Practising while parenting

 Australian physiotherapists must complete 150 hours of practice in a one-year period or 450 hours within three years to retain their registration with Ahpra – a rule that applies equally to those on sabbatical, parental leave or any other break from work. 

In Australia, there is no specific pathway for physiotherapists who need to take parental leave. 

According to the Physiotherapy Board of Australia, parental leave does not require any sort of exception because Ahpra does not view this type of leave as being different from any other break from practice (Ahpra 2020). Jennifer Callaghan FACP, a Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist (as awarded by the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2025), is passionate about helping other physiotherapists navigate their career pathways. 

Jennifer runs Australian Physio Mentoring, a business that helps physiotherapists with their professional development and provides personalised career mentoring. 

It was during Jennifer’s parental leave that she started her business and first became familiar with the profession’s recency of practice requirements. 

In Jennifer’s view, the current standards for returning to practice after a career break do not adequately address the unique aspects of returning after parental leave. 

The current approach is informed by the decision and expertise of the Physiotherapy Board of Australia, which does periodic reviews of the standards, the last one being in 2019. 

The review from 2019 states, ‘While there is not yet research that shows how much recent practice a health practitioner needs to maintain their skills and knowledge, National Boards have drawn on the research that is available as well as their regulatory experience to set requirements for recent practice’ (Ahpra 2019). 

Jennifer believes the current standards require reconsideration as they do not adequately promote safe clinical practice and disadvantage women and other primary carers returning after parental leave. 

The APA’s 2025 workforce census revealed that 65 per cent of physiotherapists identify as female, with half of those under 35 – precisely the age at which, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, most Australian women are having children (AIHW 2026).

‘This isn’t just a female or parenting issue – it affects the majority of the physiotherapy workforce,’ Jennifer says.

Jennifer would like to see the unique aspects surrounding pregnancy and parental leave taken into consideration. ‘Other leave types, such as sabbatical or a holiday, are generally more predictable in terms of the timeframe in which they’re taken and the advanced planning required. 

Applying these same rules to all types of leave fails to recognise the unique aspects of parental leave and trivialises the physical, emotional and medical impact of having children.’ 

For women who have multiple children in close succession, the recency of practice requirements become harder to navigate, says Jennifer. 

‘This creates a systemic barrier where practitioners feel forced to choose between their family goals and their professional registration.’ 

Having to make such a choice may lead practitioners to delay their return to the profession or leave the profession entirely.

Jennifer says, ‘As parental leave data is not currently collected, we do not know the extent to which these issues are contributing to qualified physios leaving the profession. 

What we do know is that one in five physios plans to leave the profession in the next five years and 65 per cent of private practices experience difficulties recruiting experienced physios. 

I can’t help wondering how much the requirements for returning after parental leave may be contributing to these identified issues within the profession. 

‘When returning from maternity leave, I was 20 hours short of my 450 hours. I spoke to an Ahpra representative and said, “I’ve got significant expertise and two postgraduate master’s degrees.”’ 

However, a practitioner’s academic achievements, specialisation, titles or years of clinical experience are not considered in the recency of practice requirements prior to board review. 

Jennifer is unsure why qualifications and experience are not initially assessed as part of safety requirements or whether these aspects aren’t viewed as supporting safety on their own. 

This experience sparked Jennifer’s desire to become more knowledgeable about the registration process and how it affects new parents and to explore changes to make it more equitable. 

‘My husband worked in equal opportunity law at the time, so I had access to knowledge about pregnancy, medical conditions and parental responsibilities being protected attributes under the law. 

While this was helpful in my situation, not all physios have access to this information.’ In a webinar from 2020, Kim Gibson – chair of the Physiotherapy Board of Australia until 2025 – fielded a number of questions related to parental leave and recency of practice requirements. 

In the webinar, Kim stated, ‘The Board doesn’t consider maternity leave any different to any other break in practice, and it’s not an exceptional circumstance in particular, it’s generally planned for’ (Ahpra 2020). Jennifer disagrees. 

‘This statement disparages unplanned pregnancies and does not consider the unplanned aspects of parental leave. Even when pregnancies are planned for or foreseeable, in gestational timeframe, unplanned events often occur. 

Nearly all maternity absences have unforeseen changes in parental health, the health of the child and the impact of childcare on the family unit. 

This unpredictability is more common in pregnancy than in other types of extended leave that are treated in the exact same way under the current approach.’ 

In Australia, many professions don’t offer leave exemptions tailored to pregnancy and parental leave. 

