For RVNs · United Kingdom
Your own home-care service, as an RVN.
Nail clips, health checks, senior support and advice, on your own account, in your clients’ homes. Medical treatment and minor surgery stay with the practice that has the animal under its care. Here is what it takes, in order.
- 1Your scope
- 2What you need
- 3What it pays
- 4Hours that fit
- 5The tools
- 6Not alone
Written for the United Kingdom. Change your country at the top of the page and every step follows.
The short version
You’re already the practice.
The practice bills your hands at practice rates and pays you a salary. The skills, the calm and the clients who ask for you by name are yours, and every one of them comes with you when you leave.
Self-employed does not mean leaving the profession. It means running your own home-care visits, at your own rates, in the hours that fit your life, inside the rules the Veterinary Surgeons Act sets for an RVN.
Step 1 · Your scope, in the United Kingdom
On your own account, and with the practice.
Schedule 3 of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 lets an RVN give medical treatment or minor surgery only under the direction of the veterinary surgeon who employs her, for an animal under that vet’s care. Everything else in home care is yours.
On your own account
- Nail clipping, ear and coat care
- Health, weight and mobility checks; senior support
- Microchipping, husbandry advice, pet sitting
- Client education and home-care coaching
With the practice
- Medical treatment and minor surgery: only as an RVN directed by the vet who employs you, for an animal under that vet’s care
- Qwoll does not facilitate Schedule 3 acts
- Never on your own account: diagnosis, prescribing, vaccination, surgery
The BVNA calls the Schedule 3 framework ambiguous, and so do we. We describe only what is clearly yours.
Step 2 · What you need, in the United Kingdom
The paperwork, listed. Nothing hidden.
We do not arrange this for you. We tell you exactly what it is, and once you have it the portal keeps it current for you.
Your business
- Register as self-employed with HMRC and get your UTR
- Put about 30% aside for tax and National Insurance; VAT only above £90,000
- An accountant or a sole-trader bookkeeping app
- Business-use cover on the car you drive to visits
Your cover and your standing
- Professional indemnity and public liability in your own name; the practice policy does not follow you. A broker will size it. Store the certificate in your profile and get a reminder before it expires.
- Your RCVS registration kept current
- The Schedule 3 boundary, understood before your first visit
General information, not advice. An accountant and a broker will confirm what fits you.
Step 3 · What it pays
The salary is the floor.
A registered veterinary nurse in the UK earns around £27,000 to £31,000 a year. A home visit sells for more than an hour of that on published price lists, and you keep what you charge.
You set the rate.
Salary figures: Glassdoor and Indeed averages for registered veterinary nurses, 2025. National Living Wage £12.71 an hour from April 2026. Prices are examples from published price lists of self-employed RVN home-visit services, checked 9 September 2026, not a promise of income.
A visit is 20 to 45 minutes. The practice pays for the hour. Independence pays for the visit.
Step 4 · Hours that fit
A few hours here, a few there.
“Going back to full shifts in clinic felt daunting. Honestly, it felt inaccessible. What I needed was a few hours here and a few there.”
Set your working hours, block time off, and let the calendar sync to your phone. School pick-up is a block on the calendar, not a negotiation.
Step 5 · The tools
Run the book from day one.
Bookings and your own client portal
Requests land in an inbox. Confirmed visits flow into a calendar built for the road. Your clients book and pay through your portal.
Care records made for visits
Structured notes with photos and a private nurse-only note. Send the visit as a PDF to the owner or the practice.
Invoices and payouts, handled
Invoices auto-draft when a visit is done, in pounds, with VAT if you are registered. Payouts and earnings on one dashboard.
RCVS status and CPD kept current
Your RCVS registration, insurance and CPD tracked with renewal alerts. Stored once and shown on your profile.
Step 6 · Not alone
Independent does not mean by yourself.
The founding cohort
Nurses have been running real books on Qwoll since July. The first of them are paying for it, and they shape what we build next.
The monthly catch-up
A standing call with the four of us and whoever wants to come. Bring a case, a question or a complaint.
Nurse-founded, Australian-owned
Built by people who have worked the floor. Qwoll is live in five countries, with support that answers.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked first.
- What can I do as a self-employed RVN?
- Home care that is not medical treatment or minor surgery: nail clips, health and weight checks, senior and mobility support, microchipping, advice, pet sitting. Schedule 3 acts stay with the practice that has the animal under its care.
- Can I give a pet its medication at home?
- Administering medical treatment is a Schedule 3 act for an RVN, and the law is ambiguous about a self-employed RVN doing it for an owner. We do not facilitate it. Ask the practice, or ask us and we will point you to the RCVS guidance.
- What insurance do I need?
- Professional indemnity and public liability in your own name. Specialist pet-business insurers write it for RVNs. Your portal stores the certificate and reminds you before it expires.
- Do I have to leave my practice?
- No. Many RVNs start with a few home visits a week around practice hours and grow from there.
- Does Qwoll find me clients?
- Not yet. Today Qwoll is the tools to run the clients you have. Your own clients never carry a Qwoll fee.
- What does it cost?
- 14 days free, then from A$49 a month, billed in Australian dollars. Your invoices to clients are in pounds.