2023/24 annual summary

Psychology in 2023/24

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2023/24 annual report Download the
Board's data tables

Registration

48,240 psychologists
- Up 4.1% from 2022/23
- 5.2% of all registered health practitioners
3,363 first-time registrants
- 3,001 domestic (including new graduates)
- 362 international
0.8% identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander

Gender

Female	Male
80.4%	19.6%

80.4% Female
19.6% Male

Age

<252.9%
25-3425.5%
35-4427.1%
45-5421.6%
55-6413.3%
65-747.6%
75+2.0%

Regulation

735 notifications lodged with Ahpra about 592 psychologists
1,282 notifications about 1,039 psychologists made Australia-wide, including HPCA and OHO data
- 2.2% of the profession Australia-wide

Sources of notifications

71.2% Patient, relative or member of the public
16.3% Other practitioner
4.1% Employer
2.4% Police, government or co-regulator
1.8% Board initiated
4.2% Other

Most common types of complaints

17.8% Clinical care
15.9% Documentation
14.0% Communication
10.6% Boundary violation
6.5% Confidentiality
35.1% Other

Notifications closed

765 notifications closed

10.3% Conditions imposed on registration or an undertaking accepted
4.7% Cautioned or reprimanded
2.6% Registration suspended or cancelled or disqualified from applying
13.7% Referred to another body or retained by a health complaints organisation
68.6% No further regulatory action (including where practitioner has taken steps to address)

55 immediate actions taken
88 mandatory notifications received
- 43 about impairment
- 27 about professional standards
- 14 about sexual misconduct
- 4 about alcohol or drugs
97 practitioners monitored for health, performance and/or conduct
125 criminal offence complaints made
28 notifications decided by a tribunal
2 matters decided by a panel
8 appeals lodged

Education and training reform

The Psychology Board of Australia continued its education and training reform work, with the aim of reviewing and updating the competencies for general registration.

We carefully reviewed the feedback from our public consultation on an updated competency document. A consultation report is available on the past consultations page of our website.

We worked on finalising the Professional competencies for psychologists and on developing various additional resources and guidance documents to assist psychologists in applying the updated competencies in their scope of practice.

Once all documents have been approved, we will publish an advance copy of the Professional competencies for psychologists on our website at least 12 months before they come into effect.

Safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients

The Board has continued its commitment to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety Strategy 2020–2025, with efforts to improve safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients and to support workforce participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander psychologists.

Upcoming changes to the code of conduct and general registration competencies are both major steps forward in ensuring that psychologists deliver healthcare that is free of racism, and in helping achieve equity in health outcomes between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and other Australians, to close the gap by 2031.

We would like to thank the many individuals and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak psychology organisations who kindly agreed to partner with us in this work.

Code of conduct

The Board publicly consulted on an updated code of conduct.

Our consultation proposed the following key updates to the code:

Changes to language and structure: including a more regulatory approach to the expectations of professional conduct and behaviour.
A greater emphasis on cultural safety: specifically in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, families and communities.
Updated professional boundaries provisions: such as removing the time-dependent prohibition on sexual relationships with former clients.

We would like to thank the many individuals, organisations and professional associations who provided feedback on our public consultation paper.

Once we have reviewed and incorporated the feedback, we will publish an advance copy of the Code of conduct for psychologists on our website at least 12 months before it comes into effect.

Other news

The Board welcomed two new practitioner members: Ms Sheena Neill from the Northern Territory and Professor Kimberley Norris from Tasmania.
We thank outgoing member Professor Jennifer Scott, a practitioner from Tasmania, for her contributions to the Board.

Ms Rachel Phillips, Chair

Download the
2023/24 annual report See the complete set of
data tables Download the
report appendices

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