SIL GUIDE
The NDIS SIL Practice Standards, explained for 1 July 2026.
Four SIL-specific standards sit on top of the core NDIS Practice Standards: rights and dignity in the home, governance and operations, the provision of supports, and the SIL environment itself. This guide breaks down what each one requires, the evidence an auditor asks for, and a practical checklist to be ready before mandatory registration.
Last updated 26 June 2026 · 13 min read
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What the SIL Practice Standards are
The NDIS Practice Standards are the quality benchmark every registered provider is audited against. The core standards apply to everyone - rights and responsibilities, provider governance and operational management, the provision of supports, and the support-provision environment. On top of those, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission has developed SIL-specific standards that recognise what makes Supported Independent Living different: it is delivered in a person's home, frequently in a shared setting, where the dwelling itself and co-tenancy create risks a typical service setting doesn't.
This guide groups those SIL-specific expectations into four standards - rights and dignity in SIL, governance and operations for SIL, the provision of supports in SIL, and the SIL environment. They sit alongside, not instead of, the core Practice Standards, and a SIL certification audit tests both layers.
A note on precision. The SIL Practice Standards have been developed and refined as part of the SIL reforms. We describe the intent of each standard and the evidence auditors typically request, rather than quoting clause numbers or verbatim text. Always confirm the current set of standards and any clause-level detail against the NDIS Commission's published Practice Standards before relying on them.
Why they exist
The SIL standards and mandatory registration didn't appear in a vacuum. The Disability Royal Commission documented serious, repeated harm to people living in supported accommodation - abuse, neglect, unauthorised restrictive practices, and unsafe environments. The NDIS reforms that followed put a hard line in the ground: from 1 July 2026, providers delivering SIL must be registered, and registration means passing a certification audit against the applicable Practice Standards.
The logic is straightforward. SIL is one of the highest-risk supports in the scheme - participants are often most vulnerable, the support is intimate and around-the-clock, and it happens behind a front door. SIL-specific standards exist to make the expectations on that setting explicit, and mandatory registration exists to verify them with an independent audit rather than trust alone.
For providers, the practical consequence is that the bar moves from "deliver good support" to "deliver good support and be able to evidence it against the standards." That second half is where most of the work - and most of the audit risk - actually sits.
Standard 1
Rights and dignity in SIL settings
A SIL house is a person's home before it is a service setting. This standard is about each resident exercising choice, control, privacy and dignity inside the place they live - including who they live with, how their day runs, and how their personal space is respected.
What it requires
- Each participant's right to make decisions about their own home and supports is upheld and documented, with supported decision-making where needed.
- Privacy and dignity are protected in shared settings - personal space, personal information, intimate care, and the resident's own routines.
- Participants are supported to raise concerns, give feedback and make complaints without fear of consequence, including about co-tenancy.
- Freedom from abuse, neglect, exploitation and unauthorised restrictive practices is actively safeguarded, not just stated in policy.
What an auditor looks for
- Person-centred support plans that record the participant's own goals, preferences and decisions - not a generic template.
- Signed consent and service agreements that reflect informed, ongoing choice about the supports delivered.
- Complaints and feedback records showing a real intake-to-closure trail, including issues raised by or about co-residents.
- Restrictive practice authorisations and behaviour support plans where any regulated practice is used, with reporting evidence.
Implementation checklist - act on this now
- Review every resident's support plan for genuine, recorded participant input.
- Confirm a working complaints process residents can actually use, with a closure trail.
- Map any restrictive practice in the house to a current authorisation and behaviour support plan.
- Document how privacy and dignity are protected in shared and intimate-care situations.
Standard 2
Governance and operational management for SIL
The systems that make a SIL operation safe and accountable: how the provider is governed, how risk is managed, how staff are recruited, screened and trained, and how the provider learns from incidents and complaints. Auditors test whether these systems exist in practice, not just on paper.
What it requires
- Defined governance and management accountability for SIL services, with clear roles and decision-making.
