Home
Resources Practices

GPSA Certificate of AGPT Training Practice Management

Enrolments are now open!

Please read the “How to Enrol” section below before getting started!

ABOUT THE COURSE

Who is the course for?

Practice Managers and Administration staff involved in GP training.

What does it cover?

The course includes practical guidance across core areas such as:

  • Employment entitlements
  • NTCER
  • Fatigue management
  • Essential training practice processes

On completion participants will receive a Certificate of AGPT Training Practice Management.

Course modules

  • Understanding Employment and Entitlements
  • Rostering and fatigue management
  • Practice Manager’s role in Pastoral care
  • Proactively managing conflict
  • Critical incident and near miss management
  • Understanding alternate training pathways
  • Cultural diversity and inclusivity
  • Practice Manager’s role in Medical Student Placement

Course length

A comprehensive program condensed into an achievable 4-6 hours.

Course schedule

Available from January 2026, aligning with the commencement of the 2026.1 semester.

Cost

Take advantage of our Introductory Offer $440 (GST inclusive) –  an affordable investment in building and supporting your practice’s training capacity.

Important Information

The Certificate of AGPT Training Practice Management is not an accredited course.

Watch the short video below for a step-by-step guide on how to enrol and get started.

▶️ Watch the enrolment video
https://www.loom.com/share/3bc7f9029e6a49a7b0b1db6970fa53b2

Before you begin, please note:

  • This course is hosted on a third-party learning platform.

  • You will need to create a new account, including a new login and password (your GPSA website login will not work).

Getting access is easy:

  1. Select the course.

  2. Complete payment.

  3. Set up your new account login.

  4. Once registered, you’ll then receive a welcome email. You need to validate your login.

  5. You will have access to the course content.

If you have any questions about the course please contact Jen Flakemore, GPSA Practice Management Lead, via email

Enrol Here

Resources

For resources pertaining to the following topics, please visit the webpages

Date reviewed: 05 March 2026

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

This website uses cookies. Read our privacy policy.
Home
Resources Practices

Bullying, Discrimination and Sexual Harassment

Negative workplace behaviours, like bullying, discrimination, and harassment, can erode team trust, impact staff well-being, and compromise patient safety. Practices with respectful, inclusive cultures experience better morale, team cohesion, and patient outcomes.

What is the goal of GPSA’s Guide Navigating Bullying, Discrimination and Sexual Harrassment?

This guide supports general practice teams in identifying and addressing bullying, discrimination, and sexual harassment in the workplace.

It helps clarify the difference between inappropriate and unlawful behaviour, explains relevant laws (like the Respect@Work legislation), and provides practical tools and resources for prevention and response.

The guide is structured into four sections:

  1. Introduction to the topic – Definitions, Cultural Sensitivity, Professional Standards and Conduct
  2. Identifying inappropriate and unlawful behaviour – Sexual harassment, recognising workplace bullying and harassment, reasonable work instruction, discrimination and vilification, diversity and inclusion, upward bullying
  3. Managing inappropriate and unlawful behaviour – Prevention and response, ensuring a psychologically safe workplace, legal framework, taking action, investigation
  4. Tools and resources – Checklists, reporting pathways, and support materials
  • Inappropriate behaviour: Undermines workplace culture but may not breach the law (e.g., exclusion, gossip).
  • Unlawful behaviour: Breaches legal protections (e.g., sexual harassment, racial vilification).

The guide outlines both, including legal obligations and practical responses.

Bullying: Repeated, unreasonable behaviour that creates a risk to health and safety.

Harassment: Unwanted conduct based on protected characteristics (can be one-off) that undermines, offends or humiliates.

Look for:

  • Direct actions: Yelling, intimidation, physical contact.
  • Indirect actions: Microaggressions, exclusion, demeaning jokes.

Examples in the guide help illustrate these behaviours and their potential impact.

Subtle but damaging behaviours that can go unnoticed, such as:

  • Gossiping
  • Exclusion
  • Intimidation
  • Undermining others

These behaviours often signal deeper issues and require proactive, attentive leadership.

