Resources

Not in the formal sense. There is no external surveyor and no certificate issued. The SPQF is a voluntary self-assessment framework - it gives your practice a structured way to measure and improve quality against a recognised benchmark. Think of it as the standard you would use if accreditation existed for specialist practices.

No. Your self-assessment is entirely private. You can choose to display your commitment publicly if you want to, but there is no obligation to share your results with anyone.

It depends on the size and complexity of your practice, but most practice managers report that an initial self-assessment takes between half a day and a full day. You do not need to complete it in one sitting - work through it domain by domain at your own pace.

No. Finding gaps is the whole point - it means the framework is working. Your self-assessment is a private quality improvement tool, not a compliance report. Prioritise the gaps, build an improvement plan, and address them at your own pace.

The SPQF is designed specifically for specialist medical practices that see patients by referral. General practices already have the RACGP Standards, and day hospitals have NSQHS accreditation obligations. You are welcome to use the framework as a reference, but the indicators are not calibrated for those settings.

The SPQF tells you what good looks like. Clinically Ready is a separate product that provides the tools to implement it - policy development, audit tools, registers, and improvement planning. You do not need Clinically Ready to use the framework.

Yes. The SPQF is published under CC-BY 4.0. You are free to adapt, remix, and redistribute it for any purpose - including commercial use - as long as you give appropriate credit to spqf.au.

The SPQF is maintained by Clinically with input from the community. You can suggest changes, report errors, or share implementation experience through the community discussion.