Newsletters

We published 50 National Board newsletters, with an average open rate of 61.3%.

Media

We published 498 news items, including 44 media releases.

We responded to 576 media enquiries. This was an increase of 115 enquiries on the previous year.

Social media

Our posts were seen 2.1 million times and received 85,900 interactions (likes, shares and comments).

Overall, we increased our audience by 15.3%. We have:

• 159,854 LinkedIn followers
• 39,900 Facebook followers
• 12,100 Twitter/X followers
• 5,494 Instagram followers.

Traffic from our social accounts to our website exceeded 135,000 unique site visits.

Customer service

Our national team handled an average of 648 telephone calls and 297 web enquiries each business day.

Compared with last year, call volumes were down by 4.0% and web enquiries by 15.1%. Our web grade of service increased by 7.2%, meaning more web enquiries were attended to within the target service level.

Website redesign

In February 2023 we launched a home page redesign, which aimed to make information easier to access. As a result, we have seen a 75% increase in traffic (51 million views) and a 30% increase in engagement this year. The Register of practitioners continues to be the most popular webpage, with more than 8 million unique visits.

Most users are on desktop or laptop (66%), with 34% on mobile. Many areas of our website are showing improved search engine optimisation (SEO), with increased traffic from Google and higher search rankings. About half of our website traffic (51%) comes from search.

The Business Transformation Program is a structured multiyear program of work that is putting in place a new regulatory operating system to modernise our practices.

We continued to build and test the new system ahead of our first release. This included work to support new streamlined registration pathways for internationally qualified health practitioners and to enable National Law amendments such as displaying a practitioner’s alternative name in the Register of practitioners.

We look forward to going live with the new system. This will only happen when it is safe to do so. This means that we will launch the new system when it is working the way we need it to for staff, practitioners, applicants and people raising a concern with us, and when we are confident the register and all data exchange services are working properly.

Once we have the foundations in place, we’ll continue to add more capability to make it easier and faster for people to get registered, raise a concern with us, and access and analyse our data.

Ahpra Board

Ahpra’s governing body met 11 times. The board publishes a communiqué of meetings that summarises issues discussed and decisions made. It has four committees, which each met quarterly:

• The Accreditation Committee provides advice on accreditation governance, reform, accountability and transparency issues, and a whole-of-scheme perspective on accreditation performance.
• The Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committee oversees risk and advises on the effectiveness of the corporate assurance framework, risk management, financial strategy, sustainability and internal audits. It also oversees the external audit process.
• The Regulatory Performance Committee provides advice, oversight and scrutiny of regulatory performance measures and data.
• The People and Remuneration Committee provides governance oversight of strategy and performance in relation to people, capability and culture.

National Executive

Ahpra’s national leadership group:

• Mr Martin Fletcher – Chief Executive Officer
• Ms Kym Ayscough – Executive Director, Regulatory Operations
• Ms Liz Davenport – Executive Director, Finance and Risk
• Mr Mark Edwards – Executive Director, People and Culture
• Mr Chris Robertson – Executive Director, Strategy, Policy and Health Workforce
• Mr Clarence Yap – Chief Information Officer (to 7 March)
• Mr Will Gartner – Interim Chief Technology Officer (26 February to 7 June)
• Mr Mike Rillstone – Chief Technology Officer (from 5 June)

State and territory managers

Our senior leaders in each jurisdiction, based at each of our offices:

• Australian Capital Territory: Mr Anthony McEachran (to 23 February), Mr Krister Partel (from 3 June)
• New South Wales: Ms Carol Nader (from 21 August)
• Northern Territory: Ms Claudia Manu-Preston
• Queensland: Ms Heather Edwards
• South Australia: Mr Patrick Maher
• Tasmania: Mr David Clements
• Victoria: Mx Joe Goddard-Williams
• Western Australia: Ms Jodie Holbrook

Ms Heather Edwards was acting territory manager in the Australian Capital Territory and Mr Anthony McEachran was acting state manager in New South Wales for part of the year.

Project highlights for the state and territory managers included establishing the Co-regulatory Family Violence Working Group with co-regulators in New South Wales and Queensland, providing webinars for employers in South Australia, and supporting the National Law amendments in Western Australia. They also played a leading role in furthering our relationships with LGBTIQA+ communities, committing Ahpra to the development of an LGBTIQA+ equity and inclusion strategy for the National Scheme and publishing an LGBTIQA+ communities hub on the Ahpra website.