  • Frequent sick leave
  • Withdrawal or disengagement
  • Anxiety or performance decline
  • Speak up (if safe)
  • Support the affected person
  • Report the behaviour through formal channels
  • Document what you observe
  • Policy and reporting checklists
  • Self-assessment for leaders
  • Webinars, online training, and legal references
  • Contact pathways for support services
  • Model respectful conduct
  • Offer regular training
  • Promote open communication
  • Review and update policies
  • Establish confidential reporting options
  • Culture affects everything, from team morale to recruitment.
  • A culture of safety and respect encourages inclusivity, open dialogue, and early intervention.

When staff undermine or intimidate those in leadership (e.g., ignoring instructions, disrupting meetings and team culture, resisting accountability).

Effective responses include:

  • Include upward bullying in conduct policies
  • Discussing it openly
  • Providing leadership coaching and support
  • Encouraging bystander intervention and HR follow-up

Under positive duty laws, everyone must act when witnessing misconduct.
Intervening:

  • Promotes safety
  • Prevents escalation
  • Reinforces accountability
  • Diversity: Who is represented.
  • Inclusion: Who feels valued and heard.
  • Intersectionality: How overlapping identities shape someone’s experience.

Inclusive practices reduce the risk of exclusion, bias, and conflict.

Inciting hatred or contempt based on race, religion, or ethnicity.

  • It is unlawful and severely damages workplace culture.

No.

Asking about past trauma is not permitted under privacy laws and may re-traumatise the individual.
Instead, use scenario-based questions to assess values, teamwork, and communication skills.

  • Capability issue: The person can’t meet job expectations despite effort.
  • Behavioural issue: The person acts inappropriately regardless of skill.

Each requires different approaches.

No: if done, respectfully, and in line with documented expectations.

Bullying involves intent to harm or intimidate.

  • Call it out respectfully
  • Reinforce expectations
  • Include behavioural standards in induction and training

Self-aware individuals:

  • Recognise their triggers
  • Adjust communication styles
  • Respond constructively
  • Leaders with emotional intelligence foster healthier teams.
  1. Acknowledge the issue
  2. Gather factual evidence
  3. Respond promptly and professionally
  4. Review processes to prevent recurrence

To create a psychologically safe, respectful and inclusive workplace where:

  • Everyone feels safe, and heard
  • Issues are addressed early and appropriately
  • Values are lived, not just listed

Resources

For resources pertaining to the following topics, please visit the webpages

GPSA has developed this content in collaboration with subject matter expert Maureen Kyne.

Click here or use the QR code for more information.

Date reviewed: 03 October 2025

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

This website uses cookies. Read our privacy policy.
Home
Resources Practices

Guide: Navigating bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment in the general practice workplace

This guide provides clear, practical advice for addressing inappropriate workplace behaviour in general practice, in line with the Respect@Work legislation taking effect in 2025. It covers identifying bullying—including upward bullying—clarifying responsibilities in enforcing zero-tolerance policies, and managing performance within a respectful and lawful framework.

Date reviewed: 23 October 2025

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

This website uses cookies. Read our privacy policy.
Home
Resources Practices

Registrar Earnings Calculator

Due to technical issues, we have temporarily removed the GPSA Registrar Earnings Calculator.


However, there is still help available.


Head to the Practice Managers community group and check out the posts under ‘remuneration’, where members are posting their own version of the calculator.


Note – these are not GPSA tested or endorsed resources – but those created and shared freely by your peers.


Please do your own ‘testing’ to ensure they meet your needs.

Resources

Log into your free GPSA Community account here to access downloadable tools (and tips) including:

  • Registrar Position Description
  • Employment Contract Templates
    • Full-Time
    • Part-Time

Date reviewed: 17 November 2025

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

This website uses cookies. Read our privacy policy.
Home
Resources Practices

Registrar Contracts and Payroll Tips

Do you know your responsibilities as an employer of a GP-in-training?

