Accreditation of wildlife rescue providers

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS) recently introduced some changes to the way wildlife groups operate to ensure good governance. Snowy Mountains Wildlife Rescue (LAOKO) is working towards the required accreditation to ensure we have a quality assurance process to provide wildlife rehabilitation services in a consistent, reliable and credible manner in accordance with established standards.

The expected benefits of accreditation will be:

• improved volunteer support, management and morale
• transferability of volunteer skills between providers
• stronger compliance with codes of practice
• better relations with volunteers, veterinary practices and government
• greater community recognition of service providers
• improved outcomes for sick and injured wildlife
• reduced red-tape for service providers.

We have established a Health, Safety, Environment and Quality Management (HSEQ) team and an accreditation committee to preserve our collective knowledge and ensure better governance.