Overview

The Forum was established in 2007 and the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS) in July 2010.

The Forum supports national registration for the regulated health professions, and national accreditation schemes to ensure practitioners are educated to appropriate standards to meet the needs of the Australian community.

The Forum has a focus on ensuring that the National Law and the implementation of the National Law and operation of the NRAS reflect the requirements of best practice in accreditation and the independence of accreditation decision making from undue influence of any area of the community including government, education providers, business, industry and professional associations.

The Forum engages regularly with partners and other organisations to advance its mission and purpose and to contribute to high standards of professional accreditation and assessment. It works closely with National Boards, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) the regulated professions and education providers in particular. In July 2020, 10 years after the National Scheme started, the then Chair of the Forum, Ms Bronwyn Clark, was invited to provide reflections over the 10 years from An Accreditation Perspective.

Key areas of work with National Boards and Ahpra include:

• The Accreditation Liaison Group
• Planning and presentations to the regular meetings of organisations operating in the NRAS
• The Ahpra Professions Reference Group
• The Ahpra Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Health Strategy Group.
• The Ahpra Education Provider Reference Group
• The Ahpra Independent Accreditation Committee

The National Registration and Accreditation Scheme is governed by a nationally consistent law passed by each state and territory parliament – the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. Part 6 of the National Law concerns accreditation.

Forum collaborates with ABSTARR Consulting to implement cultural safety training for accreditation contributors

The members of the Health Professions Accreditation Collaborative Forum are committed to the vision of patient safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as the norm. Members recognise that:

·        patient safety includes the inextricably linked elements of clinical and cultural safety, and

·        this link must be defined by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

As signatories to the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme’s Cultural safety statement of intent, with the 15 national health practitioner boards, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra), and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector leaders and organisations, members are committed to actions to achieve that vision.

Accreditation is integral to the Scheme as it is the key way to ensure that health practitioners seeking registration have the knowledge, skills and professional attributes to practise safely and competently in their profession in Australia. Collectively, the 15 accreditation authorities accredit and monitor more than 800 programs of study and 130 provider preparing health practitioners for practice in their profession.

The Forum has been working with ABSTARR Consulting to develop cultural safety training for accreditation assessors to strengthen accreditation’s contribution to achieving the vision above. The training provides a mix of on-learning modules and workshop discussions. It has been developed by ABSTARR with input from Forum members, and experienced accreditation contributors, including Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples. It is designed as an interprofessional program; accreditation contributors from across the different accreditation authorities will learn about cultural safety together, and have opportunities to also learn more about the different professions’ accreditation standards and practices and how cultural safety is incorporated into those practice.

The first cohort of learners signed up for the program in April 2024. The Forum looks forward to its continuing engagement with ABSTARR, as the program is implemented and reviewed.

For information about the program, please contact hpacfconnect@abstarr.com

Accreditation activities for the whole of NRAS

The Forum in collaboration with the National Boards and Ahpra prepares an annual summary of accreditation activities for the whole of NRAS. The first snapshot was for 2017/18. The reports are also available on the Ahpra website.

Accreditation in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS) annual snapshots:

• Annual snapshot 2022/23
• Annual snapshot 2021/22
• Annual snapshot 2020/21
• Annual snapshot 2019/20
• Annual snapshot 2018/19
• Annual snapshot 2017/18

Accreditation Managers Sub‑Committee

Workshops and events

The Forum runs member workshops to contribute to strategic development, and sharing of challenges and good practice.

The Forum also runs stakeholder workshops on specific projects to promote accreditation standards and good practices, and to shape its work through stakeholder feedback. It contributes workshops to other education and accreditation conferences in Australia and internationally