VIDEO
PODCAST
SLIDES
WHY IS THE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT IMPORTANT?

Employing a registrar is no different to employing any other member of your practice team – this is a legal process. Getting it wrong carries fines that start at $93,900.00.

So it is a responsibility to be taken seriously. A lot of people underestimate that legal responsibility and think they are doing the trainee a favour by offering them a placement in their practice. This could easily prove a very expensive mistake.

The NTCER is the overarching instrument of GP registrar employment, representing the intersection of GP training under the AGPT and the National Employment Standards that are enshrined under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

The employment contract captures all of the key elements of the NTCER.

Completing it correctly is essential because this is the first thing that anyone will refer to if there is a breakdown in the practice-registrar relationship. But completing the contract correctly has little effect if the agreed terms recorded in it are not accurately carried into the setup of your payroll software and/or your ongoing communications with your registrar.

In the NTCER Agreement updated for 2025.2, GPSA and GPRA use the terminology “fixed term contract” for the first time to describe the legal framework within which GP training sits in Australia. This is an important point at law which explains why two core principles of the National Employment Standards – parental leave and notice of termination – are not available in the NTCER.

One of the first terms to enter into the employment contract is the registrar’s commencement date at the practice. This is the date that the registrar starts to be paid for their weekly hours.

It is also important to note that the registrar’s orientation to the practice needs to be scheduled for no earlier than this date. 

The ordinary roster is an important element of the employment contract. This might be a standard weekly roster – say 7.6 hours per day Monday to Friday – or it could be a roster made up of 2 or more alternating weekly hours. Just make sure the average number of hours the registrar is rostered to work in any fortnight does not exceed 76.

Working out what the registrar’s weekly schedule will look like requires you to know when the registrar’s mandatory education will occur throughout the term of their employment.

Ask your registrar to forward those dates to you as soon as possible, or check with their training provider. Having access to this information in advance gives you the opportunity to minimise any inconvenience for the registrar’s patients via management of their appointment book, and for the supervisors for the registrar’s in-practice hours.

Make sure the practice’s expectation of the registrar’s participation in after-hours and on-call work is discussed and agreed in the recruitment process, and cemented in the contract – along with the way this work will be paid. Under the NTCER, after-hours work is treated as ordinary time.

Any after-hours or on-call shifts also have to factor in a 10-hour rest period between shifts. 

Who will be the registrar’s principal and alternate supervisor(s)?

Once you work this out, it needs to be captured and formalised in the employment contract.

If these supervisors are not practice principals or employees of the training site, then make sure that you actually confirm their availability through the entire term.

Did you know that the registrar has a right to ask for study leave to be included in their contract terms?

Do you know the practice is able to offer this as an unpaid entitlement in the registrar’s remuneration package? And equally the practice has the right to refuse this request entirely.

The registrar can ask for paid study leave too – what you would you say to that? Do you know your practice’s stance on study leave? 

There are two important components to capture under the Remuneration heading in the registrar’s contract: the base hourly rate and the total hours on their ordinary roster.

The NTCER sets out the minimum base hourly rates, but practices and registrars are free to negotiate above these rates. Also note the total hours on the ordinary roster will include weekends, after-hours and on-call shifts.

Date reviewed: 17 November 2025

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

This website uses cookies. Read our privacy policy.
Home
Resources Practices

Training Requirements under the NTCER (AGPT)

Teaching Time

The training practice is required to provide supervision in accordance with the AGPT guidelines.  These differ for each level of training and according to whether the registrar is full time or part time.  The competency of the registrar must also be considered.  

There should be a supervision team, comprising not only accredited supervisors but also other GPs, the practice manager, nursing, reception and administration staff.  Supervision is not a one-person task.

Dependent upon the level of the registrar, the supervisor does not need to always be on site when the registrar is consulting.  

The supervisor will generally not attend RACF or home visits with the registrar.  However, Section 9.1 states that the supervisor or a delegate should be available to attend in person within a reasonable time frame when requested, or in the case of an emergency.  

The registrar should be aware of who to call and how to contact them if their supervisor is not on site. 

Educational Release

Mandatory educational release forms part of the registrar’s normal working hours, and therefore should be paid at the registrar’s base rate of pay.

The Colleges encourage registrars to attend educational release on a full time basis, however the employer is not required to pay for more than the pro-rata total of the training provider’s mandated hours. 

Clause 9.2(e) of the NTCER refers to this issue. 

Practices are only required to pay and provide time off for the number of hours that equates to their FTE fraction, i.e. if a registrar works 19 hours per week, they are entitled to paid educational release of 50% of the total mandated education hours.

As with payment, there is no obligation for the employer to provide time out of practice for the part time registrar to attend educational release on a full time basis.

If the registrar requests time out of practice, the employer and the registrar should negotiate how this could be achieved. This may result in the registar swapping their consulting day or taking paid annual leave.  

Should the registrar request leave without pay to attend educational release, they should ensure that they have discussed this with their College and understand the implications that this may have on their training time.

This is tricky, and a lot comes down to practicality and the relationship you would like to have with your registrar.  

The educational release day is for 7.5 hours so what do you do with the other 1.5 hours? Do you ask the registrar to make the time up another day?  Do you ‘dock’ their wages the 1.5 hours? Do you simply pay the 9 hours because the registrar has no control over the difference in hours? 

Whilst the NTCER states that the hours must be paid at the base rate of pay Section 9.2 (j) , Section 9.2 (l)(a) states that whilst the registrar is entitled to be absent for the entire day, the amount that they should be paid should be UP TO the average daily hours over a 5 day/38 hour week.  This equates to 7.6 hours.  

Therefore, the answer is that in this situation, there is 1.4 hours that the registrar could be asked to make up on another day; alternately, they could draw on annual leave to make up any shortfall. How this is managed is a matter for the registrar, supervisor and employer to determine.

Yes – clause 9.2(m) covers this situation.  It is important to note that the alternate day off should ideally be on the day immediately before or immediately after the educational release day. 

These days cannot be ‘banked’ for use at another time.

Educational release is not paid time when it occurs ‘after hours’, i.e. outside the hours of 8.00am–8.00pm Monday to Friday and 8.00am–1pm on Saturday. 

As these webinars are scheduled in the after hours period, you are not required to provide time off in lieu.  Clause 9.2(a) of the NTCER covers this.

As you are only 2 weeks into a 26 week Semester, this is a very valid question.

It is unlikely that an increase in rostered hours after the commencement of the training term will result in an increase in your practice subsidy under the National Consistent Payment (NCP).  However, if the employment contract is amended to a fraction of 0.75, then the registrar is entitled to paid educational release at 0.75 also.  Whether you accommodate this request will be a business decision as you will not be compensated through the AGPT program for the additional out-of-practice hours.

Clause 9.2(l) states that if an education session is 4 hours or less, it will be treated as 4 hours or a half day against their normal hours that day. As this day is normally 8 hours, they are entitled to ‘miss’ the 8am-9am hour and commence work at 1.00pm.

It is important when interviewing for a part time registrar that you are aware of their total commitment to the training program. 

Clause 9.2(h) states that if a registrar is doing full time training through more than one employer, the registrar has a responsibility to use their best endeavours to ensure that the educational release is shared equitably. 

This would mean that the registrar should provide the practice manager and/or supervisor of both practices with each other’s contact details and work flexibly within the two practices to accommodate any adjustments that are required.  There is also an expectation of the employers that they will behave equitably in this situation also to optimise the registrar’s training experience.

Administration Time

Administration time of 30 mins/half day – up to a maximum of 5 hours per week is provided for every registrar under clause 9.3 of the NTCER. 

Like all GPs, registrars have work to complete that falls outside of normal appointments – checking results, speaking with other specialists or accessing appointments on their patient’s behalf. This work should be done within their 38 hours of paid time, and therefore allowance must be made in the appointment schedule for this.