Directorates

Regulatory Operations: Carries out Ahpra’s core functions of registration, notifications and compliance, and includes the national legal practice. The directorate applies risk-based approaches to regulatory matters so we can focus our efforts on matters of high risk and high complexity and, wherever possible, resolve other matters more quickly.

Strategy and Policy: Produces effective and responsive strategy and policy in partnership with the National Boards and in collaboration with key partners. The goal of the directorate is for its partners and stakeholders to have trust and confidence in its work.

Technology: Collaborates with stakeholders to provide essential technology and services necessary for supporting health practitioner regulation in Australia. Delivers innovative technology and services to adapt to the evolving landscape.

People and Culture: Accountable for whole-of-organisation initiatives aligned to culture, capability, workforce and wellbeing, which seek to use the talent, capabilities and ambitions of our people to achieve Ahpra’s strategies and purposes.

Finance and Risk: Responsible for efficient and effective financial strategy and management, procurement, risk management and assurance, and audit programs.

Gender pay equity

Recent amendments to the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 prompted a review of Ahpra’s pay equity for employees. Though Ahpra is exempt from public reporting requirements, we analysed pay disparities so that we could address any gendered pay gap.

The results indicate that Ahpra has a gender pay gap of 12.7% in favour of males. The average total annual remuneration package for females is $17,000 less than for their male colleagues. This pay gap is primarily being driven by pay disparities in the Technology directorate, along with roles at some senior levels, where packages are slightly higher for males.

Work that Ahpra will do to address the pay disparities includes:

• identifying opportunities to increase participation rates of females in traditionally male-occupied roles such as IT
• improving workplace policies, such as flexible working policies, to promote greater opportunities to balance work and non-work commitments
• promoting opportunities for enhanced base-pay rates as part of the offer process for female candidates for senior roles.

Ahpra received:

• 340 valid applications for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act)
• 16 applications for internal review of an FOI decision. One application was withdrawn by the applicant before an internal review was finalised.

The National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner (NHPO) notified Ahpra that:

• 23 applications for external review of an Ahpra FOI decision were made
• 3 external review applications were closed. The NHPO provided notice that Ahpra’s FOI decision had been affirmed in one matter, one matter was discontinued by the NHPO, and one was withdrawn by the applicant.

During the year, 345 FOI applications were finalised. At 30 June, there were 60 open FOI matters.

Evidentiary certificates

Ahpra issued 123 evidentiary certificates, most in response to requests from our co-regulatory partners, health complaints organisations and police, to help them perform their functions in the community.

Production of documents

We responded to 181 subpoenas and orders to produce documents issued by courts, tribunals and law enforcement bodies about proceedings in which neither Ahpra nor a National Board was a party.

When people raise concerns about Ahpra and the National Boards, we aim to listen, to respond promptly, empathetically and fairly, and to learn from the issues raised.

Administrative complaints relate to concerns about the service delivery, policies, procedures and decisions of Ahpra, the National Boards and committees, and the Ahpra Board. They are divided into three types:

• Stage 1 (straightforward) complaints are handled by the Ahpra area that receives them.
• Stage 2 (complex) complaints are managed by a National Complaints team.
• Stage 3 complaints are investigated or reviewed externally by the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman (NHPO).

This year we received fewer complaints (660) than last year (731).

There was a decrease in complaints received from health practitioners about their application for registration (276 compared to 307) and about other issues not related to a notification or an application for registration (49 compared to 71). We had more complaints from health practitioners who were the subject of a notification (78 compared to 60).

There was a significant decrease in complaints about a public campaign: 19 this year, down from 57 last year. A public campaign complaint is made about our regulatory role by individuals who are not a party to a regulatory action and do not have a personal relationship with the subject of a regulatory action. Often this involves submitting a complaint after being made aware of a particular regulatory matter, usually through traditional or social media.

Issues raised

A complaint may include more than one issue. The 660 complaints we received were about 836 issues.

There was a significant decrease in dissatisfaction with regulatory outcomes: 12.3% of the issues raised this year were about dissatisfaction with a regulatory outcome; last year this number was 26.2%.

