Occupational therapy regulation at work: Protecting the public in 2015/16

07 Mar 2017

A profession-specific annual report summary that looks into the work of the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia over the year to 30 June 2016 has now been published.

The report draws on data from the 2015/16 annual report by AHPRA and the National Boards. This information provides a snapshot of the profession as at 30 June 2016, and includes the number of applications for registration, outcomes of criminal history checks and segmentation of the registrant base by gender, age and principal place of practice.

Insights into the profession include:

• Of the 657,621 registered health practitioners in Australia in 2015/16, 18,304 were occupational therapists (2.8% of the total registrant base). 
• 2,200 new applications for registration as an occupational therapist were received. 
• Registration for the occupational therapy profession grew by 6.4% during the year to 30 June 2016. 
• Student registration decreased by 3.8%, to 7,922 registrants. 
• 91.5% of occupational therapists are women; 8.5% are men. 
• New South Wales was the principal place of practice for most occupational therapists (5,167). 
• The Northern Territory (NT) was home to the least (175). 
• The age bracket with the most occupational therapists was 25-29 (4,024 registrants). 
• 1,777 occupational therapists were under 25 years of age; two were aged 75 or over. 
• As part of the registration process, 2,288 criminal history checks were carried out for occupational therapists. Of 66 disclosable court outcomes, none required regulatory action. 
• 59 notifications (complaints or concerns) were lodged about occupational therapists during the year, equating to less than 0.3% of the profession. 
• No immediate action was taken to suspend or limit an occupational therapist’s registration in 2015/16, compared to one instance in 2014/15. 
• There were 38 active monitoring cases, with most relating to suitability/eligibility for registration as an occupational therapist. 
• Six new complaints were made about possible offences relating to the use of the protected title ‘occupational therapist’ or about concerns relating to claims in advertising.

To download this report, or to view the main 2015/16 annual report and summary reports by state or territory, visit our microsite.

For more information

• Visit the AHPRA website 
• Lodge an online enquiry form 
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 9275 9009 (overseas callers) 
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200