Administration time is expected to be spent on site, and to be used for appropriate purposes.  

This allowance is not to enable the registrar to leave early, or arrive late. Neither can it be ‘banked’ and utilised for a ½ day off per week – even if this time is spent during administrative tasks. 

The whole purpose of administration time is to assist the registrar with managing their time effectively, to promote an appropriate work/life balance and to assist with registrar – and patient – safety.  For these reasons, it is important that the guidance provided in clause 9.3 of the NTCER is followed.

Practice Orientation

Clause 9.4 states that the registrar is required to attend orientation after they commence their employment with the practice. In certain circumstances, this is not possible. 

Clause 9.4(a) states that if the registrar is asked to attend prior to employment commencing, they must be paid at their base rate of pay for these hours.

Hopefully you would have advance notice of the mandatory College educational release days in advance.  If so, we would suggest that you have a specific roster for Week 1 that includes Wednesday and provides Friday off instead (so that the registrar is able to consolidate what they learn at Wednesday’s orientation on the Thursday).  

If this is not possible, Section 9.4(b) states that the practice must pay the registrar for the orientation hours at their base rate of pay and provide the next rostered day – in this case Thursday – off in lieu. 

Date reviewed: 10 November 2025

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

This website uses cookies. Read our privacy policy.
Home
Resources Practices

Guide: Vocational Training Placements

For convenience, you can read through this resource here, or use the pdf tools at the top of the document to download and / or print the file. GPSA invites member input into the development of this draft guide so that the final, co-designed product can be a true example of best practice supports for the practice managers facilitating high quality vocational training placements in general practice. 

Please email Jen Flakemore with any comments about this guide.

Date reviewed: 21 October 2025

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

This website uses cookies. Read our privacy policy.

Safescript Registration

State/TerritoryWebsite
ACThttps://register.canberrascript.act.gov.au/
NSWhttps://register.safescript.health.nsw.gov.au/
NThttps://register.ntscript.nt.gov.au/
QLDhttps://register.qscript.health.qld.gov.au/
SAhttps://register.scriptcheck.sa.gov.au/
TAShttps://register.tasscript.health.tas.gov.au/
VIChttps://register.safescript.vic.gov.au/
WAhttps://register.scriptcheck.health.wa.gov.au/

Date reviewed: 13 November 2025

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

This website uses cookies. Read our privacy policy.

FAQ: Working Through the Facts about Workforce Planning and Prioritisation 

This webpage complements the webinar recordings on this topic, available either via our YouTube channel or in audio format by clicking on the corresponding button below:

Webinar Video
Webinar Podcast

What is the WPP project?

The AGPT Workforce Planning and Prioritisation (WPP) project aims to deliver robust, independent, evidence-based advice to DoHAC and the GP specialty Colleges to inform AGPT training placement priorities.

Key Elements

  • Understanding the community need for general practitioners across our communities.
  • Combining data about workforce need with information from GP catchments about training capacity.

By looking at these two elements together, the WPPOs aim to identify upcoming areas of need for GP trainees to future-proof healthcare services for communities across Australia.

What facts about the WPPOs might help dispel the concerns our members have?

Workforce Needs Assessment

The common approach across the various WPPOs involves a workforce needs and training capacity assessment using data obtained from the Commonwealth at a GP catchment level. The size and breadth of the separate jurisdictions necessitates a different form of data collection and evaluation across the country. In Victoria, for example, there are 153 GP catchments. These are non-overlapping geographical areas that depict a boundary to show where patients will generally travel to access most of their GP services. 

It’s important to understand that this analysis is being done at the GP catchment level, and not within a GP practice itself.

The WPP team aims to provide the Commonwealth with accurate information about community need for the GP workforce, collating demographic data, population data and qualitative data from broad regional consultation to identify supply, demand and training capacity. Then there is an analysis of the gap between demand and supply in a GP catchment, drawing on supply indicators such as the number of GPs in a catchment, the FTE of GP’s, and the number of services that are being provided to patients based on Medicare data. At the end of the workforce needs assessment, the WPPOs will compare and contrast GP catchments to provide a workforce need ranking based on the data looking at demand and supply.

