All members who hold full registration with the Psychology Board of Australia are reminded that registration renewal is due by 30 November 2011. Psychologists in all States and Territories of Australia are required to renew their registration by this date. The only exception to this is psychologists who hold provisional registration, who must renew their registration on their anniversary date.
Alignment of registration renewal date
The 30 November 2011 renewal date for psychologists with full registration now brings all previous renewal dates for the States and Territories into alignment. There has been some confusion about registration renewal as there was a transition phase for aligning renewal dates across Australia when the new national registration scheme commenced in July 2010. Psychologists across the various States and Territories initially had different renewal dates under the new scheme to honour the duration of their State/Territory registrations at the time of transferring to the new scheme. On expiry of the registration taken out under the State or Territory Psychology Board, psychologists were required to renew their registration for more or less than 12 months to align with the new registration cycle.
Following this first cycle of registration, all psychologists must now renew their registration on 30 November each year, starting from this year. The new annual registration cycle will commence from 1 December 2011 and will end on 30 November 2012.
Process for registration renewal
The registration renewal process is being managed by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Psychologists will be notified by email and mail that registration renewal is due (emails will be sent regularly to those who don’t renew in the following weeks).
For this reason, members should ensure that AHPRA has their email address and that all contact details are correct and current. To update your contact details held by AHPRA, go online at www.ahpra.gov.au, select ‘Update contact details’ under the ‘Services for practitioners’ menu, enter your unique User ID number provided by AHPRA to all psychologists on their correspondence (your User ID is not your registration number), and follow the prompts. If you do not have your User ID, complete an online enquiry form and select ‘User ID’ as the category of enquiry, or phone 1300 419 495.
Members also need to ensure that email accounts are set so that communications from AHPRA and the Psychology Board of Australia are not misdirected as junk emails. AHPRA has advised that registrants’ email addresses will not appear on the Register of Practitioners and will not be released to any third parties.
Psychologists are being urged to renew their registration online. If you have your User ID, go to the AHPRA website (www.ahpra.gov.au), click on the ‘Renew your registration online’ button and follow the prompts to renew and pay for your registration. You will automatically receive a receipt and confirmation that your registration has been renewed. AHPRA will then send you out a registration certificate. If you do not have your User ID or need more information about renewing online, complete an online enquiry form as above, or phone 1300 419 495.
If you prefer to renew your registration in hard copy, you can return your renewal form and payment to AHPRA for processing.
Consequences if registration is not renewed on time
Registrants will have a one-month ‘Late’ period in which to renew their registration after 30 November 2011 before their registration will lapse. Renewal of registration during this ‘Late’ period will attract a substantial late fee. Psychologists will still be permitted to practise during this period even if they have not renewed
their registration.
Following the close of the ‘Late’ period (31 December 2011), psychologists who have not renewed their registration will become unregistered and will not be permitted to practise. Medicare Australia will be notified of their changed registration status (where applicable) and these psychologists will therefore no longer be eligible to provide Medicare rebated services.
Psychologists who seek to renew their registration after the ‘Late’ period has closed (i.e., after 31 December 2011) will be able to complete a ‘Fast Track’ application until 31 January 2012, however this will attract an application fee as well as the renewal of registration fee. Some time may still elapse to process the renewal as a new criminal history check will have to be undertaken.
After 1 February 2012, all psychologists who have failed to renew in either the ‘Late’ or ‘Fast Track’ periods will be required to complete a new application, provide all new required documentation, and pay both a full application fee and a registration fee.
Members are therefore urged to renew their registration on time to avoid these problems, and to ensure that AHPRA has their correct contact details. The APS has held meetings with AHPRA and has been assured that the previous difficulties that were encountered in some State/Territories in the first registration renewal process will not be repeated.