Independent valuations of Australian speech pathology practices

A self-regulated profession, and what a buyer can check

Speech pathology sits outside the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme. Ahpra lists 15 National Boards, and none of them covers speech pathology, so speech pathologists are not registered with Ahpra. Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) regulates it through the voluntary Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP) credential, subject to annual audit, and the title speech pathologist is not protected by law.

Three things follow. There is no statutory register of the kind Ahpra maintains, so we confirm CPSP status, indemnity insurance and NDIS worker screening from the practice's records. Certification governs funding rather than the right to practise, because SPA notes that schemes including Medicare and private health insurance require it. And an unprotected title lets a departing clinician compete immediately, which constrains transferable goodwill more than in physiotherapy or psychology.

NDIS prices and the claiming rules that set the margin

The NDIS is the dominant funder in most paediatric practices, and the price is set outside it. The NDIA's Pricing Schedule for 2026-27, effective 1 July 2026, sets an hourly limit of $193.99 for a speech pathologist's direct service (item 01_665_0128_1_3) nationally, $271.59 in remote areas and $290.99 in very remote areas, and applies the same figure to the early childhood items, telehealth, agreed non-face-to-face work, NDIA requested reports and cancellations. Provider travel is limited to $97.00 an hour, half the direct figure. That price may also become binding rather than advisory: the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 passed on 19 August 2026 and received Royal Assent the next day, and the resulting Act allows the Minister to set price limits on the NDIA's advice.

The claiming rules sit in a separate document from the price tables, the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26, which the NDIA still publishes, and they decide how much of a clinician's day is billable, so we check both at the valuation date. Non-face-to-face time, including report writing, is claimable where it forms part of delivering a specific support and the participant agreed in advance, while the cost of staff training and supervision sits inside the base price limits and time spent processing payment claims is not claimable at all. Travel time is capped at 30 minutes to and from each participant in areas 1 to 3 of the Modified Monash Model, the remoteness classification the NDIA uses, and 60 minutes in areas 4 and 5, which binds a mobile practice. Where a support is delivered to a group, the price limit for each participant is the item limit divided by the number of people in the group, so a group lifts throughput against a waitlist rather than revenue per clinician hour. Early intervention supports for early childhood are for participants younger than 9 and therapy supports for those aged 9 or older, so a caseload migrates between item sets as children grow. See government funding exposure.

What the 2026 Act changes for a paediatric caseload

The same Act reshapes demand, which matters more here than in most allied health sectors because autism and developmental language work in young children is the core caseload. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing states that children aged 8 and under with developmental delay or autism and low to moderate support needs will no longer be eligible for the NDIS and will instead be supported by Thriving Kids, with applicants assessed against the new criteria from 1 January 2028 and existing participants reassessed progressively. It also states that the government plans to use a support determination to reduce capacity building daily activities, called improved daily living skills in the Act, by 10 per cent, and that from 1 December 2026 the time to make a claim falls from two years to 90 days.

So a forecast built on the current intake may not hold, the therapy a participant can fund may fall where their budget comes from the affected category, and unclaimed work becomes unrecoverable sooner. Adult and contract work carries less of this exposure.

Registration, and what transfers on a sale

Registration is not compulsory for therapy, but it decides which participants a practice can serve. A provider must be registered to support participants whose funding is NDIA-managed; those who self-manage or plan-manage may choose an unregistered provider. Registration follows an audit against the NDIS Practice Standards and a suitability assessment of the provider and its key personnel, and generally runs for three years. Some unregistered practices deliver under another provider's registration through a brokerage arrangement, in which that provider claims the payment and carries responsibility, so the earnings depend on a registration the practice does not hold. Registration is tied to a single ABN and is not transferable, and the FAQs below explain what that means on a sale. See how to value an NDIS business.

Revenue outside early childhood NDIS therapy

Medicare is a small stream and cannot carry a caseload: two capped items, one under a GP chronic condition management plan and one for a diagnosed complex neurodevelopmental disorder or eligible disability, both requiring a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist with a Medicare provider number. Private fees matter most for families waiting on a plan or with funding spent.

Adult work is a different business: swallowing (dysphagia) assessment, voice work and neurological rehabilitation under contracts with hospitals, rehabilitation providers and residential aged care homes, alongside school and early learning centre contracts on the paediatric side. Aged care demand is written into the standards. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission's guidance for Outcome 6.2 of the strengthened Quality Standards, which applies to residential care homes, tells providers to work with allied health professionals such as Accredited Practising Dietitians and Certified Practising Speech Pathologists when assessing an older person's nutrition, hydration and dining needs. Contract revenue is more concentrated but more transferable than a personal caseload, so we read each agreement for term, notice and exclusivity. See NDIS business valuations.

Workforce, contractors and therapy assistants

Jobs and Skills Australia rated speech pathologists as in shortage nationally and in every state and territory on the 2025 Occupation Shortage List, and in each list back to 2021, so recruitment lead times and wage pressure set how much caseload a practice can hold and what it costs to replace the owner.

Many practices engage clinicians as contractors paid a share of billings. State payroll tax laws can treat payments under a contract for services as taxable wages: in Victoria the State Revenue Office states that payments under a relevant contract are deemed wages unless an exclusion applies, one being a contractor engaged for 90 days or fewer in a financial year, and the exclusions differ between jurisdictions. We provide for the tax a buyer would face where the provisions apply; the position should be confirmed with your accountant. Who holds the service agreement and the clinical records decides whether a clinician can leave with their families. Therapy assistants are the main margin lever: the 2026-27 schedule prices a level 1 therapy assistant at $56.16 an hour and a level 2 at $86.79, against $193.99 for the clinician, and a level 1 assistant may work only under a therapist's direct supervision. See payroll tax and the clinical workforce.

Goodwill and the step to value

Goodwill is the amount by which the practice exceeds its identifiable assets net of liabilities. Here it often attaches to the treating clinician, because parents choose the person who has worked with their child, not the trading name. That is personal goodwill, which leaves with the clinician, unlike transferable (commercial) goodwill, which attaches to systems, contracts, brand, waitlist and team. We test which of the two the earnings rest on, and read concentration three ways: revenue from the largest plans and families, the spread of referrers, and plan review timing. Because therapy resources are inexpensive and premises are small, the capital a buyer must fund is low, but the value is then almost entirely goodwill.

Value is built from future maintainable earnings, the profit the practice can be expected to sustain, drawn from normalised results in which owner-specific and non-recurring items are removed and the owner's clinical work is restated at a market wage. Key-person risk, the risk that earnings depend on one individual, is usually the largest single input. A price is what particular parties agreed in particular circumstances; a valuation is an opinion of value on a stated basis at a stated date. See maintainable earnings and participant and referral concentration.