Occupational Therapy Board of Australia - May 2025
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May 2025

Issue 26 – May 2025

From the Chair

There are now over 34,000 registered occupational therapists in Australia, and I welcome all of you to the first Occupational Therapy Board newsletter of 2025.

In December 2024 the Board attended the Indigenous Allied Health Australia Conference held in Adelaide, including a workshop on Allyship. The workshop leaders challenged our thinking and gave us the tools to identify actions to continue our own journey of allyship. One organisation they highlighted was WellMob, which has great resources for First Nations peoples and non-Indigenous people, including for the latter about how to be a good ally: https://wellmob.org.au/

I encourage you to read the joint statement from Ahpra and the National Boards on discrimination and racism in healthcare and the joint statement from health practitioner regulators on family violence. We have an important part to play in both these crucial issues. Read more below.

Wishing you all a safe and happy year ahead.

Rebecca Singh
Chair, Occupational Therapy Board of Australia

Priority news

Health practitioner regulators united: family violence is unacceptable

Australia’s health practitioner regulators are united in their view that family violence is unacceptable.

For the first time ever, these regulators issued a joint statement reminding practitioners of the critical contribution they can make in Australia’s response to tackling family violence.

The statement recognises the role of regulators in the collective effort to end family violence by supporting victim-survivors, setting clear expectations of health practitioners, taking regulatory action as appropriate and condemning all forms of family violence.

Health practitioners are often the first point of contact for victim-survivors, so play an essential role in the early detection, support, referral, and delivery of specialised treatment to those experiencing family violence.

Health practitioners are also reminded that their own conduct, as well as that of their colleagues, must reflect the trust and confidence the public have in them for safe and effective healthcare.

Regulators work to ensure health practitioners are safe, ethical, and professional for the protection of the public.

Family violence can also be a serious crime and a violation of human rights. It is a gross departure from the ethical standards of behaviour expected of health practitioners. Health practitioners who are perpetrators of family violence could face suspension, cancellation, the imposition of conditions, or refusal of registration.

As regulators we are committed to minimising the risk of adding to victim-survivors’ trauma or exposing them to further risk of harm. We seek to respond to victim-survivors’ complaints about health practitioners in a trauma-informed way. This means prioritising the safety and dignity of victim-survivors and respectfully and sensitively supporting them through the health complaint management process.

We encourage any person aware of a health practitioner perpetrating family violence to provide information to the police and appropriate regulatory body. A list of health practitioner regulator contact details, as well as police, family violence information and support services, is included in the joint position statement.

Read the media release.

Discrimination and racism will not be tolerated: Joint statement from Ahpra and the National Boards

More than 900,000 registered health practitioners provide much needed safe healthcare every day in Australia.

Safe healthcare relies on trust between patients and practitioners. Discrimination and racism erode that trust and put lives at risk.

There is no place for discrimination, racism or intolerance in healthcare.

Ahpra and the National Boards remind registered health practitioners of their obligations under their codes of conduct and ethics to provide care that is free of discrimination and racism. The codes of conduct and ethics set out the legal requirements, professional behaviour and conduct expectations for registered health practitioners in Australia. The codes underpin the requirements for the delivery of safe and respectful practice.

The shared Code of conduct for example, states that practitioners must:

  • respect diverse cultures, beliefs, gender identities, sexualities and experiences of people, including among team members
  • adopt practices that respect diversity, avoid bias, discrimination and racism, and challenge belief based upon assumption.

Practitioners are also reminded of their obligations when using social media and encouraged to review the social media guidance, which was updated following the release of the joint statement. The updates include prioritising the information around public comment and trust in the professions, new case studies for social media activities likely to warrant an investigation, and further professionalism pitfalls to be aware of when using social media.

Practitioners must also comply with the standards of their workplace and adopt practices that foster a respectful, inclusive and safe healthcare environment.

Read the full statement on the Ahpra website.

Board news

Latest workforce data released

The Board's quarterly registration data to 31 March 2025 is published on its website. At this date there were 34,143 registered occupational therapists, including 32,914 with general registration and 979 with non-practising registration.

There are 234 occupational therapists who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, or 0.7% of the profession.

For further details on registration by age, gender and principal place of practice, read the report on our Statistics page. 

What’s new?

New case studies added to guidance for practitioners using social media

Ahpra and the National Boards have made some updates to the social media guidance to ensure it remains relevant and useful to practitioners.

