July 2025

Connections

Issue 43 - July 2025

• From the Chair
• Priority news
  • Fee relief for practitioners taking parental leave
  • New Ahpra portal for registration
• Board news
  • Application process for endorsement reviewed and updated
  • Requirements to meet updated competencies by 1 December 2025
  • National psychology exam to include new competencies in 2026
  • National psychology exam guidelines and resources released
  • Upcoming workshops on Code of conduct and updated professional competencies
  • 4+2 interns: only two years remaining to finish all your requirements
• What’s new?
  • Fake psychologist convicted, fails to attend court for Ahpra prosecution
  • National Law amendment information guides out now
  • Have your say on the review of the Supervised practice framework
  • Ahpra CEO Justin Untersteiner speaks about future reform directions
  • Review presents opportunities for Ahpra’s regulatory reform agenda
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anti-Racism Policy      
• Keep in touch with the Board

From the Chair

Once in a generation opportunity to address mental health workforce challenges

In March, the Board launched a project to develop reform options for the way psychologists are trained. Funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, the project aims to boost the mental health workforce by increasing the supply of psychologists entering the profession.

The Board will work with stakeholders to consider options for a single, shorter, and more practical course of education and training for general registration. The Board will also consider the workforce role of a delegated workforce such as psychology assistants. Read more about the project on our website.

Rachel Phillips
Chair, Psychology Board of Australia

Priority news

Fee relief for practitioners taking parental leave

Practitioners taking parental leave can have money back in their pockets, as Ahpra’s parental leave fee relief policy is now in effect.

A 30 per cent rebate on annual renewal fees is available for health practitioners who take parental leave and certain other forms of leave. That will deliver rebates of up to $308, depending on registration type, while a wider review of fee policies continues.

‘We have listened to concerns and understand the cost-of-living pressures that practitioners who are parents, are pregnant, or have disability or carer responsibilities can face,’ Ahpra CEO Justin Untersteiner said.

‘Today is an important step in our ongoing process of making registration fee arrangements fairer and more flexible.’

The rebate applies to practitioners who take leave for at least six continuous months on the grounds of a protected attribute, such as parental leave and certain other forms of leave such as disability and carer’s leave.

A practitioner can claim the rebate at the next renewal after the six-month period of leave ends. It is available for future renewals, noting that the timing of annual renewals will vary.

Work has also started to improve processes when transitioning between practising and non-practising registration, as the annual cost for this has now been capped.

A wider review is currently looking at how a pro rata approach to fees can be implemented. It is expected to report by November 2025 with recommendations aimed at coming into effect by 1 July 2026.

Visit the Fee relief for parental and other types of leave webpage for more information and to read the full policy.

New Ahpra portal for registration

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.

Board news

Application process for endorsement reviewed and updated

The Board has reviewed and updated the Policy framework for the assessment of qualifications for AoPE, changing the way postgraduate qualifications supporting applications for area of practice endorsement (AoPE) can be assessed.

Qualifications now be assessed against the professional competencies for each of the nine areas of practice endorsement outlined in the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council’s Accreditation Standards for Psychology Programs.

Psychologists applying for area of practice endorsement must have completed postgraduate study. The Board will not accept continuing professional development activities, incomplete qualifications, supervised internships or work experience as being substantially equivalent or based on similar competencies to a Board-approved postgraduate qualification.

In addition to the qualification requirements, to be eligible for endorsement, psychologists must have completed a Board-approved registrar program or another period of post-qualification supervised practice that is comparable to a registrar program.

The following table shows which form psychologists can use to apply for AoPE with the Board:

For more information

• Visit the Endorsement page of the Board’s website
• AEAE-76 application form.

Requirements to meet updated competencies by 1 December 2025

All psychologists, including those who hold an area of practice endorsement, will need to meet the new Professional competencies for psychologists by 1 December 2025. The Board published an advance copy of the Professional competencies for psychologists on our website in August 2024, giving psychologists 18 months to prepare for the 1 December 2025 date of effect.

We strongly encourage you to self-assess against the updated competencies, as relevant to your scope of practice, and complete any necessary CPD to ensure you can meet all eight competencies by 1 December 2025. We have developed Fact sheets and FAQs and a self-assessment tool to help you transition to the updated competencies.

You will need to become familiar with the Professional competencies for psychologists including the enhancements to:

• Competency 3: Exercises professional reflexivity, purposeful and deliberate practice, and self-care
• Competency 7: Demonstrates a health equity and human rights approach when working with people from diverse groups
• Competency 8: Demonstrates a health equity and human rights approach when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, families, and communities.

If you currently hold provisional registration, what you need to do will depend on where you are up to in your training when the updated competencies come into effect, and whether your training was based on the current or the updated competencies. For more information please refer to the Board’s FAQs.

All registration and notification decisions from 1 December 2025 will be based on these updated Professional competencies for psychologists and the Board’s recently developed Code of conduct.