The recency of practice requirements for nurses/midwives and psychologists, however, have longer timeframes than most disciplines, with clinicians needing to accrue 450 hours of practice over five years (Ahpra 2023, Ahpra 2015) – a timeline that may better accommodate practitioners returning to practice after having multiple children in close succession. 

Although Australia is not unique in its lack of a pregnancy-specific pathway, recency of practice requirements differ from country to country. 

In the UK, for example, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy allows physiotherapists to take a career break for up to two years. In order for practitioners to renew their registration, they only need to have practised at some point during the previous two years (Chartered Society of Physiotherapy 2026). 

In Jennifer’s view, this system would have allowed her to easily continue practising after her two pregnancies. 

‘Permitting that two-year break would usually allow any unpredictable events from pregnancy to be largely improved or possibly resolved. Their website also provides information for physios about what they can do when they first discover they are pregnant so they can consider their return to the profession.’ 

She says that similar resources are not currently produced for Australian physiotherapists. 

When physiotherapists don’t reach the 450 hours required to continue being registered in Australia, the Board does offer another route to registration. However, the process is neither simple nor quick. 

In Jennifer’s experience, this process was administratively burdensome, causing her excessive delay and financial impact. 

After failing to meet the requirements, physiotherapists can apply to renew their registration within a 90-day period. 

If they are not successful at the end of the 90-day period, they must independently source and potentially remunerate two supervisors, who need to submit detailed practice histories to Ahpra. 

‘Getting all of that paperwork together is a very extensive process and it can take a month or two to get the right supervisors,’ Jennifer says. 

‘If the application is not successful with the Board, you have to wait another month before it gets reviewed again. It can easily get to five, six months, which has huge financial implications for the physio and their employer.’ 

For Jennifer, the extensive time the registration process took significantly impacted her employment opportunities. 

‘I had a job waiting for me as a primary contact physiotherapist in a tertiary hospital emergency department. I was offered the job in December and I couldn’t start until June. 

The registration requirements resulted in a long delay to my return to the profession and had a significant financial impact on me and my family.’ 

In Jennifer’s opinion, there are a number of options the Board could consider to make the registration process less arduous for primary carers and to better support safe practice. 

‘Firstly, the Board should start collecting data on how many physios are taking absences from the profession based on parental leave. That way, we can understand how many primary carers are being impacted by the current registration requirements and how many are not returning after parental leave. 

‘Personally, I think we should adopt the same system as the UK, which benefits all physios taking leave from the profession for a period up to two years, while also making it easier for physios returning after parental leave to re-register. 

Particularly as there is “no research to support how much recent practice a health practitioner needs to maintain their skills and knowledge” [Ahpra 2019]. 

On this basis, I am unsure why hours of practice is the predominant metric being used for returning to practice without other factors also being considered concurrently in the first instance. 

‘If the UK approach was not deemed suitable, a specific registration pathway for physios returning after parental leave could be explored. 

Specifically, a pathway that better acknowledges the unique aspects of parental leave and places fewer administrative barriers and delays on physios returning to the profession. 

‘There could also be a qualifier for experienced, titled or specialist physios at the initial registration stage to better reflect their expertise and potentially prevent further delay on experienced physios returning to the profession.’ 

When asked for comment on these issues, the Board – providing a statement via email – said, ‘Recent practice helps physiotherapists to retain and develop their knowledge and skills, remain up-to-date and maintain an adequate connection with their profession. 

The current standard and return to practice requirements are underpinned by factors that influence skills retention, including length of time away from practice, level and extent of previous professional experience and the complexity and type of the intervention.

We have also introduced a 30 per cent rebate on annual renewal fees for physiotherapists who have recently taken an extended period of parental leave.’ 

The Board’s statement continues, ‘Chair of the Physiotherapy Board, Dr Paula Harding, notes that “the recency of practice requirements provide a balanced and proportionate approach to ensuring that physiotherapists are able to take breaks in practice for parental and caring duties, whilst maintaining the high standards of competent and safe practice in the profession”. 

The Board values and invites feedback from all physiotherapists, as key stakeholders, when it reviews the registration standard this year.’ Commenting on the renewal fees rebate, Jennifer says, ‘Ahpra has said this is an acknowledgement of the grounds of a protected attribute, which is a great start. 

However, the current approach still does not address the uniform application of recency of practice requirements for all types of leave and the barriers these requirements specifically present to physios returning from parental leave. 

While pregnancy and parental leave may be at the heart of this issue, the demographics of our profession mean it has implications for physios, employers and our profession as a whole.’ 

Click for references. 

Find out more about recency of practice requirements.