Ms Jennifer Dowler:

We have a few dogs in schools at present. We just talk directly to the schools and use the Equality Act to gain access. We are concentrating on our stability dog programme, primarily in secondary schools. They might go into a sixth class in primary to do preparation for first year in secondary school, when the children will be doing a lot of walking from class to class. There is a need in secondary school for the stability dog to get the child from class to class, to walk up and down steps and so on, and to deal with crowded corridors. It is a health and safety issue for the clients.

Assistance Dogs International is the standard. It is a very thorough standard that has to be achieved by organisations. I was talking with members of ADI during the week. Currently, only charities can become members. The organisation we mentioned earlier was obviously not a charity and it was using that as a means to say it could not get accredited because it was a private company. While ADI is trying to cut that loop out by inviting private companies to apply, it is felt that it is unlikely that many of them would reach the standard. They would have to have all provisions covered to meet all needs in terms of the client, the dogs, the breeding, the follow-up, insurance and everything to make sure the client and the dog are protected. They would have to deal with public access as well.