Certified Practising Member Audits – Instructions for Members

Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) undertakes audits to offer assurance to clients, employers, and other stakeholders that Certified Practising members are meeting the specified requirements. As a member of NASRHP (National Alliance of Self-Regulating Health Professions), SPA is required to audit both continuing professional development (CPD) and recency of practice (ROP) requirements.

It is a professional responsibility for Certified Practising members to ensure that they meet the eligibility requirements for Certified Practising Membership and can provide evidence if selected for an audit.

Part A: Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Audit

Please submit a completed record of your professional development activities for the period 1st July to 30th June of the previous membership year

You can either complete the online log or submit a CPD Record (PSR log form).

Download the PSR Log Form. If using another template such as an Excel spreadsheet, please make sure it includes the same fields as the CPD Record (PSR log form).
Access the online log, click here to log-in then select either the My PSR tab or Log PSR Activities. Click on + to add a new entry. Click on ‘Date of Activity’ to re-arrange log entries according to date.
If completing the online log, please inform the Advisor when it is ready to be reviewed.
The focus of the audit is to confirm the minimum requirements have been met, as indicated on the PSR declaration. It does not matter if there are minor discrepancies between the entries on your PSR declaration and those on the log you submit for audit.

Important: Ensure activities entered relate to the audit period. The CPD audit period aligns with the previous membership year. Entries dated before or after this period are not included in the audit.

Please provide evidence of CPD completed in the previous membership year.

How much evidence? Evidence to support accrual of 20 CPD points is sufficient.

What sort of evidence? Some examples of acceptable evidence include:

journal article references (not the actual article)
URL addresses of online content
certificates of attendance
photo of first page of notes,
photo of relevant diary entry
first few PowerPoint slides of a presentation
confirmation email (de-identified)
mentoring or supervision record
list of technologies or assessments mastered.

Important: Please make sure the evidence is relevant to the audit period and does not contain any confidential information.

If you transitioned from Provisional to full CPSP at your last renewal, please make sure you have included in your submission, evidence of:

Receipt of 12 hours of mentoring or supervision since course completion;
Completion of the specified SPA Evidence-based practice module(s); and
Completion of the specified SPA Ethics module(s).

Evidence for completing these three specific requirements can be included in your evidence to support accrual of a minimum 20 CPD points, as long as these activities were completed in the previous membership year (or 18-month membership period if applicable).

Types of evidence accepted include: a supervision or mentoring log, a signed letter from a supervisor or mentor, certificates of completion, written reflection, answers to module questions.

Important:

Please ensure evidence is relevant to the audit period and does not contain confidential information.
Documents need to be in a format that can be opened e.g. Word, PDF, Excel.
Please check that screenshots are large enough to be legible
If sending a Google Drive link – please send the URL (rather than requirement to enter a code).
Please don’t send a OneDrive link.

Part B. Recency of Practice (ROP) Audit

Recency of practice requirements

The recency of practice requirements vary depending on years since course completion, Provisional or Full CPSP status and years since completing the Re-Entry program.

At the time you renewed your SPA membership, when did you complete your course?	Minimum speech pathology practice hour requirement	Approximate equivalent in weeks
Five or more years ago	1000 hours in the five years prior to membership renewal or application	Worked full time for 27 weeks, or three days a week for 12 months
More than three and less than five years ago	200 hours since course completion	Worked full time for six weeks
Less than three years ago	Provisional-CPSP members have three years from course completion to accrue 200 practice hours and fulfil specific CPD requirements to be eligible for full CPSP status

What do I need to do for the recency of practice audit?

What is your situation?			What you need to do for the recency of practice audit
I completed my speech pathology course five or more years prior to my last membership renewal.	►		Please submit evidence that you completed a minimum of 1000 speech pathology practice hours within the five-year period prior to your last membership renewal.
I completed the re-entry program five or more years prior to my last membership renewal	►		Please submit evidence that you attained a minimum of 1000 speech pathology practice hours within the five-year period prior to your last membership renewal.
I completed the re-entry program four years prior to my last membership renewal	►		Please submit evidence that you completed a minimum of 200 speech pathology practice hours between completing the re-entry program and your last membership renewal.
I completed my speech pathology course less than five years prior to my last membership renewal. I am a full CPSP.	►		Please submit evidence that you completed a minimum of 200 speech pathology practice hours between completing your speech pathology course and your last membership renewal.
I declared eligibility to transition from Provisional to full CPSP at my last membership renewal.	►		Please submit evidence that you completed a minimum of 200 speech pathology practice hours between completing your speech pathology course and your last membership renewal.
I completed the re-entry program less than four years prior to my last membership renewal		You do not need to do anything. The recency of practice audit does not apply. Graduates of the re-entry program have four years to accrue a minimum of 200 speech pathology practice hours.
I am a Provisional-CPSP member		You do not need to do anything. The recency of practice audit does not apply. Provisional-CPSP members have three years from course completion to accrue a minimum of 200 speech pathology practice hours.

What sort of evidence is acceptable?

✓ Acceptable evidence

❌ Unacceptable documentation

Employees:

a letter or statement of service from an employer*; OR
a position description or contract AND a statutory declaration to attest to meeting the minimum practice hour requirement; OR
a screenshot of your online employee service system profile if it includes or indicates:

the employer’s logo,
you are employed as a speech pathologist,
your commencement date, and
the hours you are employed per week or fortnight

*Information to be included in a letter or statement of service from an employer:

confirmation of your employment as a speech pathologist,
commencement date,
finish date, if applicable, and
hours employed per week or fortnight OR total number of hours worked within the applicable recency of practice audit period

A letter that you wrote yourself
Invoices, payslips, tax returns or other documents that contain salary or financial details
Resumes/curriculum vitae
Spreadsheets containing lists of appointments
A statutory declaration without other evidence. Statutory declarations will only be considered if they can be supported by other documentation.

Self-employed speech pathologists:

a letter from an accountant** (or information from the ATO) confirming that your main salary and wage occupation is/was speech pathology AND
a statutory declaration to attest to meeting the minimum practice hour requirement#

**The purpose of the letter from an accountant is to confirm your occupation.

#Some accountants may also be able to confirm that their client has met the minimum practice hour requirement, based on appraisal of their income. In this case, a statutory declaration is not required.

Statutory declarations

A statutory declaration is a written statement that a person signs and declares to be true before an authorised witness. It is a criminal offence to make a false declaration.

An official statutory declaration template must be use
The declaration must be witnessed and signed by an authorised person. Occupations authorised to witness a statutory declaration depend on the jurisdiction.
Please refer to the appropriate government website for information about how to complete a statutory declaration, the list of authorised witnesses and the statutory declaration template.
Victorian Government statutory declarations can be completed using electronic signatures and the witness can be present via videoconference.
For audit purposes, the Association accepts either state or Australian Government statutory declarations, however statutory declarations on their own are not accepted. They must be supported by other forms of evidence.

Please note that you do not need to provide evidence of every hour worked. Speech Pathology Australia requests evidence to confirm that the declaration made at your last renewal is correct i.e. that you have met the applicable minimum recency of practice requirement.

Please make sure documents submitted do not contain any confidential information.

Members with questions should email the Association's Advisor Professional Standards.

Checklist

1. CPD record for the audit period - 1st July to 30th June of the previous membership year. Entries are complete and accurate.	☐
2. Evidence to support accrual of 20 CPD points	☐
3. Evidence of recency of practice.	☐
4. None of the documents contain confidential information.	☐
5. I have re-read the instructions and have checked that all my documents are in order.	☐
6. I have emailed the requested documents to Speech Pathology Austraila	☐