Recently, several farm assurance schemes in the United Kingdom have been adopting innovative approaches, such as welfare outcome assessment, into their routine procedures. In this paper, we present the findings of four consultation exercises, undertaken as part of a review process that examined farmer perspectives on planned or implemented changes to their current certification visits as members of UK-based dairy and laying hen schemes. The changes included the introduction of welfare outcome assessment by assessors, joint-scoring of welfare-outcome measures by farmers and assessors and self-assessment of welfare outcome measures by farmers between assessor visits. This study also explores the challenges that arise when schemes are aiming to adopt a scheme-level continuous improvement approach to promote welfare improvement on participating farms. The key challenges fall under three themes: the purpose and value for the farmer of the assessment of welfare outcomes as part of a farm assurance assessment process; the potential conflict rather than concordance with the role of the farmer in caring for their animals; and finally the technicalities of the assessment process, such as sample sizes for assessment being calibrated for gauging welfare prevalence at a scheme rather than farm level and the role of the farm assurance assessors both to assess impartially compliance against the standards and to provide welfare advice to support improvement. This study highlights that the involvement of farmers at all stages in the development and in the evaluation of outcome assessment initiatives is likely to be beneficial for welfare improvement on-farm.

The integration of outcome-based measurements to animal welfare assessment programmes can provide a new perspective on the individual animal's experience. Identifying variability in individual experiences can facilitate understanding of animals at the periphery of the welfare spectrum, compared to those at the average. Welfare Quality® physical measurements and behavioural observations were taken from the same fifteen non-cage laying hens throughout their production cycle. The average amount of time performing each of nine behaviours and the amount of variation in each behaviour's performance was compared at four different ages: 19, 28, 48 and 66 weeks. The same analysis was performed for all Welfare Quality® physical measurements. To identify associations between a hen's behaviour and her physical condition, a cluster analysis was performed for all ages, as well as on data collated from all ages. No differences were observed among the four ages for the average amount of time performing many of the behaviours, but the amount of variability differed for most behaviours observed. Physical measurements taken at 19 weeks differed from those taken at later ages. Bodyweight consistently clustered with time spent preening, yet the patterns of clustering differed at each age. These results highlight the importance of age when conducting welfare assessments. Auditors also should report not only the average, but the variability of responses; while the average response of the flock may appear consistent across time or treatment, differences among the hens within the same flock may vary drastically.