Get to know the Chair of the Veterinary Workforce Data Taskforce, Dr Helen Scott-Orr

In an important step towards addressing the challenges facing the veterinary profession in Australia, Dr Helen Scott-Orr AM PSM has been announced as the Chair of the newly established Veterinary Workforce Data Taskforce. The Taskforce will operate for 12 months and aims to develop recommendations relating to comprehensive national data approaches for advocacy, policymaking, and planning, while reviewing governance and operational options to support the veterinary workforce.

The Taskforce was established following consensus from the national Veterinary Workforce Data and Governance Roundtable, hosted by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), in August last year. Membership of the Taskforce reflects the diverse stakeholders in the veterinary profession.

Australia’s Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Beth Cookson, stated “The establishment of the Veterinary Workforce Data Taskforce is a significant step forward for supporting Australia’s veterinary profession. Australia currently lacks national data on the veterinary workforce. Reliable data is a cornerstone to understanding and therefore addressing the challenges faced by our veterinary sector.”

An AVA member intermittently since 1970, Dr Scott-Orr’s appointment as Taskforce Chair comes after an illustrious and varied career in veterinary sciences, agriculture and biosecurity, enabling her to gain a broad overview of the veterinary profession. With her background, Dr Scott-Orr is uniquely equipped to lead the Taskforce in tackling the issues facing the sector.

This sentiment is echoed by Dr Cookson, “Dr Scott-Orr is a passionate advocate for Australia’s veterinary sector, with a keen interest in strengthening the profession.  We are privileged not only to have outstanding representation on the Taskforce, but to be able to draw on Dr Scott-Orr’s exemplary leadership and extensive experiences.”

Dr Scott-Orr started out in mixed practice in Gosford NSW, before moving to England to work and complete a course in Bacteriology where she transitioned into veterinary laboratory medicine. That took her to Indonesia where she researched zoonotic bacteria.

“I was there for just over 2 years, during which time I had the luck to be able to survey over many parts of Indonesia and learn many different things.”

In 1980, Dr Scott-Orr joined the NSW Department of Agriculture and soon became the Director for the brucellosis and tuberculosis eradication campaign. In 1989, Helen was promoted to Chief Veterinary Officer in NSW, becoming the first female CVO in Australia.

“There were only about 10% of girls going through vet science when I went through, now it's 80%,” she reflected.

Throughout her career, Dr Scott-Orr served in various influential roles including as President of the Veterinary Surgeons Board of NSW. Later, she oversaw the research, advisory and education activities of NSW Agriculture / Primary Industries and became a board member of cooperative research centres for beef cattle, sheep, invasive animals, weeds, rice, and cotton. She retired from the  Department in 2009, but continued involvement with veterinary capacity-building projects in Indonesia  as well as with Animal Health Australia and other boards. From 2016 - 2019, she was appointed as the inaugural Inspector General of Biosecurity for the Australian Government Department of Agriculture.

“In 2022, I was invited to chair a review of veterinary education for the Heads of the Schools of Veterinary Science in Australia and New Zealand. That review made quite a few findings about the seriousness of the veterinary shortage and wide-ranging recommendations for action by governments and the profession, which are being followed up in various fora.”

With Dr Scott-Orr at the helm, the Taskforce’s initial focus will be gathering information about existing data sources and stakeholders’ data needs. Initial efforts will focus on available sources of information such as from veterinary boards, universities and government organisations that employ veterinarians.

“Policies that will make a change to our profession, have to be informed by good data. You can't just use anecdotes about individuals, you have to have good data, and you have to have an understanding as to how that can make a difference.”

“The designing of the workforce data collection has to be done carefully so that you're not just creating a monster, but you're actually generating useful data that will be used. We want the data to be comprehensive and really reflective of the issues that are around, so it informs them.”

The Taskforce will meet monthly throughout 2025. Dr Scott-Orr was impressed by the first meeting, which was held in February.

“There are people on the Taskforce who've been really doing an enormous amount of work on this in the last few years, so pulling that together has been great.

“We have very good support from the Office of the Chief Veterinary Officer [in DAFF], who's providing the Secretariat. There are terrific people there who will be able to help.”

The enthusiasm for the profession and broad expertise of Dr Scott-Orr and Taskforce members, together with support from DAFF and other organisations including the Australian Veterinary Association, are instrumental to the success of this initiative and their recommendations to support the veterinary profession into the future.