Which policies does your practice actually need?

Every Australian healthcare practice needs a core set of policies regardless of type: a Privacy Policy (to satisfy the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles), an Emergency Response Plan (to satisfy WHS obligations and accreditation), and a Work Health and Safety Policy (under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 in every state except Victoria, which uses the OHS Act 2004). On top of that, GP practices typically need around 15 more policies to satisfy RACGP Standards (infection control, cold chain, clinical handover, CISS information security, complaints handling, clinical risk management, patient health records, informed consent, chaperone, after-hours care, business continuity, staff training). NDIS-registered providers need a further 10 to 14 policies covering the NDIS Practice Standards Core Module 1 and, where applicable, the Supplementary Module for behaviour support. This tool returns the ranked list specific to your practice rather than a generic checklist.

The recommender ranks 27 policy templates mapped to: RACGP Standards 5th Edition (with 6th Edition alignment) for general practice; NDIS Practice Standards v4 Core and Supplementary Modules for NDIS providers; the Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles for all practices; the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (or OHS Act 2004 in Victoria) for workplace safety; the My Health Records Act 2012 where clinical records are involved; and the NDIS Act 2013 with the supporting rules (Incident Management, Worker Screening, Restrictive Practices). It does not cover the NSQHS Standards (used by hospitals and day procedure centres) or the Aged Care Quality Standards.

No. The template hub pages at /templates, /templates/racgp, and /templates/ndis are the catalogue: browse every template, see the full description and framework mapping, preview a watermarked sample. This recommender is the diagnostic layer above that catalogue. Use it when you want a personalised list without reading through every template. Use the hub pages when you already know what you need or you want to explore the full library.

Every template has a hand-coded rule in our TypeScript codebase. An essential rating is reserved for policies that are a regulatory requirement or an explicit accreditation indicator for your practice profile: Privacy Policy for all practices, Infection Control for clinical practices, NDIS governance for registered NDIS providers, Cold Chain Management where vaccinations are offered, and so on. Recommended means the policy is expected by assessors or is best-practice for your profile but not strictly required. Optional means it is a useful reference but does not directly apply. Every rating comes with a plain-English reason that cites the framework clause that triggered it.

No. The rules are hand-coded TypeScript in our repository, written by our compliance team against published Australian healthcare frameworks. Your inputs deterministically produce a ranked list. The same inputs always produce the same output. There is no AI, no probabilistic ranking, no hidden model. This matters for a compliance product: you or an assessor can always reproduce the reasoning.

Yes. The tool is free, with no account, no credit card, and no paid ClinicComply subscription required. Your email is only requested if you want the list sent to your inbox with reasons included. The on-screen result is free and complete. The policy templates themselves live behind a free ClinicComply trial (three templates are always free, the remaining 24 are included in any paid trial).

The rule set distinguishes between verification and certification registration. Verification-only providers (therapy, support coordination, low-risk supports) see a smaller required set focused on Core Module 1 governance, complaints, incidents, privacy, participant rights, and service delivery. Certification providers (SIL, personal care, higher-risk supports) also see risk management, continuity of supports, human resource management, worker orientation, and business continuity as essential. If you deliver behaviour support or restrictive practices, the Supplementary Module templates move from optional to essential as soon as you tick that service.

The RACGP template set is written against the 5th Edition Standards but is explicitly aligned to the equivalent 6th Edition criteria. For 6th Edition accreditation, the same 15-template essential set applies: the criterion names have been reorganised but the underlying policy expectations (privacy, infection control, clinical handover, emergency response, CISS information security, patient health records, informed consent, complaints handling, clinical risk, cold chain, WHS, staff training, chaperone, after-hours care, business continuity) have not changed materially. The tool outputs the 5th Edition criterion label alongside each template for reference.

Your inputs are used client-side to compute the ranking. If you submit your email, we create a Resend contact record in our Australian-data-residency region (Sydney) and send you the email with the list attached. We do not store your specific answers, and we do not host a temporary results page for your inputs — the email you receive is the full, self-contained artefact. If you opt in, you join our occasional compliance updates list and can unsubscribe from any email. If you do not opt in, we use your email only to send the list.

Yes. The tool is stateless: run it as many times as you like, for as many practice profiles as you need (a GP practice in NSW, a mixed GP and allied health practice in Victoria, an NDIS certification provider in Queensland). Each run produces a fresh ranked list. If you have multiple sites, we suggest running it once per site because the essential list for a clinical site with vaccinations differs meaningfully from an administrative-only site.

The ranked list is your gap report. Anything marked essential that you do not already have is a gap worth closing. Anything marked recommended that you do not already have is a risk-reduction opportunity. The tool does not ask what you already have because that introduces answer fatigue; instead, we output the full ranked set and let you compare against your existing library. If you want a full live gap analysis against your existing evidence, that is what ClinicComply does inside a trial.

No. The recommender is an educational tool built from published Australian healthcare frameworks. It is not legal, accreditation, or regulatory advice. Specific obligations vary with practice structure, services, state legislation, and individual circumstances. For binding advice, consult your RACGP Liaison, your NDIS auditor, your lawyer, your accountant, or the relevant regulator (RACGP, NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, OAIC, AHPRA, state health department). Use the recommender to scope what you should investigate, not as proof you have investigated.