Questions to ask a SIL provider before you say yes

Choosing a supported independent living (SIL) provider is choosing who will be in your home every day, possibly for years. Most families make the decision under time pressure, often with a hospital discharge date or an exhausted carer in the background. The questions below can be covered in one or two conversations.

They draw on the NDIS Commission's rules for registered providers, the NDIA's SIL guideline (24 September 2026) and the NDIS guidance on service agreements.

Check registration first, and how to do it

Since 1 July 2026, SIL can only be delivered by providers registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission under the registration group 0138 (Assistance with supported independent living), or by providers who applied for registration before 1 October 2026 and are covered by transitional arrangements while their application is decided. Registration means the provider has had a certification audit against the core NDIS Practice Standards and the new SIL module, and holds conditions of registration it can be held to.

You can check this yourself in a few minutes. Go to the NDIS Commission website, open Find a registered provider, search the organisation's name or ABN and set the registration status to Approved. The record shows the registration groups the provider holds. If the provider is still in transition, the Commission publishes a separate Part 3 register of SIL providers who have applied and are awaiting a decision. A provider with revoked status, or one that appears in the Commission's banning orders search, should end the conversation.

• Ask: what is your NDIS registration number, and which registration groups do you hold? Are you registered for SDA as well, if the home is SDA?
• Ask: have any conditions been placed on your registration, and when was your last audit?
• Check that the legal entity on the service agreement is the same entity on the register.

Ask who the staff are and how rosters work

SIL is delivered by people, so the staffing model matters more than the brochure. Some providers employ their own support workers; others fill rosters through labour hire agencies; many do a mix. Agency staff are not necessarily worse, but they change more often, know the house less well and complicate accountability when something goes wrong. ResicareSA, for example, employs its own workers rather than using agency staff; ask any provider for the actual proportion.

Continuity is also a design question. Ask how the roster of care is built, how it changes when a housemate's needs change, and how the provider handles a worker the household does not get along with. The NDIS SIL guideline says you can ask for your roster of care at any time, and that minor changes within your funding do not need NDIA approval.

• What share of shifts in this house last month were worked by your permanent staff, and what share by agency or casual workers?
• How are shifts covered at short notice, and what is the longest a shift has gone unfilled in this house?
• What training do workers have for my specific needs (for example medication, mealtime management, PEG feeding, implementing a behaviour support plan), and how is competency checked?
• Can I meet the regular team before I move in, and can I ask for a worker to be changed?

Ask how incidents and complaints are handled

Registered providers must have an incident management system and must notify the NDIS Commission of reportable incidents. Death, serious injury, abuse or neglect, unlawful sexual or physical contact or assault, and sexual misconduct must be notified within 24 hours of the provider becoming aware; unauthorised use of a restrictive practice within five business days, or 24 hours if it caused harm. Providers must also have a complaints process, make you feel safe to use it, deal with complaints quickly, not threaten you for complaining, and help you report to the Commission when needed.

Those are the rules. The useful questions are about practice. A provider who answers them without defensiveness, and who can show you the complaints and incident policies on request, is operating as the rules intend. If you ever need it, the Commission takes complaints on 1800 035 544 or online, including anonymously.

• If a worker makes a medication error at 10pm, what happens in the next hour, and when and how would my family hear about it?
• How many reportable incidents has this house had in the last 12 months, and what changed afterwards?
• Who do I complain to, how do I do it if I do not use the phone, and what is your target response time?
• Are any restrictive practices used in the house, and is there a current behaviour support plan and authorisation for each one?

Read the service agreement, especially the exit terms

The NDIS encourages a written service agreement for SIL and requires one for SDA. According to the NDIS, a good agreement sets out who it is for, what supports are provided and how, what they cost, how the provider is paid, important dates and reviews, both parties' rights and responsibilities, and what to do when something goes wrong. A provider cannot use an agreement to contract out of the NDIS Code of Conduct or Australian Consumer Law.

Ask for the agreement several days before you are asked to sign, and read the tenancy or SDA agreement alongside it. In many SA homes these are two documents with two different notice periods, and the gap between them is where people get stuck: supports end but the lease runs on, or the reverse.

• Notice period to end the agreement, for you and for the provider, and whether the housing agreement ends at the same time or separately.
• Fees charged if you leave early, are in hospital or are away on holiday, and whether the provider keeps claiming while you are absent. The SIL guideline says your agreement should cover holidays.
• How vacancies in the house are managed and whether you bear any cost when a housemate leaves. The SIL guideline says the provider should not claim extra from your plan to cover vacancy periods.
• What the provider will do if it decides to stop services. The Commission requires a transition plan, accessible notice to participants with dates and options, and notification to the Commission and the NDIA.

Ask what happens when things change

Plans change, housemates change, needs change. Ask how the provider handled the last few of each.

The NDIA's SIL guideline says funding is decided on your needs, not on what a provider asks for, and that a roster of care describes how support is delivered rather than setting your plan. A provider that frames everything around what the plan allows is telling you how it will behave when the plan is tight.

• Plan changes: if my next plan funds fewer SIL hours, or my needs increase, what happens to my support and my place in the house, and what evidence will you provide for a review?
• Housemate changes: who decides who moves in next, how are current residents consulted, and can I object?
• Housemate changes: if the household ratio changes because someone leaves, how is my support protected in the meantime?
• Provider changes: if I want to change SIL provider but stay in this home, is that possible, and how?

What to look for on a visit

A visit is where the answers get tested. Go at a time of day when residents are home and staff are working, not a quiet mid-morning.

Ask whether you can do a short stay or share a few meals before committing. Providers who also run short term accommodation can often arrange this, and it tells you more than any visit.

• How workers speak to residents, and whether residents are doing things rather than watching staff do things.
• Whether the house looks lived in by the people who live there: their photos, their food, their routines on the wall, not a corporate noticeboard.
• Cleanliness, maintenance, working equipment, and whether the staff room is clearly separate from residents' space.
• Whether a team leader can answer a specific question about one resident's support without reading it from a file.
• Travel distances to family, GP, day program and community. In regional SA a home 40 minutes from everything you know is a big change.

Red flags, and what to do next

Some signals are strong enough to walk away on their own.

If none apply, the sequence is: check the register, ask the staffing and incident questions by phone, get the service agreement and the tenancy or SDA agreement in writing, visit at a busy time, trial a stay if you can, and only then sign. The NDIS Commission's Make it known, make it better resources explain your rights in plain language, and the guide on how to read a SIL or SDA vacancy listing covers the housing side.

• No registration record, a revoked status, or reluctance to give the registration number.
• Pressure to sign the same day, or an agreement that only appears at the signing meeting.
• Rent or board described as covered or free, or support hours that are not written down.
• Any suggestion that complaints should stay in-house or that going to the Commission is disloyal.
• A roster of care or quote that does not match your plan's hours and ratio.

Questions people ask