Supported independent living (SIL) is NDIS funding for support workers who help or supervise a person in their own home with everyday tasks, usually around the clock. It pays for people, not property: rent, groceries and the house itself sit outside SIL. Access depends on a continuous support need that is clearly documented with evidence.
That last point causes most of the confusion. Families come to us knowing roughly what SIL is but unsure whether it fits, what changed this year, and what a funding request needs to show. Our occupational therapists complete SIL assessments, and our speech pathologists and psychologists often add to the picture. This guide explains how the support works in 2026, where it fits among other home and living options, and what good evidence looks like from the clinical side.
What SIL pays for, and what sits outside it
The NDIA defines SIL as funding for a support worker to help or supervise someone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with that worker either shared with housemates or provided individually depending on need (NDIA, 2026). The help happens inside the home. Typical tasks include personal care, showering, dressing, eating, cooking and cleaning.
The boundaries matter as much as the definition. SIL funding cannot be used for rent, groceries or other day-to-day living costs. It also isn’t SIL if someone needs only a few hours of support a day or a week; that is a different kind of support with a different funding pathway. And if a participant chooses and manages their own workers, including planning and rostering them, the NDIA treats that as a “self-directed arrangement” rather than SIL.
One-to-one SIL exists, but the NDIA says it is funded only in limited situations. Most SIL is shared, which has real consequences for choice and housemate fit. We come back to that further down, because it is the part of SIL most guides skip.
The size of a SIL budget comes from the person’s assessed support hours rather than a set amount. Providers usually prepare a quote based on a roster of care. The roster shows which hours are one-to-one, which are shared with housemates and at what ratio, and whether overnight support is a sleepover or an awake shift. Shared hours are split between the people in the home. This is why the NDIA reviews rosters alongside allied health reports, and why the two need to tell the same story.
Who supported independent living may suit
The NDIA’s guidance says SIL may suit a person who needs a support worker with them 24 hours a day including overnight, active help with daily activities for at least 8 of those hours, and some help or supervision for the remaining hours (NDIA, 2026).
Read those three conditions together. The first two tend to be straightforward to show. The third is where requests get stuck, because “some help or supervision” across the quieter hours is harder to describe than a morning shower routine. A person who manages the afternoon alone without risk may have a strong case for a lot of support, but not necessarily for supported independent living.
Sharing a house with other participants does not, by itself, make the support SIL. The NDIS Commission’s position is that what counts is whether the support meets the SIL definition, regardless of whether the plan is self-managed, plan-managed or NDIA-managed (NDIS Commission, 2026).
People with SIL funding may also have funding for a support coordinator, whose job includes helping to find and connect with providers. For families new to this area, a capable support coordinator is worth more than any guide, including this one.
SIL, SDA and the other home and living options
SIL and Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) are the pair people mix up most. SDA is the housing: dwellings built for people with very high support needs. SIL is the staffing inside a home. Some participants have both in their plan, some have one, and many have neither.
The NDIA now lists several home and living supports side by side. Individualised Living Options (ILO), Medium Term Accommodation (MTA), SDA and a newer category called onsite shared support all sit alongside SIL. Onsite shared support is still new, so check the NDIA’s current description before assuming how it works or whom it suits.
The NDIA itself points people towards these alternatives when SIL is a poor fit, for example when someone lives alone and SIL doesn’t meet their needs, lives with people who aren’t NDIS participants, or wants to manage their own supports. Our view is that families should look at these options before settling on SIL, not after. A shared 24/7 roster is a large commitment, and a smaller, more flexible arrangement suits some people far better. Our occupational therapists also complete ILO and SDA assessments, so the question of which option fits can be explored in one process rather than three.
What changed for SIL families in 2026
This has been the biggest year for SIL regulation since the NDIS began. Many guides online predate these changes, so read older material with care.