Looking at training capacity and training quality in the catchments is a key element of the WPP.

So how does the WPPO work out what training capacity looks like and how do they measure it?

There is as yet no fixed method of performing the WPP grant activities.

Measuring training quality is something the WPPOs are only now developing and working on. They are really happy to hear feedback on what “quality training” means to different people, which underpins their need to engage with supervisors, GPs, practice managers and registrars: to make sure they are representing the story of their catchments appropriately. So when they look at training capacity, this is what they have heard directly from you, and from your colleagues and other stakeholders.

These are the important things the WPPOs need to be thinking about:

  • Supervision capacity
  • Practice characteristics 
  • Understanding the quality of training that’s been provided. 
  • Lifestyle factors that help decide if GP registrars want to work in one area over another.

The WPPOs do not have all of this information available. So they need to engage with key stakeholders within their local communities to understand:

  • What makes great training capacity
  • What are the gaps?
  • What are the challenges?
  • What are the solutions that we need to be focusing on?

The experience of supervisors and training practices that are currently in place who may not be in areas of need going forward… Is this being taken into consideration?
Are those two reports mutually exclusive to the point where that won’t be factored in workforce and capacity?

No, they’re definitely not mutually exclusive. The WPPOs will be combining workforce need and training capacity to determine one overall priority level.

There will be five priority levels for the GP catchments and each of those priority levels comes with a recommendation that the WPPOs put forward to the Colleges on what needs to be done in this area. For example, priority one catchments have a high workforce need, and an identified high training capacity. So they’re ready to go.

The WPPOs have worked through a scale that also goes down to areas that have got a high need but low capacity. So these are priority areas they need to act on to increase training capacity – and that could be any number of things identified through this report. They might need remote supervision models, they might need more supervisors, there might need to be more practices accredited. There will be possible local solutions provided within each GP catchment.

It is really important that the WPPOs understand the role of the supervisor, the training quality, the satisfaction of our supervisors, and their intent to supervise into the future. All of these factors come into play when talking about future planning to give clarity to what’s happening in these catchments.

WPPOs are also piloting an analysis of Training Pathways as one of the outcomes they want to achieve for GP trainees as part of the WPP is being able to provide a training environment where registrars can train in or complete their whole pathway in one particular region, to help prevent them having to move around all the time.

For those that do want to settle in areas, understanding training pathways and gaps in training pathways will be really helpful and a really useful tool for the Colleges to be able to plan and support registrars as they move through their training.

The next part of the WPP is looking at workforce needs ranking and a training capacity ranking for each GP catchment and translating this into one of five priority levels.

WPPOs will provide the government and GP colleges with advice on current actions, recommendations and future recommendations so they can understand what needs to be done to build capacity in areas that don’t have capacity at the moment.

It is critically important that the WPP team engage with people on the ground at the coalface working in GP practices. They need to talk to registrar’s, supervisors, practice managers and other key stakeholders in this area to identify issues, barriers and solutions and capture this information in their reports that are provided  to the Commonwealth and to work with the Colleges to find solutions.

1. Supervision2. Practice Characteristics3. Training Quality4. Lifestyle
Access to accredited supervisorsAccess to Accredited General Practices (meet RACGP standard)Are trainees experencing diverse paitent load (e.g. structured)Access to Housing
Capacity to supervise based on clinical workloadAccess to Accredited AGPT Training FacilitiesCapacity to work across Community facilities (e.g.RACF)Access to Schools
Supervision: Trainee ratioActive and Accredited AGPT Training FacilitiesAccess to Childcare
Quality SupervisionAccess to Training Space within GP PracticesAccess to Aiport
Supervisor SatisfactionAccess to Multidisciplinary TeamsAccess to Public Transport
Supervision complexity of TraineesSense of Community Belonging (culture)
Quality Internet Connectivity
Dinning and Leisure Opportunities
Sports and Recreation Facilities

WPPOs need to continue to and already have engaged with current past and future AGPT registrar’s to continue to develop the training capacity rubric. WPPOs really need to engage with those who are coming through the system as well, because things change quite quickly.

