Submission: ANZSCO comprehensive review

Osteopathy Australia has recently formally responded to the ABS’s Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) comprehensive review.

ANZSCO provides a standardised collection, analysis, and dissemination of occupation data for Australia and New Zealand. Significantly, osteopaths are currently grouped together at a unit level with chiropractors which we have argued for separation. As this grouping is no longer significant, nor does it benefit either profession in representation, definition or in workforce planning strategies.

The key recommendations of our submission included:

• that osteopathy is granted its own Unit Group classification and is recognised as a discrete profession.
• that the description of osteopathy and the associated task list is updated to represent the profession more accurately.
• that the ABS classifies all allied health professionals within one Sub-Major group within the ANSZCO.
• that the ABS reports and releases occupation-level data so that government bodies and peak associations can use this to inform a range of policies and strategies.

Read our full submission here