Professionalism and Professional Standards for Psychologists for Psychologists facing an Ahpra notification, complaint or allegation

The account, the standard, the effect and the change: the events in order with the client record, the consent form and the messages cited; the standard of the Psychology Board’s Code of conduct the conduct fell short of, named by you before the Board names it and by this code’s numbering; what it meant for the client or the associated party, in their terms; and dated evidence of what is different now — structured supervision with a written agreement, a records audit against 8.5 with a repeat audit later, revised consent documentation, the consultation with an experienced practitioner recorded. Insight here is specific: where the boundary moved or the record fell short, what let it happen, and what now stands behind the change.

Yes — before anything is written to Ahpra, the Psychology Board, a panel, a tribunal, your employer or a health complaints body. Your indemnity insurer, the APS, the AAPi or your association, or a lawyer should read a response before it goes. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and no course determines the outcome of a notification. Standard 8.11 of the code says so in terms: in meeting your responsibilities during an investigation, seek legal advice or advice from your professional indemnity insurer.

No provider is accredited by Ahpra or any National Board, and no course decides a matter. What the Board, a panel and a tribunal weigh is dated, targeted remediation with reflection that engages the standard — and this course covers the professional standards the Psychology Board expects — boundaries, dual relationships, records, probity — and insight, reflection and remediation, and gives you a dated certificate for your portfolio. Check the wording of any condition, undertaking or direction with your indemnity insurer, the APS, the AAPi or your association or a lawyer before you rely on it.

After an assessment or an investigation the Psychology Board may take no further action, caution you, accept an undertaking or impose conditions on your registration (section 178), refer you to a panel, or refer the most serious matters to a tribunal (section 193), which can reprimand, impose conditions, fine, suspend, cancel registration and disqualify (section 196). The course describes the process — assessment, investigation, outcome — and shows why psychologists who show insight, take responsibility and engage in remediation are treated differently from those who deflect blame or repeat the behaviour.

Not Ahpra, in either case. In New South Wales the Psychology Council of NSW and the Health Care Complaints Commission manage conduct, health and performance matters between them, and Ahpra does not investigate registered practitioners there. In Queensland every complaint goes first to the Office of the Health Ombudsman, which decides what it keeps and what it refers on to Ahpra and the Board. The letterhead tells you which body has your file, and the same response — the reasoning, the standard, the remediation — is what each of them reads for.

Not in this code. Standard 4.8 point h of the Psychology Board’s Code of conduct does not set a fixed period. It treats sexual and other close personal relationships — financial and commercial ones included — with former clients as mostly inappropriate, and requires you to abstain until you have consulted an experienced practitioner to determine that the nature of the service and the vulnerability of the client do not make the relationship exploitative, and followed the steps in standard 4.9. Point i applies the same test to associated parties of former clients. Where a relationship has already begun, the response says so first, says who was consulted and when, and attaches the record; take advice before you write anything.

Standard 4.9 of the Psychology Board’s Code of conduct covers providing a service to someone you have or had a non-service association with, or to whom you provide a different service, or to their associated parties. You must discontinue or avoid it unless you hold a reasonable belief that you are ethically, legally or organisationally obliged to continue — and then make contemporaneous records of the factors demonstrating that belief and of how you will protect the interests of everyone involved. Couple, family and group work sits beside it at 4.10: the record of why that mode suited each client, and consent free from the others’ influence. Use the code’s own term when you write to the Board.

Standard 4.8 point g of the Psychology Board’s Code of conduct requires you never to establish or pursue a social or otherwise inappropriate relationship with a client or an associated party, and point j records that your obligations continue after the service has ended. Standard 3.3 point h separately prohibits posting a person’s information or images even where they are not directly named, without written informed consent, and the Board publishes social media guidance the code cross-refers to. The practical position is to keep personal and professional identities separate and to use secure, appropriate channels for anything clinical; where a request was accepted, the response says what followed and what the practice’s policy is now.

You can make a clearly dated later entry; you must never alter, backdate or rewrite the original. Standard 8.5 of the Psychology Board’s Code of conduct requires accurate, factual, objective, legible and accessible records, sufficient to let another practitioner continue the service, made at the time or as soon as possible afterwards — and showing respect for clients, with no demeaning or derogatory remarks, because records are routinely released to clients and to regulators. Altering a record converts a conduct matter into a probity one. A reflective account written for yourself or your indemnity adviser is a different document from the client record and should look like one; take advice before writing either.

The code addresses it directly, which few codes do. Standard 8.12 point g of the Psychology Board’s Code of conduct requires you to avoid performance targets, quotas and business expectations that are inconsistent with your obligations under the code, and where you identify such a conflict, to seek a constructive resolution consistent with the code in consultation with an experienced practitioner. Raising it formally, and recording that you did, is the professional response; a target met rather than raised is context the Board reads, not a defence it accepts. The response shows the conflict named, the consultation recorded and what the arrangement is now.

The Psychology Board’s Code of conduct, in effect since 1 December 2025 — the Board’s first regulatory code, replacing the arrangement under which it applied the Australian Psychological Society’s Code of Ethics. Psychologists are not covered by the shared Code of conduct, and the numbering differs: in the shared code health records are 8.3, conflicts of interest 8.10, financial dealings 8.11 and investigations 8.9; in your code 8.3 is the integrity of assessment methods, client records are 8.5, conflicts of interest 8.12, financial and commercial dealings 8.13 and investigations 8.11. Conduct is assessed against the standards in force when it occurred, so for anything spanning that date establish which document applies, and check every number against your own code before you quote it.

This course is about conduct — boundaries and the zero-tolerance areas, dual relationships and conflicts of interest, records, social media, communication and respect towards clients and colleagues, professionalism under pressure, what regulators weigh and the remediation that answers a concern, set against the Psychology Board’s Code of conduct. The Ethics course is about the reasoning behind a decision and what to do when two obligations conflict: the limits of confidentiality where there is a risk of harm, supervision and support, and how a decision is reasoned and documented. A notification that describes how you behaved usually starts here; one that says a decision was unethical usually starts there. The two are often taken together.

The Psychology Board of Australia sets its own continuing professional development registration standard, and targeted CPD on the subject of a notification is among the remediation the Board and the tribunals recognise. The certificate records the course, the 2 CPD hours and the date, which is what a CPD portfolio needs; how the hours count towards your requirement depends on the standard’s categories, and standard 7.4 of the code requires you to be familiar with it, so check them.

The course is 2 CPD hours, self-paced, with twelve months’ access from purchase. The certificate is issued on completion, dated, with the course title and the CPD hours, for a response, a portfolio or your CPD record.