Issues about registration

In the 364 complaints received about registration, processes and policies were raised 143 times, communication was raised 89 times, perceived delay in our management of applications was raised 77 times, and dissatisfaction with a regulatory outcome was raised 27 times.

Of the complaints received from practitioners about how we managed their application for registration, there was a reduction in concerns about communication during the application process (mentioned 82 times, down from 122 last year) and time taken to assess an application (mentioned 68 times, down from 93 last year). There is an ongoing trend of fewer complaints about these issues following changes we made to lessen the time we take to assess an application and to improve how we communicate with applicants.

Issues about notifications

In the 338 complaints about notifications, dissatisfaction with the outcome was raised 195 times, making this the dominant issue raised by people who had concerns about our management of a notification. Communication was raised 75 times, policies or processes 67 times, and the time taken to finalise a notification 35 times.

For complaints received from practitioners about our management of a notification made about them, there was an increase in concerns about the notifications process (mentioned 36 times compared to 25 times last year). There was no significant change in complaints about communication during the notifications process and time to finalise a notification, mentioned 25 times and 15 times, respectively.

Resolving complaints

We responded to 651 complaints. When we receive a complaint, we look carefully at the information provided and how people would like their complaint resolved. We then conduct a review of the information we hold and endeavour to respond in a way that meaningfully addresses the concerns.

Engaging with the NHPO

The NHPO receives complaints from and helps people who think they may have been treated unfairly in our administrative processes. We collaborate with the NHPO to resolve complaints and we value its contribution.

Under our early resolution transfer process with the NHPO, 99 complaints were handed to us to resolve directly.

We responded to 102 enquiries from the NHPO seeking preliminary information about a complaint. We also provided documents and other information in response to 21 notices of investigation from the NHPO.

A complaint can be reported more than once if a person complains to both Ahpra and the NHPO.

Our performance

We aim to respond to complaints within 20 business days. Our average time to respond was faster than this expected timeframe.

Risk management

Risk exposure is managed in accordance with the Australian and New Zealand Standard (AS/NZS ISO 31000:2018). Ahpra’s Risk management framework aims to provide sufficient, continuous and reliable assurance on the management of major risks to continuously improve regulatory services. During 2023/24, the scheme managed its risks, both strategically and operationally, within the following themes:

• regulatory effectiveness and partnerships
• business transformation outcomes
• financial sustainability
• actions to eliminate racism for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples within healthcare
• removal of barriers to access for identified communities
• public confidence and trust
• engagement with technology
• people and culture
• health practitioner workforce sustainability.

Insurable risk is managed through the ongoing maintenance of Ahpra’s insurance portfolio, which includes policies to adequately mitigate the risk of financial losses arising from an (insured) event.

Corporate assurance

Ahpra operates an Integrated Assurance Model, whereby assurance is provided through both the internal audit and quality assurance functions. The internal audit program provides independent, objective assurance and advice regarding risk management to the Finance Audit and Risk Management Committee and the Ahpra Board. The quality assurance program provides assurance to stakeholders of the efficacy of Ahpra’s operational processes. Assurance activities help identify and mitigate risks, and determine whether processes assist Ahpra to achieve its objectives, produce required outputs and outcomes, and identify good practices and opportunities for improvement.

Corporate compliance management

Ahpra’s approach to compliance management is based on AS ISO 37301:2023 Compliance management systems – Requirements with guidance for use. As part of this approach, internal and external compliance obligations are identified and assigned to various business units for ongoing assessment and management, including the response to legislative or regulatory change.

Corporate legal compliance

To ensure corporate compliance, we have:

• implemented an Ahpra-wide privacy training program
• participated in a rigorous procurement process to establish an external legal firms register
• reviewed the delegations of the Ahpra Board and National Boards to ensure they are legally sound and do not present risk
• reviewed the legal compliance of various Ahpra projects, including but not limited to funding arrangements, data-sharing arrangements and training programs
• reviewed all contracts entered into by Ahpra to ensure they are lawful and do not present risk.

Modern slavery

Ahpra is committed to upholding human rights and eradicating modern slavery from its operations and supply chain. Building on our second Modern slavery statement, we have put robust measures in place, including comprehensive risk assessments, due diligence, supplier audits and employee training. Our strengthened procurement and contract management policies further demonstrate our ongoing efforts to prevent and mitigate modern slavery risks.