Sandwell Council’s Housing Team has been awarded a ‘Silver Footprint’ in the housing category of the RSPCA’s prestigious PawPrints 2021 scheme.

Sandwell Council’s Housing Team has been awarded a ‘Silver Footprint’ in the housing category of the RSPCA’s prestigious PawPrints 2021 scheme. the team has won an award from the RSPCA every year since 2011.
 
The PawPrints scheme is the only award scheme across England and Wales that recognises and celebrates good practice from local authorities, housing providers and contingency planners in relation to animal welfare.
 
The scheme rewards those organisations exceeding basic and statutory service requirements with the aim of achieving higher animal welfare standards in five areas of work: stray dog services, housing, contingency planning, kennelled dog and animal activity licensing.
 
To win the award the team had to meet several criteria, including:
• Providing written pet care advice/information to residents about registering their pets in the accommodation
• Maintaining a register of all animals kept in each dwelling
• Making available to residents a list of local, reputable animal welfare and veterinary organisations
• Having a clear procedure for managing complaints and the concerns of both pet owners and neighbours regarding nuisance animals, welfare, health or cruelty issues.
 
The PawPrints Awards scheme has been run by the RSPCA since 2008 and is organised to help it reduce cruelty and abuse to animals.  
The scheme is supported by HM Government, the Local Government Association, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute.