The Independent Review of Accreditation Systems within the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for health professions (the Review) has been undertaken at the request of Health Ministers. In their August 2015 COAG Health Council communiqué, Ministers expressed concerns about the high cost, lack of scrutiny, duplication and prescriptive approach to accreditation functions and believed that substantive reform was required to address these issues.

The Review has identified a broad range of opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of accreditation functions undertaken by accreditation authorities, National Boards and the Australian Health Practitioner Accreditation Agency (AHPRA) and to facilitate the greater relevance and responsiveness of health profession education. But these are not new discoveries. The problems and workable solutions can be found in previous reviews, in the deliberations of the Health Professions Accreditation Collaborative Forum (HPACF) and in submissions to this Review. There is a great deal of common agreement on what needs to be done, but equally there has been insufficient progress in pursuing reform.