National psychology exam to include new competencies in 2026

The updated Professional competencies for psychologists will be included in the national psychology exam from January 2026. Any exams taken before this time will assess the current competencies. If you plan to sit the exam in 2026, now is the time to start including the updated general registration competencies into your exam study plan.

Please be aware that if you fail the exam in 2025 (which is based on the current competencies), and plan to re-sit in 2026, you will need to adjust your study and professional development plan to include studying the updated competencies.

For more information on the transition to our updated competencies and what you need to do, please see our Fact sheets and FAQs. We encourage you to talk with your supervisor to develop a plan to help you to transition to the updated competencies and prepare yourself to sit and pass the exam. We have developed a self-assessment tool to help you transition.

National psychology exam guidelines and resources released

Following our public consultation held from January to March 2025, the Board has updated the guidelines for the national psychology exam.

These guidelines include the updated Professional competencies for psychologists, and introduce an exemption from the exam for internationally trained applicants who hold qualifications that are substantially equivalent, or based on similar competencies, to a Board-approved fifth and sixth-year qualification.

The guidelines will come into effect on 1 December 2025, at the same time as the updated professional competencies and new Code of conduct.

An advance copy of the Guidelines for the national psychology exam is now available on our website, giving psychologists and provisional psychologists time to prepare before the next exam period in February 2026.

We have also updated the National psychology exam candidate manual and National psychology exam curriculum. These documents will also come into effect on 1 December 2025 and advance copies are now available on our website.

The exam candidate manual is now the ‘go to’ document for all exam candidates, including information on taking the exam at both test centres and through online proctoring, as well as frequently asked questions from our website.

The exam curriculum has been updated in line with the new professional competencies and the Code of conduct.

Thank you to those who participated in our consultation process for your interest in the review of our exam guidelines.

Upcoming workshops on Code of conduct and updated professional competencies

We invite you to attend one of our Board-run workshops in late July to learn more about the new Code of conduct and the updated Professional competencies for psychologists, which are coming into effect on 1 December 2025.The workshop will include a panel of experts who will use case studies to show how to practically apply the code of conduct. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of the panel at the end of the webinar.

Before attending the workshop, we recommend that you first read the case studies that will be discussed at the workshop and listen to a comprehensive pre-recorded webinar by Board Chair Rachel Phillips that includes information about transitioning to the code and professional competencies.

For further information see the Professional practice standards page on the Board’s website.

4+2 interns: only two years remaining to finish all your requirements

The last day that a person who has completed the 4+2 internship program can apply for general registration is 30 June 2027. This is a reminder to all 4+2 interns and supervisors to be aware of the key 4+2 retirement dates and to keep working to complete your requirements before the retirement deadline.

Once the 4+2 internship pathway to general registration is retired, we cannot accept applications for general registration via this pathway; this is a hard deadline.

If you do not have general registration granted before the 4+2 internship is retired, you will need to take the 5+1 internship pathway or the higher degree pathway to become a psychologist.

When the last cohort of interns was accepted into the 4+2 internship in June 2023, there were 3,370 interns in this pathway. Our current statistics show that over 2,300 interns have already finished. Congratulations!

There are still around 1,000 interns who need to complete their requirements before this pathway is retired. We have allowed a maximum of five years to complete the two-year internship, with less than half of the allowable time now left to complete all the requirements, including passing the national psychology exam.

We encourage you to talk with your supervisor to develop a plan so that you will safely finish your requirements well ahead of time. Please note that:

• There are only seven exam periods left before the 30 June 2027 deadline. The exam dates for 2026 have been published on our website. We encourage you to sit the exam as soon as you are ready and avoid leaving the exam until the last minute. Some exam dates get booked out, and some interns will need to sit the exam more than once to pass it, so planning ahead will help you finish on time.
• You need to get approval if you want to change your work role, add a work role, or change your principal supervisor during your internship. Only those work roles that have been approved can count towards your internship hours. If you do not submit an updated internship program plan (the SPPR-76 form) within 28 days of the change, we will not recognise the period of practice until the new internship plan is lodged. Submitting this form on time will ensure that your work hours count towards your internship and help you finish on time.

Further information can be found in the Guidelines for the 4+2 internship and on the Board’s 4+2 internship webpage.

What’s new?

Fake psychologist convicted, fails to attend court for Ahpra prosecution

A Newcastle woman who claimed to be a registered psychologist on five separate occasions has been convicted in the Newcastle Local Court.

Christin Anne Elizabeth Knight, also known as Christin Lawrence, had no psychology qualifications and had never been registered as a psychologist.

On 20 June 2024, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) began a prosecution of Ms Knight, laying five charges of unlawfully holding herself out as a psychologist and seven charges of claiming to be or describing herself as a psychologist, in contravention of section 116 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (the National Law).

Using the name Christin Lawrence, she was alleged to have claimed to be registered as a psychologist on five occasions, including providing a fake registration certificate and a fake Ahpra registration number to a professional membership body and a university.