- Risk management that identifies and controls risks at the organisation, house and individual-participant levels.
- Worker recruitment, screening and ongoing suitability - including current NDIS Worker Screening clearances and Code of Conduct obligations.
- Incident management and a continuous-improvement system that demonstrably feeds findings back into practice.
What an auditor looks for
- An organisation chart, governance/management policies and a risk register that is current and house-specific.
- A worker register showing current screening clearances, mandatory training, and induction for every active SIL worker.
- Incident records with notification evidence, post-incident review, and the resulting practice change.
- A live continuous-improvement register with dated entries and outcomes - not a blank template.
Implementation checklist - act on this now
- Confirm every active SIL worker has a current NDIS Worker Screening clearance and completed mandatory training.
- Maintain a risk register at organisation and house level, reviewed on a set cycle.
- Keep incident records that show notification, review and the change made afterwards.
- Run a continuous-improvement register that an auditor can read end to end.
Worker screening and training is the most common audit finding. See the staff compliance feature for how Checkbase keeps every worker clearance current.
Standard 3
The provision of supports and service delivery in SIL
How supports are actually delivered day to day in the house. This standard covers assessment and planning, the delivery of personal and daily-living supports, mealtime and medication management where relevant, and the way supports are coordinated across the people who share the setting.
What it requires
- Assessment and planning that produces an individual support plan tailored to each resident's needs and goals.
- Safe delivery of personal supports, daily living and community participation, consistent with the participant's plan.
- Where relevant, safe mealtime management and medication management with the required plans, charts and competencies.
- Coordination of supports across residents who share a setting, so one person's plan is delivered without compromising another's.
What an auditor looks for
- Current individual support plans, risk assessments and - where applicable - mealtime and medication management plans.
- Progress notes and rosters that show supports were delivered as planned and by appropriately trained staff.
- Medication charts and competency records where the provider supports medication administration.
- Evidence that supports for multiple residents in one house are coordinated and don't conflict.
Implementation checklist - act on this now
- Check each resident has a current support plan and individual risk assessment.
- Put mealtime and medication management plans in place wherever those supports are delivered.
- Keep progress notes that tie back to the support plan and the rostered, trained worker.
- Document how supports are coordinated across people sharing the house.
Standard 4
The SIL environment - the house, safety and the dwelling
The physical setting itself. Because SIL is delivered in a dwelling where people live, this standard looks at whether the house is safe, suitable, accessible and well-maintained, and whether emergency and environmental risks are managed for the specific people who live there.
What it requires
- The dwelling is safe, suitable and accessible for the residents it supports, with reasonable adjustments where needed.
- Environmental and safety risks - fire, electrical, slips, infection control - are assessed and controlled for the house.
- Emergency and disaster planning is in place and tailored to the residents, including individual evacuation needs.
- Vehicles, equipment and assistive technology used in or with the house are maintained, registered and fit for purpose.
What an auditor looks for
- A safe-environment / property assessment for each house, kept current.
- Fire safety, evacuation and emergency plans tailored to the residents, with evidence of drills where required.
- Maintenance, infection-control and WHS records for the dwelling.
- Vehicle registration, insurance and servicing records, plus assistive-technology maintenance logs.
Implementation checklist - act on this now
- Complete and date a safe-environment assessment for every SIL house.
- Hold a current emergency and evacuation plan tailored to each resident.
- Keep maintenance, WHS and infection-control records for the dwelling.
- Track vehicle registration, insurance and servicing, and any assistive-technology upkeep.
The SIL environment standard is where house-level records live. See SIL houses for how Checkbase tracks safe-environment assessments, emergency plans, vehicles and dwellings per house.
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How this maps to the SIL certification audit
SIL is a higher-risk, complex support, so it sits on the certification pathway - what providers commonly call Tier 1 or advanced registration - rather than the lighter verification pathway. In practice, that means an independent, NDIS Commission-approved auditor assesses you against the relevant Practice Standards, core and SIL-specific, in a certification audit with a Stage 1 desktop review and a Stage 2 on-site component.