SIL can now only be delivered by providers that are registered with the NDIS Commission, or that applied to register before 1 October 2026. The NDIA has told participants their plan and funding will not change because of this, and nothing changes for people who employ their own workers. In practice, the change sits with providers. For families, the most useful step is simply asking a current or prospective SIL provider to confirm their registration status.
Alongside registration, the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations legislation passed this year, and the NDIA is updating its content to reflect it. Government is also consulting on a new commissioning model for home and living supports for SIL participants who need continuous 24-hour care, and as of October 2026 no final new SIL price schedule has been published. The government’s reform timeline also flags mandatory registration widening to other higher-risk supports, such as personal care and daily living, from 1 July 2027 (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, 2026).
A point of clarity about us: Astrad is not a registered NDIS provider and does not deliver SIL. We provide allied health assessments and therapy, which NDIS participants access through plan-managed or self-managed funding.
Building the evidence: what a strong SIL assessment covers
Before getting into the evidence, it helps to know the usual pathway for requesting supported independent living:
- Raise your home and living needs with your NDIA planner, local area coordinator (LAC) or support coordinator.
- Complete the NDIA’s home and living request and gather supporting evidence, such as allied health reports, support records and rosters.
- Submit the request and evidence to the NDIA.
- The NDIA makes a decision and, if SIL is approved, changes the plan to include it.
- If the request is refused, you can ask for an internal review of the decision.
A functional capacity assessment for SIL needs to describe a whole day and a whole night in enough detail that someone who has never met the person can picture both.
A SIL request is usually decided by what happens at 2am, not what happens at 2pm.
Overnight need is where reports most often go vague. The assessment should say clearly whether overnight support means a sleepover arrangement, where a worker is present and can be woken, or an active overnight shift with a worker awake. Those are very different supports, and a report that blurs them invites questions.
Level of help is the second weak spot. Prompting someone to start a task, supervising them while they do it and physically helping them are three distinct things, and a good report separates them and states how often each is needed. “Needs assistance with meals” tells a planner almost nothing.
The third element is the one families find uncomfortable: explaining why less support would not be safe or sustainable. That means engaging honestly with options such as ILO, drop-in support, assistive technology and skill-building, and explaining why each falls short for this person right now. Skipping this step leaves the obvious question unanswered.
Other professionals can add weight, but each report should do its own job. The table below sets out how the pieces typically fit.
| Evidence source | What it can show |
|---|---|
| Occupational therapy functional capacity assessment | The core picture: morning routines, meals, medication, community access, overnight needs, and the type and frequency of help |
| Speech pathology report | Communication, understanding and consent, use of AAC (aided communication such as devices or picture boards), and swallowing or mealtime safety |
| Psychology or behaviour support report | Emotional, behavioural or cognitive factors that add to the OT findings rather than replacing them |
| Daily support records and incident logs | What actually happens day to day, including risks that arise outside appointments |
| Provider rosters | How support is currently delivered and where gaps appear |
According to the NDIA’s evidence guidance, decision-makers may consider allied health reports, daily support records, incident logs and provider rosters together. Consistency across those documents counts. Where a roster shows one worker for three people overnight but a report describes constant supervision needs, the planner will notice.
We complete these assessments in the person’s own home where possible, because routines look different in a real kitchen at 7am than in a clinic room. For families outside our mobile areas, telehealth occupational therapy can support parts of the evidence-gathering, such as interviews with carers and review of routines, across most of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. Good evidence can strengthen a request, but no assessment guarantees a funding decision; that rests with the NDIA.
Choice, housemates and the questions worth asking
Here is the uncomfortable history. The independent NDIS Review found that many participants “do not really have any choice in where or who they live with” (NDIS Review, 2023). Stakeholders told the same review that SIL funding rarely allowed for anything other than congregate living.
