I am writing in my capacity as Chair of the Steering Group to establish a Human Equine Interaction Register (HEIR) for which the need was discussed at a meeting of Horses in Education and Therapy International (HETI) back in 2019. I am delighted to say that now things are returning to some recognition of normal, we have been able to make some progress towards making the register a reality.
The aim of the register is to bring together all people involved in the field of human equine interaction to ensure high quality service provision and create a greater awareness of their work. It was agreed that this was needed to offer a greater level of protection and safety for all those involved in the sector whether that be the providers, commissioners, service users or horses.
Greater transparency of attainment of minimum standards in such areas as safeguarding, first aid, equine welfare and insurance will be the first base for self-registration and there will follow an opportunity to demonstrate skills, experience and knowledge as applicable. This is so that funders and service users will be able to make informed choices about the service being offered at all levels of practice. It is not intended that the register will be an accrediting body as that is already in place with the different professions involved.
Over the coming weeks we will be engaging with the sector to seek your views about the proposals. The register will be created with and not to commissioners, practitioners and service users for mutual benefit. If all goes to plan, we hope to open an online survey on Monday 27th September for 5 weeks for people to respond to the proposals and give feedback about how the register will work in practice.
However, we want to make sure that everyone has sufficient information to make an informed response so we have arranged a series of virtual and physical briefing session to explain the plans in more detail and offer an opportunity for questions.
If you would like to attend, please register for any of the following so that we can plan accordingly and in particular, make sure that the face to face event is Covid safe.
Wednesday 6th October 2.30-4pm Online Webinar
Register to attend here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/human-equine-interaction-register-webinar-1-tickets-170493755412
Tuesday 12th October at 6.30pm – 8pm Online webinar
Register to attend here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/human-equine-interaction-register-webinar-2-evening-option-tickets-170497117468
Friday 15th October 11am – 3pm at RDA HQ, Warwickshire
If you wish to email us with a question at any time we can be contacted at heiruk@hetifoundation.org and there is more information on the website at UK National Register – HEIR | HETI Federation
We will be providing regular updates on the HEIR Facebook page so please like, follow and share to stay in touch Human Equine Interaction Register UK – Home | Facebook
Best wishes,
Ed Bracher