Registration Standards

December 2024

Ahpra and National Boards (except for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board of Australia) have published advance copies of the revised Registration standards: English Language Skills (the ELS standards). These include:

the Common English language skills standard which applies to all applicants for initial registration in Chinese medicine, chiropractic, dental, medical, medical radiation, occupational therapy, optometry, osteopathy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry and psychology, and
the Nursing and Midwifery ELS standard, which applies to all applicants for initial registration as enrolled nurses, registered nurses and midwives.

Advance copies of the ELS standards are available on the Ahpra website. Please note that the 2015 ELS standards will remain current until the revised ELS standards come into effect by April 2025. We are focusing on improving the applicant experience and will provide more specific information about when the standard will come into effect in early 2025.

Read the news item for further information about the updates to the ELS standard and what you need to know about any changes before they come into effect.

Under Section 38 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law as in force in each state and territory, the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia (the Board) must develop and recommend to Ministerial Council mandatory registration standards and any other standards relevant to the eligibility of individuals for registration in the profession.

The Board completed a review of its professional indemnity insurance, continuing professional development and recency of practice registration standards in 2019. The revised registration standards took effect on 1 December 2019 and are included in the table below. For more information about the revised standard please read the news item.

Document name	PDF	Accessible format	Chinese Version 中文	Date of effect
Continuing Professional Development Registration Standard effective 1 December 2019	PDF (79.1KB)	Word version (170 KB,DOCX)	PDF (139KB)	1 December 2019
Criminal History Registration Standard	PDF (249KB)	Word version (574KB,DOCX)	PDF (164KB)	1 July 2015
English Language Skills Registration Standard Additional resources about this standard are available on the AHPRA website.	PDF (375KB)	Word version (577KB,DOCX)	PDF (186KB)	1 July 2015
Limited Registration for Teaching or Research Registration Standard	PDF (184KB)	Word version (395 KB,DOCX)		9 October 2015
Professional Indemnity Insurance Arrangements Registration Standard effective 1 December 2019	PDF (80.8 KB)	Word version (172 KB,DOCX)	PDF (148KB)	1 December 2019
Recency of Practice Registration Standard effective 1 December 2019	PDF (79.3KB	Word version (92.5 KB,DOCX)	PDF (139KB)	1 December 2019

Codes and Guidelines and Frequently Asked Questions can be found in the Codes and Guidelines section.

Ministerial Council directions and approvals

The following directions or approvals given by Ministerial Council to the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia are published in accordance with section 17(2) of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law as in force in each state and territory (the National Law).

Document name	PDF	Document date
Ministerial Council approval letter for the following registration standards are published on the Ahpra website: English language skills registration standards	N/A	21 June 2024
Ministerial Council approval letter for the following registration standards are published on the Ahpra website: continuing professional development recency of practice professional indemnity insurance arrangements	N/A	30 June 2019
Approval of the following registration standards: Continuing professional development registration standard Criminal history registration standard English language skills registration standard Professional indemnity insurance arrangements registration standard Recency of practice registration standard Grandparenting registration standard: transitional arrangements for qualifications.	PDF (81.7 KB)	11 January 2012
Ministerial Council approval letters for the following registration standard is published on the AHPRA website. Criminal history registration standard English language skills registration standard		30 April 2015
Approval of the Limited registration for teaching or research standard	PDF (349KB)	7 September 2015

A detailed consultation process supported the development of the Board’s registration standards.

Retired versions

Document name	PDF	Date of effect
Retired version: Continuing Professional Development Registration Standard	PDF (290KB)	1 July 2012 - 30 November 2019
Retired version: Professional Indemnity Insurance Arrangements Registration Standard	PDF (297KB)	1 July 2012 - 30 November 2019
Retired version: Recency of Practice Registration Standard	PDF (294KB)	1 July 2012 - 30 November 2019
Retired version: Criminal History Registration Standard	PDF (291KB)	To 30 June 2015
Retired version: English Language Skills Registration Standard	PDF (307KB)	To 30 June 2015
Retired version: Grandparenting and General Registration Eligibility Registration Standard	PDF (434KB)	To 30 June 2015