Description
Contract: Zero hours contract
Salary: £14.24 per hour (£12.71 plus £1.57 holiday pay)
Location: Newport, NP18 2LH
Closing date: Sunday 21st June 2026
Interview date: Wednesday 1st July 2026
We’re recruiting a Standby Veterinary Coordinator for our Rehoming & Fostering team at our rehoming, advice & behaviour unit in Newport. Our Veterinary Coordinators ensure our clinical standards and veterinary interventions are consistently applied across our service offerings at our centres, leading to more efficient and cost-effective solutions.
More about the role
As a Standby Veterinary Coordinator you will oversee the provision of all veterinary care linked to your Centre services, working with our Veterinary Specialist and other Veterinary Coordinators across the Rehoming and Fostering network to ensure consistency of approach and potential economies of scale. The process of rehoming a pet has three key stages from admitting the pet through to adoption and continually ensuring spaces are refilled. You will be responsible for providing veterinary interventions for all these stages.
This role will be a driving force in ensuring our veterinary interventions are efficient, so we can reduce un-necessary delays in a pet’s rehoming journey and make sure that pet welfare is at the heart of everything we do. You will do this by making pragmatic, welfare focused decisions reaching out to other Veterinary Coordinators and subject matter experts when required.
You will be on a zero hour’s contract and therefore you will not have regular hours of work but will be on standby to work shifts as and when required.
If you excel in an environment where you can see the difference you make every day, then this is the role for you. Interested? Then apply and let’s work together to see if this is the role for you.
About you
You will have an excellent knowledge of veterinary practice by working in a similar animal rescue or clinical environment. In addition, you will be passionate about pet welfare and motivated by sharing your knowledge and providing good, sound, and pragmatic advice to others. You will also have experience of assessing pets, ensuring that any behavioural issues are taken into account when considering medical interventions. Your advice and approach will be evidence based, welfare focused and in line with Blue Cross Clinical guidelines and standard operating procedures.
You will enjoy building relationships not just internally but externally, being confident to work with a range of people such as other vets/vet nurses, volunteers, team members and members of the public. Communication and consistency of approach is really important, so you should be comfortable nurturing face to face local relationships as well as at a national level.
We don’t ‘rest on our laurels’ at Blue Cross so you should enjoy continually looking for improvements, seeking opportunities to make our pet veterinary approach as efficient as we can, without compromising pet welfare. You will enjoy working with your colleagues who care for the pets and provide adoption and admission support and be open to take onboard their ideas for improving the services we provide.
Knowledge, skills, and experience
* Experience of working in a veterinary practice or a similar animal rescue environment with a good understanding of shelter medicine principles.
* Demonstrable experience and competence in handling and working with a range of species.
* A good knowledge of animal welfare and health & safety practices and legislation.
* A good understanding of infectious and zoonotic diseases and biosecurity, including how to prevent, treat and manage outbreaks.
* Able to articulate and have experience of unique challenges faced by managing cases of pets who are owned verses unowned animals in a rehoming setting.
* Strong communication skills with the ability to engage with multiple stakeholders and adapt approach depending on the audience and topic, always retaining diplomacy and tact.
* Excellent organisation skills with the ability to ‘spin many plates’ and prioritise workload.
It would be great (but not essential) if you also had:
* Vet Nursing, Pet Hospital Assistant or SQP qualifications.
* Experience of dealing with potential new owners who are taking on a pet with ongoing clinical conditions.
* Experience of working within Clinical/Veterinary guidelines and regulations.
* Understanding and experience of working with pets in a stressful environment and the impact this can play in case management.
* Experience of financial/budget management with a focus on cost savings and efficiencies.
How to apply
Click the apply button below and complete the online application process before the closing date on Sunday 21st June 2026.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive an overwhelming response.
If you’d like to learn more about Blue Cross, our mission, and the work we do to support animals and people, take a look at our About Us page