The structure of shared SIL helps explain why. Under current rules a participant can leave with 14 days’ notice and providers cannot claim a vacancy payment, and the Review warned this may push providers to fill rooms quickly without enough thought for whether housemates suit each other (NDIS Review, 2023). Earlier, the NDIS Commission’s own inquiry into supported accommodation concluded that group homes need specific regulation, that workforce attitudes and skills are major contributors to problems, and that the way SIL and SDA are tied together makes it harder for residents to move (NDIS Commission, 2023).
The 2026 registration changes are partly a response to those findings. Registration is a floor, though, and families still need to ask direct questions. These are the ones we would put to any SIL provider:
- Are you registered for SIL, or did you apply before 1 October 2026, and can you show us?
- How do you match housemates, and what say does the participant have in who moves in?
- If we want to change SIL provider later, can the person stay in their home?
- How are overnight shifts staffed, and is that a sleepover or an awake worker?
- How do your workers support skill-building, not just task completion?
- How do you involve the person in decisions about their own routines?
The third question deserves particular attention. If the answer is no, the person’s housing and their support are bundled together, and leaving an unhappy support arrangement may mean leaving home.
Where allied health fits once SIL is in place
The NDIA describes SIL as support to help people live as independently as possible while building their skills. That second half often gets lost once a roster is running. Workers are busy, routines settle, and doing a task for someone becomes quicker than supporting them to do it.
This is where therapy in the home earns its place. An occupational therapist can look at how a morning routine, a meal or a laundry task actually runs and suggest changes to the environment, equipment or steps that may allow the person to do more of it themselves. A speech pathologist can work on communication with housemates and staff, set up or refine AAC, and assess mealtime and swallowing safety. A psychologist can work with the person during a major life transition such as moving into shared living. Progress varies from person to person, and therapy suits some goals better than others, so any plan should be discussed with the relevant treating professionals.
Because our service is mobile, our occupational therapists and speech pathologists come to the home itself, across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Tweed, the Sunshine Coast, the Fraser Coast, Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast NSW, Sydney and Melbourne. Psychology is available by telehealth Australia-wide and in person on the Gold Coast. Seeing the actual home, the actual workers and the actual routine tends to produce recommendations that support staff can follow.
If you’re weighing up supported independent living, or need a SIL, ILO or SDA assessment, we’re happy to talk it through. Call us on 0468 552 997, email [email protected] or use the contact page on our website.
Can a person under 18 receive SIL funding?
SIL is generally designed for adults living away from the family home, and most guidance assumes an adult participant. Arrangements for children and young people with high support needs usually work through different supports. Because individual circumstances vary, it is best to raise this directly with the NDIA, a local area coordinator or a support coordinator, who can explain which home and living supports apply at a particular age.
How long does a SIL assessment by an occupational therapist usually take?
It depends on the person and how much existing information is available. A SIL assessment usually involves a home visit, interviews with the participant and the people who support them, a review of routines across the day and night, and time to write the report. Gathering records such as rosters and incident logs beforehand can help the process run more smoothly. Our team can give a clearer estimate once we understand the situation.
Can I use plan-managed funding to pay for a SIL assessment from Astrad?
Yes, plan-managed and self-managed NDIS participants can use their funding for allied health assessments from Astrad, as long as the support fits their plan goals and available budget. Astrad is not a registered NDIS provider, so participants whose plans are NDIA-managed cannot use their funding with us. A plan manager or support coordinator can confirm which budget category applies before booking.
What happens if the NDIA does not fund SIL after an assessment?
A decision not to fund SIL does not end the conversation. Participants can ask the NDIA to explain the decision and can request a review if they disagree. Sometimes the outcome points towards a different home and living support, such as Individualised Living Options or more flexible support hours. A support coordinator can help work through the options and any next steps.
Do SIL participants still need separate funding for therapy?
Yes. SIL funds support workers in the home, so occupational therapy, speech pathology and psychology are usually funded from a separate capacity building budget in the plan. It helps to check that therapy funding is included when a plan is being prepared or reviewed, particularly if skill-building goals are part of the reason for moving into supported living.
