defra officials meeting, Paul will now chase our coding through the ONS and aid us in standing regulated by defra as an integral part of tourism.

We would not be able to spearhead this without the growing number of members and their support, every membership makes every difference and every voice counts.

Together is stronger and we are stronger together.

We would love to hear from you, our number is free, 0800 772 3989, or email [email protected] or [email protected]

www.ukallianceofcatteriesandkennels.co.uk

13/04/2022

We are now in direct communication with defra regarding specific issues for our members.

One such issue is the following -

We have members who have been informed by their licensing officer that they MUST add an external run to their kennel facility even though their boarders enjoy external enrichment…or face having their license removed.

Are you or do you know a kennel owner in this situation?

Our number is free from any device - 0800 772 3989

12/04/2022

Hands up if you want to speak to The Times and reflect our industry as we are today!!!

12/04/2022

✨Morning!!!✨

Just to let you all know; we contacted the bbc and Sunday times to submit a counter story to their damaging press over the last few days re kennels.

Our article is complete, is factual and a true representation of our licensed industry today.

It will be submitted to both media’s today.

All these steps help protect our livelihoods🙌🏻

Thank you all for the amount of referrals that came through over the weekend!! Great to hear you speaking to others re your Alliance!

05/04/2022

THE COUNTDOWN IS ON!!!!!!!

In less than two days the UK Alliance of Catteries and Kennels will attend a meeting with the Companion Animal Welfare Team within DEFRA (defra officials) the follow up from our Westminster meeting with SOS George Eustice.

The meeting agenda has been submitted and accepted.

IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO PUT FORWARD RE REGULATIONS (EXISTING REGS & PROPOSED CHANGES / GUIDANCE) LICENSING, LICENSING OFFICERS, UNLICENSED PREMISES, COUNCILS…we could go on but I’m sure you get the point…please message / email.

Speak up to protect your livelihood!

👍🏻

https://www.ukallianceofcatteriesandkennels.co.uk

Our phone line is free from all devices✅

08/03/2022

And more🥳🥳🥳