Can your allied health assistant take the school session?
No jurisdiction we read bans it outright. Two address it directly, and both attach conditions that change the staffing maths.
TAS, in its own words
"NDIS providers may use Therapy or Allied Health Assistants (Assistants) to help deliver services for NDIS participants. It is critical that schools are aware of the role of Assistants working with students and the school's obligation to provide supervision and duty of care." TAS S6
"Within their scope of practice, NDIS providers (including Assistants) may work with school staff to contribute to an individual student's teaching and learning programs, where relevant… It is not the role of Assistants to inform student teaching and learning programs." TAS S6
"a qualified allied health professional, such as a speech and language pathologist or physiotherapist, would typically require a lower level of supervision compared with a Therapy Assistant or Allied Health Assistant." TAS S6
The supervision-burden reading
Read that as a business fact rather than a clinical one. In Tasmania, sending the assistant instead of the pathologist raises the school's supervision burden — which is a reason a principal may lawfully decline.
What Speech Pathology Australia says, and what that is
SPA's position is a professional-body position, not law, and the document says so in its own verbs. "The Association asserts the following tasks are NOT suitable for delegation: assessment, differential diagnosis, clinical problem solving and therapy planning." S14 It also states that "a support worker should only facilitate the delivery of speech pathology services if supervised by a speech pathologist", and that supervision by a line manager or another health profession "would constitute a breach of duty of care." S14
SPA asserts and recommends; it does not legislate. The statement carries its own disclaimer recommending independent professional advice, and its vintage matters — it is a 2014 document with an addendum dated 20 August 2021. S14
Staffing decisions belong on the same sheet as the rest of the folder — get the one-pager.
Every state's gate on one sheet
The four-column comparison, printed to keep beside the phone.
The four-column comparison, the two contradictions, and the jurisdictions nobody has published.
- 01 Who may make the request, per jurisdiction — and the two states that disagree
- 02 Professional indemnity and public liability minimums, with the blanks left blank
- 03 The signed instrument each department requires, and who signs it
…and 8 more, including the two published decision clocks and the jurisdictions we could not establish.
Get the one-pager