Revised registration standards take effect 1 December 2019

02 Dec 2019

The Occupational Therapy Board of Australia’s (the Board) revised registration standards came into effect on 1 December 2019.

The following revised registration standards¹ apply from 1 December 2019:

• Recency of practice
• Professional indemnity insurance arrangements, and
• Continuing professional development.

The revised registration standards were published on 31 July 2019 to give practitioners time to understand the revised requirements. You should make sure you have read and understand the revised registration standards and know what you need to do to meet them. Some of the main changes are outlined below and you can read the registration standards in full on the Registration Standards page of the Board’s website.

Every time you renew your registration you must declare you meet Recency of Practice, Professional indemnity insurance arrangements and Continuing professional development registration standards.

Recency of practice (RoP)

The revised registration standard requires you to have practised a minimum of 750 hours over the last five years, 450 hours over the last three years, or 150 hours over the last year. You will also need to submit a professional development plan to the Board for approval if you are making a substantial change to the scope of your practice, for example from an administrative role to providing clinical care. The standard removes the requirement for you to complete 30 hours of continuing professional development in the 12 months prior to applying for re-registration.

Professional indemnity insurance arrangements (PII)

The revised registration standard has been made easier to read and understand. To meet the registration standard, you need to have appropriate insurance. It’s likely your employer has PII cover for you, but you should still check. If you work for yourself make sure you have the correct insurance in place.

Continuing professional development (CPD)

The revised registration standard requires you to do 20 hours of CPD each year and five of these must be interactive. The standard specifies requirements for reflection and how practitioners should select CPD activities that contribute directly to maintaining or improving their competence and keeping them up to date in their scope of practice. The standard also specifies that exemptions will be granted in exceptional circumstances and there are examples of circumstances for when an exemption would be granted in the additional guidance documents supporting the standard.

Resources about the revised standards

You can find more information about the revised CPD registration standard in the CPD guidelines on the CPD registration standard webpage.

The Board will be publishing more information about the other revised registration standards in the FAQ section on the Codes and Guidelines webpage in coming weeks.

¹Registration standards define the requirements that applicants and registrants in the regulated professions need to meet to be registered.