AHPRA CPD Requirements by Board 2025-26

CPD Requirements Across the AHPRA National Boards: What Every Healthcare Locum Needs to Know

Continuing professional development (CPD) is a non-negotiable condition of AHPRA registration, and for healthcare locums picking up shifts across multiple workplaces, staying on top of the requirements for your specific board is your responsibility alone. No employer or agency will track it for you. This guide sets out the current CPD obligations by National Board and explains a significant consultation underway right now that could reshape those requirements from 2027 onward.

This is general information, not personal financial or tax advice.

Why CPD Matters More for Locums

When you are a locum or independent contractor, there is no employer credentialing team auditing your CPD log or booking you into mandatory training days. AHPRA's annual registration renewal requires a declaration that you have met your board's CPD standard, and boards conduct random audits that require documented evidence. Failure to comply can result in conditions on your registration, suspension, or non-renewal. For locums earning income under an ABN, the stakes are practical: no registration means no shifts and no revenue.

Keep your CPD portfolio current, your evidence files organised, and your registration renewal dates visible. If you work across more than one profession (for example, as both a nurse and an endorsed midwife), each board's standard applies separately.

CPD Requirements by AHPRA National Board

Each of the 15 National Boards under AHPRA sets its own CPD registration standard. Here is a summary of the current requirements for the professions Sessional Australia serves.

Medical practitioners (doctors, GPs, specialists): 50 hours per calendar year, split across three categories under the Medical Board's Professional Performance Framework: educational activities, reviewing performance, and measuring outcomes, with a minimum of five hours in each of the latter two categories. All doctors must belong to an accredited CPD home (typically their specialist college or the Australian Medical Council) and complete an annual professional development plan and peer conversation. Cultural safety has been a mandatory CPD element since 2024. Records are due by 31 March for the preceding calendar year.

Nurses and midwives: 20 hours per registration period, which runs 1 June to 31 May each year. Requirements apply equally to registered nurses, enrolled nurses, and those holding endorsements such as nurse practitioner. CPD must be relevant to your context of practice; hours cannot be carried over between periods.

Pharmacists: 40 CPD credits per year on a tiered credit system. Group 1 activities (knowledge-based, such as reading) attract one credit per hour; Group 2 activities (application-based) attract two credits per hour; Group 3 activities (accredited programs) attract up to four credits per hour. At least one Group 2 or Group 3 activity must be completed each year, meaning passive learning alone is insufficient.

Dental practitioners: 60 hours over a three-year cycle, with a minimum of 20 hours in any single year. At least 80 per cent of CPD must relate directly to clinical practice rather than business or management topics. Pro-rata obligations apply if you hold registration for only part of a cycle.

Physiotherapists: 20 hours per year under the Physiotherapy Board's CPD registration standard. All qualifying learning activities must be recorded in a personal CPD portfolio maintained for at least five years, as this is what you produce in a Board audit.

Psychologists: 30 hours per year, with a mandatory minimum of 10 hours in peer consultation. The remaining 20 hours can combine active and passive learning, though the Psychology Board caps passive learning activities; most hours should be interactive or applied. Requirements apply regardless of whether you hold general or area-of-practice endorsements.

Occupational therapists: 20 hours per year (at least 5 interactive). The OT Board's standard emphasises demonstrating learning outcomes rather than simply accumulating hours, so your reflection on how CPD has changed your practice needs to be documented, not just the activity itself.

Paramedics: 30 hours per year. The Paramedicine Board accepts a wide range of activity types, including clinical simulation, case review, mentoring, and formal study, provided they are relevant to your scope of practice.

The 2026 AHPRA CPD and Recency-of-Practice Consultation

AHPRA and 14 National Boards are currently consulting on proposed changes to both CPD and recency-of-practice registration standards. The Medical Board of Australia is not part of this consultation, so medical practitioners are not affected by these proposed changes.

The consultation is open now and closes 17 July 2026. Key proposals under discussion include:

A harmonised minimum of 20 CPD hours per year, including at least five hours of interactive CPD, across all participating boards.
Revised recency-of-practice thresholds: 150 hours of practice in the preceding year or 450 hours across the preceding three years, with new obligations when practitioners transition into a new area of practice.
A principles-based approach to CPD activity selection, giving practitioners more flexibility in how they meet the standard.

These are proposals under consultation, not finalised standards. Existing board-specific requirements remain in effect until any revised standards are formally adopted and given effect. If you want to contribute feedback, AHPRA's consultation page is the place to do it.

What Changes for Locums If the Proposals Are Adopted

For most non-medical practitioners currently completing 30 hours per year (psychologists, OTs, paramedics), a move to a 20-hour minimum with a five-hour interactive component would reduce the total hour burden but introduce a structured requirement for interactive learning. For physiotherapists and nurses already at 20 hours, the interactive CPD element would be the primary new obligation. Pharmacists, whose credit-based system already rewards interactive activities, would need to check how the revised standard maps to their existing 40-credit requirement once final standards are published.

The recency-of-practice changes are relevant for any locum who has taken extended leave, worked overseas, or significantly reduced their practice volume. A 150-hour threshold for the preceding year is approximately three hours per week, which is a low bar for most active locums but worth monitoring if your practice is genuinely minimal.

How Sessional Helps You Stay Across Credentialing and Registration

Sessional Australia's credentialing tracker gives you a single place to record your CPD activities, log your hours against your board's current threshold, and set renewal and audit reminders alongside your AHPRA registration dates. As the 2026 consultation resolves into finalised standards, the platform's compliance engine will be updated to reflect any revised requirements before they take effect. For locums managing earnings, invoicing, and registration all at once, the dashboard keeps everything in one place so nothing slips during a busy shift block.

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