Current Consultations

The Board undertakes wide-ranging consultation on proposals that affect the profession.

Consultation is an important part of the Board’s engagement with members of the podiatry profession, members of the public and other stakeholders. The feedback provided via consultation is greatly valued, and informs the Board’s development of important documents.

Public Consultation – Proposed change to the protected title for the specialty of podiatric surgery

Opens: 30 September 2024
Closes: 8 November 2024

The Podiatry Board of Australia is seeking feedback on a proposal to change the protected title for the specialty of podiatric surgery.

In October 2023, the Podiatry Board of Australia (Board) and Ahpra commissioned an independent review of the regulation of podiatric surgeons. The final report, which was published on 27 March 2024 made 14 recommendations that were all accepted by the Board and Ahpra. Recommendation 4 from the review is that: following consultation, the Podiatry Board seek Health Ministers’ approval to change the protected title for the specialty from ‘podiatric surgeon’ to an alternative title, such as ‘surgical podiatrist’.

To implement this recommendation, the Board is now consulting on a proposed change to the protected title.

The consultation documents include:

• Public consultation: Proposed change to the protected title for the specialty of podiatric surgery (239 KB, PDF), word version (114 KB, DOCX)
• Snapshot of the public consultation on the proposed change to the protected title for the specialty of podiatric surgery (173KB, PDF)

Making a submission

Please provide any feedback in the following response template, including your responses to the questions in the text boxes. You do not need to respond to a question if you have no comment.

• Response template (201 KB, PDF), Word version (101 KB, DOCX)

Please complete this response template and email to podiatryconsultation@ahpra.gov.au.

Publication of submissions

The Board publishes submissions at its discretion. The Board generally publishes submissions on its website to encourage discussion and inform the community and stakeholders. Please advise us if you do not want your submission published.

We will not place on our website, or make available to the public, submissions that contain offensive or defamatory comments or which are outside the scope of the subject of the consultation. Before publication, we will remove personally identifying information from submissions, including contact details.

The views expressed in the submissions are those of the individuals or organisations who submit them, and their publication does not imply any acceptance of, or agreement with, these views by the Board.

The Board accepts submissions made in confidence. These submissions will not be published on the website or elsewhere. Submissions may be confidential because they include personal experiences or other sensitive information. Any request for access to a confidential submission will be determined in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth), which has provisions designed to protect personal information and information given in confidence.

Please let us know if you do not want us to publish your submission or want us to treat all or part of it as confidential.

Published submissions will include the names of the individuals and/or the organisations that made them, unless confidentiality is requested.