Australia's National Regulation and Accreditation Scheme

Health and human service professions work with people who experience a range of life challenges. In Australia, as in other wealthy countries, governments provide a framework for the regulation of the health and human services professions. Considerable variation exists internationally as to how governments regulate these professions and which professions are subject to government regulation. As we will discuss in this section, in Australia, a national regulation scheme exists for some health and human service professions; however, social work is not included within this scheme.

In Australia, a National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS) was introduced by the commonwealth government in 2010. The NRAS is administered by the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA), which is a government body. At the time the NRAS was established, national registration was confined to those health professions that were already regulated or partially regulated by state or territory governments (Commonwealth Department of Health, 2016). The NRAS was intended to replace the patchwork of state- and territory-based registration schemes, which were costly and cumbersome to administer.

Ten professions were included in the NRAS when it commenced in 2010. The 10 professions are: chiropractors; dental practitioners (including dentists, dental hygienists, dental prosthetists and dental therapists); medical practitioners; nurses and midwives; optometrists; osteopaths; pharmacists; physiotherapists; podiatrists; and psychologists. In 2012, a review of NRAS led to the inclusion in the scheme of four further health professions (AHPA, 2012). These professions are: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners; Chinese medicine practitioners and Chinese herbal dispensers); medical radiation practitioners (including diagnostic radiographers, radiation therapists and nuclear medicine technologists); and occupational therapists. In 2015, the Council of Australian Governments Health Council (COAG Health Council, 2015) announced that paramedics will be included in the NRAS, although the time frame for this remains unclear.

The NRAS provides a legal and policy infrastructure for regulating professional competence of the health and human service professions under its jurisdiction. Each of the 14 professions included in the NRAS has its own regulatory board that oversees and monitors professional education and standards. The monitoring role includes requiring registered practitioners to have completed specified qualifications and engage in ongoing professional development in order to maintain currency of practice, as well as requirements for additional support and education for practitioners re-entering practice after a period of absence.