The updates include prioritising the information around public comment and trust in the professions to highlight the recent joint statement on discrimination and racism, new case studies for social media activities likely to warrant an investigation, and further professionalism pitfalls to be aware of when using social media.

While these additions do not change the underlying guidance for practitioners, they provide further clarity on emerging issues. Ahpra and the National Boards will assess the need to conduct a full review of the guidance in the future, with an opportunity for you to provide feedback.

Read the latest additions to the social media guidance on Ahpra's website.

Annual report shows progress in addressing workforce needs

Addressing workforce needs by getting more health practitioners safely registered faster and responding to new risks from emerging models of care are the highlights of the 2023/24 Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) annual report.

Read the Board report and statistics on the Board’s Annual report webpage.

Parental leave fee relief on the way

A 30 per cent rebate on annual registration fees for practitioners who take parental leave will come into effect on 1 July 2025, while a wider review of pro rata fees gets underway.

This action is designed to provide relief for practitioners taking parental leave (and other forms of protected leave types such as disability and carer’s leave).

It is a first step in a range of measures that Ahpra and the National Boards are examining to make the annual registration fees system more flexible and responsive.

Read more about the fee relief.

Updated English language skills registration standard now in effect

The revised Registration standard: English language skills is now in effect. While currently registered practitioners won’t need to meet this standard, these changes will enable more flexible pathways for future applicants, getting more practitioners into the workforce safely.

Important changes to the standard include expanding the list of recognised countries, reducing the accepted score for the writing component of approved English language tests to IELTS 6.5 (or equivalent), adding the Cambridge English language skills test and improving flexibility for applicants to meet National Boards’ English language skill requirements.

Read more about the updated standard.

Research provides clues to boost health workforce retention

Most Australian health practitioners surveyed say they want to stay in their profession, however more than one in 10 are unsure about their future or have plans to leave within a year, with mental burnout a key reason why.

New research from Ahpra, published in the Australian Health Review, identifies the factors driving practitioners’ choices to stay or leave the health workforce, across nine regulated health professions.

Despite a regulated workforce of 920,535 health practitioners in 2024, forecasts predict that the sector will struggle to meet the demands of Australia’s growing and ageing population in coming years.

Ahpra’s Workforce Retention and Attrition Project found the top five reasons influencing occupational therapists to leave the profession included mental burnout, retirement, feeling undervalued/unrecognised, lack of professional satisfaction, and work no longer being fulfilling.

However, over 86 per cent of occupational therapists surveyed said that they plan to stay in the profession and the top five reasons influencing their decision were fulfilling work, enjoy the work, flexibility and work-life balance, sense of achievement, and mentally stimulating work.

Read more about health workforce retention.

View the fact sheet summarising the workforce retention and attrition project findings for occupational therapy.

New Ahpra portal

Ahpra recently launched a new online portal, where you can access new digital smart forms for applications and renewal of registration.

Your Ahpra portal will be where you can manage your registration. You can download your registration certificate, renew your registration, and apply to change your registration type.

Next time you log in the experience will be a bit different. We’ve introduced multifactor authentication (also called two-step verification) for additional account security. There is also a new proof of identity process. Your identity will be verified by a third party using biometric verification.

You don’t need to do anything until it’s time for you to renew your registration. Look out for the usual reminders for this and we’ll explain how to set up your account then.

Need to access your Ahpra portal now? Go to our Ahpra Portal help centre.

Help protect your data

Help protect your data by being alert to scammers and only logging in to the Ahpra portal direct from the Ahpra website: www.ahpra.gov.au.

We will only ask you to log in to your Ahpra portal when you’re due to renew your registration.

Ahpra’s new CEO

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) has appointed Justin Untersteiner as Chief Executive Officer.

Justin, who joined Ahpra in April, brings over 20 years’ experience in regulation and compliance, most recently as Chief Operating Officer at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).

Ahpra Board Chair Gill Callister PSM said that Justin was an impressive leader who stood out in a field of domestic and international candidates.

‘Justin’s experience in leading change and bringing new approaches, combined with his knowledge of regulation and compliance, made him a standout candidate,’ she said.

‘Justin’s appointment marks an exciting new chapter for Ahpra, and the Board is looking forward to working with him to build the next phase of Australia’s health regulation system.’

Justin succeeds Martin Fletcher who completed his final term as CEO in December 2024.

Learn more about Ahpra’s new CEO.

Keep in touch with the Board

 
 
Page reviewed 22/05/2025
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