About NZSTA - New Zealand Speech-language Therapists' Association

General Information

The New Zealand Speech-language Therapists’ Association is the national professional body of Speech-language Therapists in New Zealand.

We are the association for our members. We are over 900 Speech-language Therapists. We are committed to giving all New Zealanders their life essentials – effective communication and safe swallowing. With these life essentials comes well-being.

The NZSTA regulates speech-language therapists in New Zealand in the following way:

Accountability	Method
The NZSTA provides a clear statement of the scope of practice of a profession including what is not within scope for a profession	Scope of Practice Policy Policy documents in specialist areas of practice
The NZSTA provides quality assurance of the tertiary courses of New Zealand	Programme Accreditation Framework
The NZSTA provides quality assurance of overseas-trained speech-language therapists requesting membership	Qualification Approval Process Mutual Recognition Agreement
The NZSTA provides a framework ensuring a structured and supervised first year of practice for newly qualified speech-language therapists	New Graduate Framework
The NZSTA provides continuing quality assurance of its registered professionals	Ethical Complaints Procedure Annual declaration of abiding by Code of Ethics & statement of good standing Annual declaration of recency of practice (hours of practice) Continuing professional development log and auditing
The NZSTA provides a framework ensuring a structured and supervised first year of practice for speech-language therapists with fewer than 1000 hours of practice in the past 5 years	Return to Practice Framework
The NZSTA can restrict a professional’s activities to protect the public and in some cases, withdraw membership of an individual	Ethical Complaints Procedure Annual declaration of abiding by Code of Ethics & statement of good standing Annual Practice Certificates including Conditions