Supported Independent Living (SIL): provider compliance

Supported Independent Living (SIL) is among the highest-risk supports in the NDIS. Workers enter people's homes, often overnight, to assist with personal care, medication prompting, cooking and daily routines for participants who may have complex support needs. That intensity is why SIL sits at the front of the next wave of NDIS reform, and why workforce compliance for SIL providers is moving from a good-practice habit to a registration condition.

If you deliver SIL, this guide covers the obligations that shape your workforce records: mandatory registration, NDIS Worker Screening Clearances, the orientation module, the shared-living Practice Standards, and what auditors expect to see.

Mandatory registration is coming for SIL

The Australian Government has confirmed that mandatory registration for Supported Independent Living and platform providers will begin from 1 July 2026. This brings previously unregistered SIL operators into the same framework as registered providers.

A few points worth being clear on:

• You do not need to be fully registered by 1 July 2026. The requirement is that you have applied to commence registration with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission by 1 October 2026. Providers who have not applied by 1 October 2026 must stop delivering SIL supports.
• The NDIS Commission has indicated transition guidance will be released through 2026, so confirm the current detail on the Commission's website before you plan your timeline.
• Registration brings independent audits, suitability assessments, reporting requirements and worker screening obligations into scope.

NDIS Worker Screening Clearance: the core control

Every worker in a risk-assessed role delivering SIL supports needs a valid NDIS Worker Screening Clearance before they start in that role. For SIL, the close, sustained contact with participants means most direct-support roles will be risk-assessed.

What matters for your records:

• A clearance is issued through your state or territory worker screening unit and is recognised nationally once granted.
• Police history is assessed as part of the NDIS Worker Screening Check. You do not collect a separate national police certificate to satisfy the screening obligation: the clearance already accounts for criminal history.
• Clearances have expiry dates and can be suspended or revoked if new information arises. A clearance that was valid at hire is not proof it is valid today.
• Koora reviews NDIS Worker Screening Clearance evidence rather than verifying it at source. Source verification against the screening registers is on the Koora roadmap, not a current claim.

Because clearances can change state between onboarding and an audit, the practical risk for SIL providers is not collecting the document once. It is knowing the live status across a roster of workers who may also pick up shifts with other providers.

For the state-by-state detail on how clearances are issued and recognised, see the NDIS worker screening check guide.

NDIS Worker Orientation Module

The Quality, Safety and You orientation module is the expected baseline for anyone delivering NDIS supports, and that includes SIL workers. It introduces the NDIS Code of Conduct, the Practice Standards and a worker's responsibilities to participants.

For your compliance records:

• Treat completion as an onboarding gate for new SIL staff, alongside screening.
• Keep the completion certificate or confirmation on the worker's record so you can produce it during an audit.
• Re-issue or refresh expectations if a worker returns after a long break, and check your own policy on refresher cycles.

For more on what the module covers and how to evidence completion, see the orientation module explainer.

Shared-living Practice Standards and audit cycles

Mandatory registration for SIL is arriving alongside development of Practice Standards specific to shared living. SIL is delivered in environments where multiple participants live together, where workers operate with limited direct supervision, and where rights, dignity and safeguarding risks are heightened. The Practice Standards reflect that.

Registration means periodic audits against those standards. Auditors sample worker records, so workforce evidence has to be current-state ready at any point, not assembled in the week before an audit. In practice that means:

• A current NDIS Worker Screening Clearance on file for every risk-assessed role.
• Orientation completion recorded.
• Role-relevant training and any first aid or medication competencies kept current and easy to retrieve.
• A clear link between each worker, their roles, and the participants or houses they support.

Why continuous readiness beats point-in-time checks

SIL workforces move. Casual and shift-based staffing, agency cover and workers holding shifts across several providers all mean a record that was complete at induction can quietly drift out of date. A clearance expires. A worker is suspended. A first aid certificate lapses. None of that announces itself.

The compliance question an auditor asks is about the present: is this worker compliant for the role they are filling, right now? That is the gap a spreadsheet struggles to close, because it captures a moment rather than a live state.

How Koora helps SIL providers

Koora gives SIL workers a portable Career Passport: a single, reviewed set of credentials they carry between roles and providers. For you, that means less re-collection of the same documents and a clearer view of where each worker stands.

• Koora reviews NDIS Worker Screening Clearance evidence and surfaces expiry, so you can act before a clearance lapses.
• Worker records track orientation completion, training and first aid currency in one place. See worker compliance tracking for providers.
• Compliance status reflects the current state when a report runs, not a reconstructed history.

Koora pre-clears credentials to reduce the manual chase. The legal obligation to sight evidence and decide who is fit to work in a SIL role stays with you as the provider. Koora reduces the load, it does not remove your duty. Where you already use rostering or workforce tools such as Deputy or AlayaCare, Koora integrates via API and webhooks today and can build a direct integration on request, so screening status can sit alongside the systems you already run rather than replacing them.