WPPOs are engaging with supervisors and practice managers about what impacts training capacity. They know that practice managers run the practices and do a fantastic job, they’re often the first point of call, particularly from a training perspective. So it’s really important to engage with those practice managers who can provide us with that information.

The things that WPPOs want from general practices, supervisors and practice managers, we really want to find out their perspectives. So from a supervisors perspective, what are the things that matter to you, and how can we use that information within our reports. WPPOs want to know about your experiences. They think it is really important to find out the experiences you’re having in regard to supervising, and training your trainees as well as getting some suggestions from you as to how to solve or look at these problems. They don’t know everything, they are asking for that information.

What are some of the things that are missing that you can identify for WPPOs? And solutions?

The best possible way to improve the quality of training?
WPPOs certainly not saying that GP training has been at a poor quality but they are looking to how we can contribute to improvement. WPPOs need to look at continuous improvement and hear from supervisors to get that information that leads to improvement.

  • How can WPPOs continuously improve
  • Whatdo you think works well
  • What do you think doesn’t work well
  • What issues you think WPPOs can fix and how WPPOs can fix those
  • WPPOs understand the data doesn’t tell the full story
  • What are the things that will impact you continuing to be a supervisor?
  • What are the things that will impact you stopping from being a supervisor?
  • What will impact those younger supervisors or younger trainees coming through that might want to be supervisors in the long term?
  • How do WPPOs look at succession planning? What are the things that impact that?
  • Quality is important.

What is consistent is that we all want quality practices, quality training and quality supervision.

What would you use to measure quality when WPPOs are talking about quality training, quality supervision? Is there a metric you’re using?

What outcomes would the WPPOs use to measure quality?

WPPOs do not think there is an absolute measure of quality. It’s about talking to registrars and supervisors to try and identify what quality supervision is.

Trainees have different ideas to describe what they think quality is. WPPOs pull all this information together and try to come up with an answer to what we can measure that against.

The matrix below shows a number of different factors that influence the quality and capacity of training. These are indicators that registrar’s say has an impact on where they would choose to go.

1. Supervision2. Practice Characteristics3. Training Quality4. Lifestyle
Access to accredited supervisorsAccess to Accredited General Practices (meet RACGP standard)Are trainees experencing diverse paitent load (e.g. structured)Access to Housing
Capacity to supervise based on clinical workloadAccess to Accredited AGPT Training FacilitiesCapacity to work across Community facilities (e.g.RACF)Access to Schools
Supervision: Trainee ratioActive and Accredited AGPT Training FacilitiesAccess to Childcare
Quality SupervisionAccess to Training Space within GP PracticesAccess to Aiport
Supervisor SatisfactionAccess to Multidisciplinary TeamsAccess to Public Transport
Supervision complexity of TraineesSense of Community Belonging (culture)
Quality Internet Connectivity
Dinning and Leisure Opportunities
Sports and Recreation Facilities

This is a national approach. WPPOs are applying the same methodology to look at both rural regional and metropolitan GP catchments.

What WPPOs are hearing and what they are finding is that the situations that WPPOs are dealing with are very different depending on what GP catchments they are working with.

From conversations with colleagues in metropolitan PHN’s that they are experiencing enormous growth in populations in some of the outer corridors around Melbourne and that’s having a big impact on the numbers of GPs that we have available in those areas. It is a real supply and demand issue.

Being able to forecast these sorts of population growth is going to be really helpful when WPPOs are looking at the future placement of AGPT registrar’s, whereas in perhaps some of our rural communities, WPPOs are finding, they have supervision, difficulties trying to provide supervisors in some of these GP catchments, where they have practices that are keen to have GP trainees, but they might be solo practices with limited capacity. So this presents a different and unique challenge in those catchments. It is the same approach, but very different solutions and very different issues that WPPOs need to capture.

