SIL Mandatory Registration: Who Must Be Registered and How the Transition Works

Last updated 8 October 2026. General information on the Rules and the NDIS Act as in force on that date, not legal advice. Where you stand depends on your own circumstances, so check the Commission's SIL mandatory registration pages for your pathway.

Since 1 July 2026 the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018 have required a provider of supported independent living (SIL) to be registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Providers already delivering SIL were given transition arrangements, and the key date in them, 1 October 2026, has now passed. An unregistered provider that was delivering SIL before 1 July 2026 and applied for registration before 1 October 2026 can keep delivering SIL until the Commissioner decides its application. One that did not apply has needed to be registered since 1 October 2026. Providers that were already registered move across when the Commissioner decides whether to add SIL to their registration. Here is where each kind of provider now stands and what registered SIL providers are assessed against.

What counts as SIL

SIL is defined in section 7(5) of the Rules. A person provides assistance with supported independent living to a participant if all three of these apply:

• the participant requires constant, or immediately available, person-to-person supports at all times during a day, or for a substantial portion of a day
• the assistance is provided, as needed, as a package of supports to assist the participant with, or to supervise, the tasks of daily life that enable them to live as autonomously as possible in their home and to access the community
• the assistance includes the provider managing the package of supports, and the supports provided under it.

Two practical points follow from that wording. Support for a few hours a day or a week will not usually meet the first limb. And where a participant, or someone acting for them, chooses, directs and rosters their own workers, those workers are not managing the package, so the third limb is not met. That is why most independent support workers engaged directly by self-managing participants sit outside the definition.

Where each provider stands now

Section 32 of the Rules sets the day from which the registration requirement in section 7(4) applies to each kind of provider. In the Commission's applications portal the class appears as registration group 0138, Assistance with supported independent living.

The same amending Rules also made registration mandatory for NDIS digital platform services (section 7(6)), with a matching transition (section 32(4)).

What happens if you deliver SIL without registration

Once the requirement applies to you, providing SIL under a participant's plan without being registered for it contravenes section 73B(2) of the NDIS Act, and holding yourself out as able to provide it contravenes section 73B(3). Either can be prosecuted as a fault-based offence, with a maximum penalty of 2 years imprisonment or 120 penalty units, or both, or as a strict liability offence (60 penalty units). Either can also attract a civil penalty of up to 10,000 penalty units for a serious contravention by an NDIS provider, or 250 penalty units in any other case.

If you have to stop delivering SIL, plan the handover with each participant, their nominee and their other providers, give notice under your service agreements, and check the Commission's SIL mandatory registration pages before you stop.

What registered SIL providers are assessed against

• Certification, not verification. To be registered for assistance with supported independent living, an applicant must be assessed by an approved quality auditor, using certification, against the Core Module (Schedule 1) and Module 5A (Schedule 7A) of the NDIS Practice Standards (item 38 of the table in section 20(3) of the Rules). Certification is a desk audit, an inspection of the sites and services used, and interviews with key personnel and participants (section 5).
• Module 2A where restrictive practices are involved. If the supports involve, or are likely to involve, a regulated restrictive practice, the provider must also be assessed against Module 2A, Implementing behaviour support plans (Schedule 4), using certification (section 20(1)(b)).
• Module 5A's four standards. Supported decision-making, safeguarding, practice governance, and agreements about tenancy, housing and support arrangements. Their quality indicators are in Part 8A (sections 72B to 72E) of the NDIS (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, and auditors must take the indicators into account (section 24 of the Rules).
• The conditions of registration. A registered provider must comply with the NDIS Code of Conduct and the Practice Standards, maintain complaints and incident management systems, notify reportable incidents and keep the records the rules prescribe (section 73F of the NDIS Act), and allow only workers with a worker screening clearance into risk assessed roles, subject to limited exceptions.

What to do now

• Confirm whether your service meets the definition. This is still the threshold question, and it turns on the three limbs of section 7(5), not on what the support is called in a plan or on an invoice.
• If you applied before 1 October 2026 and are waiting on a decision: prepare for the certification audit and keep your evidence current. Have a written transition plan for each participant in case the application is refused, because the requirement applies from the day of that decision.
• If you did not apply: you cannot lawfully deliver SIL under a participant's plan until you are registered for it. You can still apply, but registration needs a certification audit first, so plan each participant's transition now.
• If you were already registered: check whether the Commissioner has decided to add SIL to your registration. Until then, if you hold registration for assistance with daily life tasks in a group or shared living arrangement, work to Module 5A as well as the Core Module.
• Do not wait for the audit to build your evidence. Registers, training records and version-controlled documents take months to accumulate. Auditors want to see them in use, not freshly printed.

Getting your documentation SIL-ready

Our SIL Supplementary Module Add-On has 23 editable templates structured around the four Module 5A standards, and the SIL Schedule of Supports and Typical Week in the Core Library records each participant's typical week of supports. The Complete NDIS Provider Document Library (357 editable documents) holds both, plus the core module set and SIL operational documents such as onboarding, participant matching and property records, and the High Intensity Supports Add-On covers the clinical procedures many SIL participants need. For a plain-English walk through the module itself, read What is Module 5A? The NDIS SIL supplementary module explained.

Everything is editable, version-controlled and structured around the Practice Standards. The usual honest caveat applies: documents must be customised to your operation and backed by implementation evidence. No document pack, ours included, makes you registration-ready by itself, and audit outcomes always depend on your actual practice.

Frequently asked questions

Does a SIL provider have to be registered?

Yes. Section 7(4) of the NDIS (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018 requires a person to be registered to provide assistance with supported independent living. For a provider new to SIL, that requirement has applied since 1 July 2026. Unregistered providers that were already delivering SIL had to apply before 1 October 2026 to keep delivering it while their application is decided, and those that did not apply have needed registration since 1 October 2026.

I applied before 1 October 2026. Can I keep delivering SIL?

Yes, until the Commissioner decides your application. If you are registered, you continue as a registered SIL provider. If the application is refused, the registration requirement applies to you from the day of that decision.

What happens if I keep delivering SIL without registering?

Once the requirement applies to you, it contravenes section 73B of the NDIS Act. The fault-based offence carries a maximum penalty of 2 years imprisonment, 120 penalty units, or both. There is also a strict liability offence and a civil penalty.

Does mandatory SIL registration affect independent support workers?

Only if what they deliver meets the definition in section 7(5). Where a self-managing participant chooses, directs and rosters their own workers, the workers are not managing the package of supports, so the definition is unlikely to be met. Support for a few hours a day or week is also unlikely to meet it.

What audit does a SIL provider need?

Certification, against the Core Module and Module 5A, plus Module 2A where regulated restrictive practices are used. Certification involves a desk audit, an inspection of the sites and services used, and interviews with key personnel and participants.

Sources: National Disability Insurance Scheme (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018, Compilation No. 6, 1 July 2026, sections 5, 7, 20, 24 and 32 and Schedules 1, 4 and 7A; National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, Compilation No. 3, 1 July 2026, Part 8A; National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013, sections 73B, 73C, 73E, 73F and 73L; NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, Mandatory registration and transition pathways for SIL, accessed August 2026, for registration group 0138.

Related guides

• What is Module 5A? The NDIS SIL supplementary module explained
• SIL service agreements from 1 July 2026: what has to be in them
• How to become a registered NDIS provider
• Restrictive practice authorisation by state and territory (2026)
• NDIS Core Module self-assessment: check your evidence before an audit

General information, not legal advice. Current at the date shown on this article. Check anything you rely on against the current legislation and NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission guidance.