The Vale Veterinary Group is an Independent, vet owned and managed practice in beautiful Devon, looking for a Small Animal Vet

We are a well-established independent practice, deeply rooted in our local community, with all our vets living and working in the area. We have three practices in Tiverton, Cullompton and Honiton. This allows us to provide a wide service to our clients, with the benefit of a wealth of experience and skills across our vet team.

About Us

It might be a frequently toted cliche, but we are proudly independent and our vets Kate, Eva and Fran have all recently joined the partnership. The desire to provide high standards of veterinary care while also being part of an exceptional team runs deep and is something we are very passionate about. For us this extends to providing our own out-of-hours work, which means we can offer the best service and continuity of care to our clients and their pets. This year we say farewell to one of our incredible partners who has worked at the Vale for 43 years, which means that we are looking to add a small animal vet to our team. ​

Our Team

Something that strikes anyone who walks through the door is the collaborative nature of our team; we discuss our cases, pool our ideas, and argue the pros and cons of treatments. Ultimately, we find it makes for a great environment, a growth mindset and better outcomes. Whatever your passion, developing them benefits us all, and we are keen to support this. Our vet team has a wealth of experience, with certificate holders in small animal medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, and diagnostic imaging, and vets currently undertaking cardiology certificates.

Our Culture

We listen to our team, and everyone’s opinions are valued. To quote the directors, ‘We want people to enjoy working here’. People matter; this practice has a family feel to it, and we intend to keep it that way. We are committed to our team, and in turn, we hope to find vets who share our ethos and commitment to providing the best care for our clients and their pets. We want the pets and owners that come through our doors to be treated as we would treat our own animals – we feel there is a lot more job satisfaction when there is time and opportunity to build rapport and relationships.

The Role

We are looking for a vet, ideally with experience, who shares our values, passion and commitment. We have an interesting and varied caseload to support a surgical bias or are open to hear about your interests. We will always encourage you to build your skills, follow your interests and share what you learn with the team. We have ‘Ten-minute Takeover’ every 2 weeks at our vets’ meetings where lunch is provided, and vets share their recent CPD learning or special interest topics. The practices have excellent equipment that we put to good use. We have digital and dental radiography, great ultrasound machines with cardiac probes and software, and a wonderful new scope and processor with the equipment to perform endoscopy, bronchoscopy, rhinoscopy and cystoscopy.

We’ve worked hard to develop a rota that maximises everyone’s work-life balance, meaning time to enjoy the benefits of living in the South West. Our full-time vets work a 4-day week, typically between 8.30 am and 6.30 pm, with multiple short consulting blocks which provide time for admin, investigative work and, most importantly, lunch. There are also inpatient, operating and consulting shifts providing an interesting caseload with cases worked up and managed to a high level in-house.

A balanced OOH that maximises work-life balance

We offer our own out-of-hours service as we can provide a great continuity of care this way, while developing and maintaining our emergency skills. We’ve worked hard to ensure the OOH rota is sustainable for our team. With their input, we’ve designed a 1 in 12 rota which means you don’t work more than 1 duty shift in a row. Therefore you will work part of a weekend, 3 weekends in 12. The weekday duty shift starts at 11 am, with time off following your duty shift and extra day off on the Monday after working a Sunday. There is also an RVN on-call to look after any inpatients and assist you.

We’ve worked very hard to ensure the OOH rota is sustainable for our team and with their help we’ve adjusted it over the years to what we think gives a good solution for the vets and the practice. We’ve designed a 1:12 rota where you won’t do more than 1 duty day in a row, so you will work part of 3 weekends in 12 weeks. We have an extra day off on the Monday after working a Sunday. Weekday duties start at 11am and you’ll have the next day off.

Our Location

We are perfectly situated as a gateway to the South West and all its benefits: beautiful countryside with moors, coastal paths and beaches while still accessible to airports and the rest of the country. We are a sociable lot and enjoy catching up outside work, whether to the pub, rugby, or dog walk, or our infamous Christmas parties!

Don’t just take it from us

‘As a new grad I was looking for a practice that was friendly, supportive and would encourage my veterinary aspirations. Three years later, after finding that practice, I continue to develop and whilst doing so, loving my job at the Vale. They allow me to follow my interests and it’s a great atmosphere to work in – we really do work well as a team whilst having some fun along the way. I couldn’t have asked for a better practice to begin my veterinary career.’

–Jess MRCVS

What we offer:

If you you’d like to be part of a team and practice that work well together, always striving to do the best for the animals and clients in our care, with job satisfaction and an indecent amount of cake then call us for a chat or apply today.

To organise an informal chat, or to apply, please email a CV and covering letter to careers@valevetgroup.com