What about where there’s huge capacity to train but low workforce need? How do WPPOs preserve that?

Is that something that’s been factored in as at the moment WPPOs have some really engaged supervisors? Obviously, there are members who are very concerned that they won’t have training going into the future and they have set themselves up for it, they’ve gone to great expense and put a lot of investment of time and energy into it.

WPPOs do include these in their recommendations and their priority levels. WPPOs do address catchment areas that have a lower workforce need, and a higher training capacity so that they are flagging these issues with the Colleges so that they’re aware.

One of the reasons WPPOs have different indicators are to looking at quality. This is very important. There’s a need to put registrar’s into certain places where there is workforce need. It is also really important to have a look at the quality of training to make sure WPPOs do not lose that quality of training moving forward.

Ultimately, to have the independence and evidence based information, provided a report to the Colleges around the training capacity and the workforce need. So that then there’s more visibility, more informed information to assist, the decisions associated with distribution, training and support.

WPPO’s have an important role in generating those ratings so that it can then be used for informed decision making with transparency and visibility.

  • Quality Practices – Quality Training – Quality Supervision
  • Stakeholder perspectives and experiences
  • Supervisor challenges and opportunities
  • Balancing data and local knowledge
  • Validate with local knowledge

What about the impact on placement processes and placement priorities within the college? Do the WPPOs know how this will shape placement for 2024 and beyond?

The Commonwealth will be utilising the findings from the WPP organisations to work with the Colleges to inform prioritisation to support a better distribution of GP trainees across the country.

VICTORIAN WPP CONSORTIA APPROACH

Murray PHN is the lead WPPO for Victoria with experience in servicing and providing support to the Victorian catchment jurisdiction. It is anticipated that there will be some commonalities across each of the jurisdictions but they all have their own respective Workforce Planning and Prioritisation Organisation.

Roles and responsibilities

The Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing

Policy and funding responsibilities, ultimately responsible for the AGPT program and its structure, architecture and resourcing.

ACRRM and RACGP (The Colleges)

Training responsibilities for registrar’s. They manage the program delivery for registrar training, previously delivered by the RTO system.

Workforce Planning and Priority Organisations (“WPPOs”)

Organisations undertaking the workforce planning and prioritisation role of identifying workforce need and training capacity. This process is conducted through a robust and independent process in collaboration with stakeholders to have an understanding of the local context in order to support the training and distribution of registrar’s within each of the jurisdictions.

Victoria WPP (Murray PHN)

Part of a consortium of Victorian PHNs that are undertaking the WPPO role in capturing workforce need and training capacity information, assessing this information and providing independent reports to the department. 

Contact details for your state/territory WPPO

The WPP process is undertaken through a jurisdiction by jurisdiction approach. 

Each of the jurisdictions are working closely together to enable the refinement and improvement of the reporting processes and to strengthen capacity through collaboration and information sharing.  

Vic

Dr Catherine Lees

Email c.lees@murrayphn.org.au

Website https://www.murrayphn.org.au/

Jodie Green

Email jodie.green@wapha.org.au

Philippa Gately
Email P.Gately@chnact.org.au

April Robinson
Email: april.robinson@ntphn.org.au

Matthew Vincent
Email matthew.vincent@gpex.com.au

Nick Kaine
Email kaine@hrplustas.com.au

Date reviewed: 26 June 2025

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

This website uses cookies. Read our privacy policy.
Home
Resources Practices

Template: Social Media Policy

This social media policy template is designed to help organisations establish clear guidelines for effective and responsible social media use. Customise it to align with your organisation’s unique goals and values.

For convenience, you can read through this resource here, or use the pdf tools at the top of the document to download and / or print the file.  Click here to download a word template.

Date reviewed: 21 October 2025

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

This website uses cookies. Read our privacy policy.