Each of the four SIL standards above maps to a cluster of artefacts the auditor will ask to see. Rights and dignity maps to support plans, consent and complaints records. Governance maps to your risk register, worker screening, incident and continuous-improvement systems. Provision of supports maps to support plans, progress notes, mealtime and medication management. The SIL environment maps to safe-environment assessments, emergency plans, and vehicle and dwelling records - per house.
What to do before 1 July 2026
Mandatory registration is a fixed deadline, and certification audit capacity is finite. The providers who clear it comfortably are the ones who start consolidating evidence months out, not weeks. This is the sequence that works.
Step 1
Confirm your pathway now
Decide which registration groups you deliver and confirm that SIL (and any related Tier 1 supports) sits in scope. Engage an NDIS Commission-approved certification body early - audit slots tighten as the deadline approaches.
Step 2
Self-assess against all four standards
Walk each of the four SIL Practice Standards and the core NDIS Practice Standards. For every requirement, mark have / partial / missing. The partials and gaps become your work plan.
Step 3
Build the participant and house evidence
Get every resident's support plan, risk assessment, consent and (where relevant) mealtime/medication plan current. Complete a safe-environment and emergency plan for each house. This is usually the biggest block of work.
Step 4
Close the governance and worker gaps
Confirm current NDIS Worker Screening for every active worker, complete mandatory training, and stand up a live continuous-improvement and incident register. Auditors test these systems in practice.
Step 5
Run a mock audit, then book the real one
Pull your evidence together as if the auditor were arriving tomorrow. Fix what the mock surfaces, then complete your certification audit with enough buffer before 1 July 2026 to action any findings.
The deadline doesn't move - your audit slot does. Approved certification bodies have limited capacity, and demand climbs as 1 July 2026 approaches. Booking late is the single most avoidable way to miss the deadline. Confirm your timing with an NDIS Commission-approved certification body now.
For the full reform context and a readiness quiz, see the SIL mandatory registration pillar.
Turn the standards into a live checklist
Book a demo to see how Checkbase tracks every artefact the four SIL Practice Standards translate into.
How Checkbase helps
The four SIL Practice Standards translate into a long list of artefacts that have to be current, dated, and produceable on the day an auditor asks. Checkbase is built around exactly that evidence schema. Every worker screening, participant support plan, risk assessment, incident close-out and house safety record is tracked continuously - so the pack you keep on a normal Tuesday is the pack the auditor reads at certification.
SIL houses get their own surface: each dwelling carries its safe-environment assessment, emergency and evacuation plan, vehicles, and resident assignments, mapped to the SIL environment standard. The Tier 1 audit lens filters every list down to exactly what the certification auditor asks for, and the Evidence Pack export produces a single branded PDF organised by audit category, plus a time-boxed auditor link with a 6-digit OTP.
The point isn't the software. The point is that a provider running on a live system walks into a certification audit with the evidence already assembled - instead of spending the weeks before 1 July 2026 rebuilding documents that should have existed all along.
Frequently asked questions
The questions SIL providers most often ask while preparing for mandatory registration. Where a precise answer depends on the current Commission release, that is flagged.
Sources and further reading
The authoritative source for the Practice Standards and SIL obligations is the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Where the SIL-specific standards are still being finalised or refined, that is noted in-line - confirm the current set and any clause detail against the Commission's published materials. This is general information, not legal or compliance advice; engage your certification body for advice specific to your service.
- NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission - NDIS Practice Standards ↗
- NDIS Commission - Supported Independent Living (SIL) providers ↗
- NDIS Commission - Becoming a registered NDIS provider ↗
- NDIS Commission - Behaviour support and restrictive practices ↗
- Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability - Final report ↗
Meet the SIL Practice Standards with the evidence already assembled.
Checkbase tracks every worker screening, participant file, and house safety record the standards demand - continuously. 14-day free trial, plus 50% off for 3 months with code SIL2026.