Read the full media release.

National Law amendment information guides out now

New resources are now available to help practitioners understand and adapt to changes to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, which will come into effect over the next 12 months.

Information on the changes, how they will be implemented and what they mean for practitioners and the public is available in the full information guide, while the two-page short guide provides a high-level snapshot of the changes.

Both guides are available on the National Law amendments page on the Ahpra website, which includes links to related topics and will be updated as our implementation activities progress.

The changes to the National Law were passed earlier this year, focusing on:

• stronger consumer and notifier protections (including around non-disclosure agreements)
• permanently publishing information on the register for practitioners that have been found by a tribunal to have engaged in professional misconduct that includes sexual misconduct
• requiring practitioners across Australia to get a reinstatement order from a tribunal when they seek to return the register after being cancelled and/or disqualified.

Have your say on the review of the Supervised practice framework

The Psychology Board of Australia, along with other National Boards and Ahpra, is reviewing the Supervised practice framework (the framework) and we want to hear from you. For psychologists, this framework applies in some circumstances, including when supervision conditions are imposed after a notification.

How do you use the framework? What are its strengths and limitations? Is it working flexibly or is it too restrictive? Is there anything missing? Now is the time to have your say.

Reviewing the framework is part of the recommendations from the Independent review of Australia’s regulatory settings relating to overseas health practitioners, led by Ms Robyn Kruk AO.

Visit Ahpra's Current consultations page to read the consultation paper and quick guide to the consultation. To share your feedback, use the link to the online form, or complete the submission template and email it back to us.

The consultation is open for eight weeks, closing on 31 July 2025.

Tell us more at a focus group

We’ll also be collecting feedback about supervised practice, the framework, employing supervised practitioners and being a supervisor or supervisee at a focus group. We would love to hear from:

• employers of health practitioners
• supervisors, and
• supervisees (both locally and internationally qualified health practitioners).

If you would like to be considered for a focus group, please complete this online application form.

Ahpra CEO Justin Untersteiner speaks about future reform directions

Ahpra's CEO, Justin Untersteiner, recently delivered a speech at the Australian Medical Association's Colleges, Associations and Societies (CAS) meeting in Canberra, covering topics including notifications reform, emerging models of care, workforce support and the recommendations of the Dawson review.

Read the full speech on the Ahpra website.

Review presents opportunities for Ahpra’s regulatory reform agenda

Ahpra welcomed the release of the Independent review of complexity in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (Dawson review) second consultation paper and thanked the reviewer, Ms Sue Dawson, and her team for their comprehensive work.

Ahpra supports in principle the review’s recommendations, many of which are in lockstep with Ahpra’s current reform agenda.

The reforms centre around:

• Regulatory action and leadership to minimise and prevent harm to the public, especially in response to emerging healthcare challenges.
• Strengthening notification processes and investment to support better timeliness, transparency, and procedural fairness.
• Evolution of national health regulation including a national framework that ensures a risk-based approach is taken and that health professionals are regulated according to public safety needs.

Ahpra CEO Justin Untersteiner said the review presents an exciting opportunity for the next chapter in regulation.

‘The National Scheme is facing challenges it has not previously encountered,’ he said.

‘The time is right to take the National Scheme forward to meet the evolving needs of contemporary regulation. I look forward to working with stakeholders to bring the recommendations of the review to life.’

Read the full media release.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anti-Racism Policy

Ahpra and the National Scheme have announced their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anti-Racism Policy, informed by extensive consultation and the expertise of Professor Yin Paradies, a leading scholar in racism and cultural safety.

This policy has been developed by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to create a safe, valued, and respectful environment within Ahpra and the National Boards.

It forms a critical step in enacting Ahpra and the National Scheme’s policy and legislative commitments to eliminating racism.

Racism towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples is persistent, harmful, and structurally embedded. This policy acknowledges those realities and provides clear mechanisms for preventing, addressing, and eliminating racism within Ahpra, the National Boards and committees. It establishes stronger reporting pathways and introduces the Racism-related Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-only Special Issues Committee (RATSISIC) to ensure culturally informed responses to racism.

The policy reflects the hard work and leadership of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anti-Racism Policy Working Group, chaired by Professor Carmen Parter, whose contributions were vital to its development.

Download a copy of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anti-Racism Policy. You'll find this under 'Ahpra, Ahpra Board and National Boards information', click on the Ahpra tab.

Keep in touch with the Board

• Visit the Psychology Board website for information on the National Scheme and for the mandatory registration standards, codes, guidelines, policies and fact sheets.
• Lodge an enquiry form via the website by following the Contact us link on the bottom of every page.
• For registration enquiries call 1300 419 495 (from within Australia) or +61 3 9125 3010 (for overseas callers).
• Address mail correspondence to: Rachel Phillips, Chair, Psychology Board of Australia, GPO Box 9958, Melbourne VIC 3001.