AHPRA has decided to drop its current push to create a ‘psychology assistance workforce role’ as part of broader, controversial changes to the allied health degree.
The Psychology Board of Australia will progress reforms allowing psychology students to shave a year off their training but has cut some of the more unpopular aspects of its plan.
If enacted, the amount of study required to register as a psychologist would change from six years to five years, changing the degree from an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) level 9 qualification to an AQF level 8 qualification.
It would also create a registration pathway for a Bachelor of Psychological Assistance (AQF level 7), a three-year degree.
In a public consultation report released this week, the board revealed that less than half of the 2500 submissions it received showed any support for the proposed model.
This apparent lack of enthusiasm was not enough to dissuade the regulator.
“The Board considers that the benefits of reform outweigh the disbenefits, and the benefits of no change,” it wrote.
“In terms of the proposed model, the Board will recommend to Government that the general registration standard is updated to reflect that the qualification is a five-year accredited program.”
One area where consultation feedback did have an effect, though, was on the creation of a psychology assistant role.
“There was limited support across sectors to progress with the psychological assistance workforce role,” the board wrote.
“Feedback was consistent that further work is required to ascertain the competencies, the regulatory model, and workforce role.
“Therefore, the Board will recommend removing the psychology assistance workforce role as part of the current reform.”
As Australian Association of Psychologists Inc CEO Tegan Carrison noted, this did not mean that Australia has seen the end of psychology assistants.
“Consultation raised concerns about the lack of a clearly defined workforce role and competencies, potential scope and title confusion, employment implications and public safety,” she said.
“The Board concluded that further work would be required to determine the need for a Psychology Assistant workforce and its competencies and regulatory arrangements.
“The Psychology Assistant proposal has therefore been decoupled from the current reform, rather than necessarily abandoned permanently.”
The concept of psychology assistants was first introduced as a line item in the 2024 federal budget papers. At the time, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing confirmed that the role would be based on the NHS assistant psychologist model.
It was unclear if the psychology board ever got further than this; the consultation report said stakeholder concerns included “role ambiguity, scope creep with other roles/professions, risk to public safety, role/title confusion for the public and inequitable employment outcomes”.
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In response, the board admitted that there was “currently no defined workforce role or clarity on the competencies required for a psychology assistant workforce”.
Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia CEO Johanna de Wever called the decision to decouple the psychology assistant role from the current reform set “a win for common sense”.
“We raised real concerns about creating a brand-new, undefined role and funding it from the public purse, while a trained, regulated and ready workforce sits underused,” she told The Medical Republic.
“We’re pleased those concerns were heard.”
Another concern raised in the consultation process was that changing the qualification from an AQF level 9 to an AQF level 8 would “downgrade” the profession.
To this, the board pointed out that all other regulated health professions had single direct entry degrees at an AQF level 7.
“The qualification for general registration is focused on public safety by ensuring only applicants who are suitability qualified and competent are registered,” it wrote.
“As is the case now, the qualification for registration must meet the general registration competencies.
“The current Psychology 6-year sequence spreads the attainment of general registration competencies across undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications, which is complex from an accreditation and regulation perspective.”
It also said that the general registration competencies would not change, and that education providers would be expected to continue to educate students to the same threshold standard.
The other key concern, according to the consultation report, was that the current training bottleneck around Honours degree entry would instead be shifted to degree entry.
The psychology board was unconcerned.
“Increasing the numbers of new graduate psychologists entering the workforce is a key deliverable of this project,” it said.
“There will need to be more [Commonwealth Supported Places] allocated for the new degree than for Honours and postgraduate degrees now to meet workforce requirements.
“It is expected that the degrees will still be highly competitive but with less variability in the minimum ATAR cutoff scores.”
Students would also undertake more practical skill training earlier on in their degree.
