The AHPA Insider
Friday 28 November 2025

AHPA engages with Parliament on allied health priorities

Allied Health Professions Australia (AHPA) has been actively meeting with Members of Parliament and Senators to discuss key issues impacting the allied health sector.

During Parliamentary Sitting Week in Canberra in late October, AHPA CEO Bronwyn Morris‑Donovan held productive discussions on workforce shortages and Commonwealth Prac Payments, Thriving Kids and NDIS pricing, in‑scope direct referrals to specialists, funding models that encourage multidisciplinary team care in primary care settings, and support for AHPA’s Health Peak and Advisory Bodies application.

AHPA will continue to build on these discussions, ensuring allied health has a strong voice in national policy and reform.

Ensuring allied health voices shape Thriving Kids

Over the past month, AHPA has actively contributed to the public hearings, deep-dive sessions and forums for the Thriving Kids initiative. These discussions have examined best-practice allied health service models, approaches to identification, screening and needs assessment, referral pathways, and the role of key worker models.

AHPA staff also participated in a dedicated session on strategic workforce planning, ensuring allied health perspectives were front and centre.

For Thriving Kids to succeed, allied health must be at its core – ensuring children and families get the support they need to thrive.

Advancing digital health: AHPA in Canberra

AHPA recently took part in key national Digital Health discussions in Canberra, contributing to the Council for Connected Care Demonstrator event and meeting, as well as CSIRO’s Sparked AU Clinical Design Group. These forums showcased the progress being made across the sector and highlighted the growing role of allied health in digital transformation.

AHPA’s Digital Health Program Manager, Jackie O’Connor, presented on allied health consistent terminology data standards at the Council for Connected Care meeting. She also joined a panel discussion highlighting the importance of enabling allied health professionals in primary care to access information across all healthcare settings, and staffed the allied health station at the Demonstrator.

At the Sparked AU Clinical Design Group meeting, AHPA joined a growing cohort of allied health representatives. The session featured an insightful presentation from Dylan Grubb of Exercise & Sports Science Australia (ESSA) on essential data elements for allied health encounter records.

These engagements reflect the exciting momentum building for allied health in Australia’s digital transformation journey.

HPI-I made simple for allied health

Healthcare identifiers are 16-digit numbers that uniquely identify individual healthcare providers.

Obtaining a Healthcare Provider Identifier – Individual (HPI‑I) is essential for allied health professionals seeking to participate in Australia's digital health ecosystem. As digital health becomes standard practice, having an HPI-I is increasingly critical.

There are now two different pathways via which non-Ahpra registered healthcare providers can register for an HPI-I.

Australian Living Evidence Collaboration – Guideline currency survey

Upcoming webinar for allied health providers

Western Victoria PHN is co-hosting a webinar on the new GP Chronic Condition Management Plan Framework for allied health providers. Learn what’s changing, how it affects referrals, and ways to strengthen collaboration with GPs.

Date: Monday 9 December 2025
Time: 6.30pm - 7.30pm
Format: Online