Community & Partnerships

Charity Of The Year

Our Charity of the Year is selected via a colleague nomination and voting process. Our current Charity of the Year partnership with Hearing Dogs for Deaf People was announced in July 2024 and collections will continue until the end of June 2025.

Colleagues are taking part in a variety of individual and group fundraising activities including charity bake sales, walks and challenges.

In October 2023, we also started to roll out Pennies’ ‘digital charity box’ at client payment points within our first opinion practices and referral hospitals throughout the UK. The Pennies option lets clients voluntarily add a small donation to their purchases, when paying by card or mobile wallet. The option to round-up their payment to the nearest pound appears automatically during the payment process.

The money raised will help Hearing Dogs for Deaf People train more hearing dog puppies who will go on to change the lives of their deaf partners, and help them reconnect with friends, family, their community and the world around them.

SignVideo

In 2020, CVS become the first veterinary group to offer SignVideo, a service to deaf pet owners who use British Sign Language (BSL) to make telephone calls to CVS veterinary practices and attend in practice consultations using fully qualified BSL interpreters via video calls. 

The SignVideo service is available in CVS UK small animal, equine, farm and referral practices between the hours of 8am-6pm Monday-Friday (excluding bank holidays).  

Deaf BSL clients can find a practice near them on the Healthy Pet Club and Horse Health Programme websites clicking on the SignVideo link to access the service at the desired practice.

Find your practice on The Healthy Pet Club

Find your practice on Horse Health Programme

Deaf BSL clients can also look for our logos on the SignVideo App to locate a convenient small animal or equine practice. Find out more and download the App on the SignVideo website.