If you're a Supported Independent Living provider working toward NDIS registration in 2026, the hardest part isn't understanding the standards — it's the sheer number of moving pieces you have to have current, consistent, and provable all at the same time. Certification against the NDIS Practice Standards means an approved quality auditor examines your organisation across governance, your workforce, participant supports, and safeguarding, and cross-checks that what your documents say actually happens in practice.
This isn't the official requirements list — always work from the NDIS Commission's current guidance and your chosen auditor's scope. It's a practical, plain-English checklist to help you see the shape of the work and spot the gaps early, while there's still time to fix them before your audit.
Your organisation — governance and the basics
Before an auditor looks at a single participant file, they want to know the organisation behind the support is real and well-run.
- A registered legal entity with your ABN, and clarity on who's responsible for what (governance and operational roles).
- Current core policies and procedures that reflect how you actually operate — not a generic pack you've never read.
- Continuous improvement and feedback systems: a complaints process, a way to log and act on feedback, and evidence you've used it.
- Risk management at the organisational level, plus insurances appropriate to your services.
- The scope of what you're registering for, matched to the support you actually deliver.
Your people — the workforce evidence auditors sample hardest
Worker records are one of the most sampled areas, and one of the easiest to get quietly wrong through expiry.
- NDIS Worker Screening clearances for every worker who needs one — and a live view of expiry dates. Clearances began hitting their five-year renewal in 2026, so this is a moving target, not a one-time tick.
- Current qualifications and mandatory training — First Aid, CPR, and any role-specific requirements — tracked with their expiry dates.
- Evidence of the NDIS Worker Orientation Module and induction into your policies.
- Records that staff understand key practices — restrictive practices, incident management, infection control — well enough to speak to them if asked.
- Position descriptions, and evidence of supervision and performance processes.
Your participants — supports, plans, and the SIL specifics
This is the heart of a SIL audit: can you show that each participant's support is planned, delivered, and reviewed the way it should be?
- A current support plan for each participant that reflects their goals and needs, developed with them.
- Consent records, and evidence participants are supported to make decisions and raise concerns.
- Current risk assessments per participant — dated, reviewed, and updated after incidents or changes (not frozen two years ago).
- For SIL specifically: clarity on the funded support ratio for each participant, and a roster that's consistent with it. (This roster-vs-funding check is one auditors sample and few providers run — it's worth its own attention.)
- Evidence of how you manage medication, health, and any restrictive practices — with the authorisations and reporting that go with them.
Your practice — safeguarding and incidents
Safeguarding is where an auditor tests whether your systems protect people when something goes wrong.
- An incident management system with a complete, consistent register — and evidence incidents are followed up and closed out.
- Clarity on reportable incidents and how you'd notify the Commission within required timeframes.
- A complaints management system participants and families know how to use.
- Behaviour support and restrictive practice records where relevant, with proper authorisation.
- Emergency and disaster planning appropriate to the homes you run.
The SIL supplementary standards — new from 1 July 2026
This is the part most existing checklists still miss. Under registration group 0138 you are audited on the Core Module plus four SIL-specific standards.
- Supported decision-making — policy, worker training against it, accessible information, and dignity-of-risk choices documented rather than overridden.
- Safeguarding — de-escalation and trauma-informed training records, house-level incident management, and evidence that housemate conflict was identified and managed.
- Practice governance — supervision records, a documented approach for each residence, rehearsed individualised emergency plans per house, and co-tenant matching records.
- Agreements about tenancy, housing and support — service and tenancy agreements kept legally separate, with conflict of interest managed and understood by the participant.
Read the full breakdown of each standard and the evidence it asks for →
The three things that trip providers up
Across all four parts, the same patterns cause most avoidable non-conformances:
- Expiry blindness. Credentials and reviews lapse quietly because nothing's watching the dates. A live expiry view fixes this.
- Inconsistency. The policy, the record, and the reality don't match. Auditors triangulate — align them before they do.
- Evidence you can't produce on the day. Having done the right thing isn't enough; you have to be able to show it, current and organised.
Start earlier than feels necessary
The providers who find certification calm are the ones who started assembling evidence months before the audit, not weeks. If registration is on your 2026 horizon, the move today isn't to panic — it's to walk each part of this checklist, mark what's current and what's missing, and give yourself runway to close the gaps. Momentum beats perfection, and a gap found in July is a task; the same gap found on audit day is a finding.
Questions people ask
What has changed for SIL registration in 2026?
Registration group 0138 – Assistance with Supported Independent Living replaced 0115. Existing registrations are varied across automatically, claims must use 0138 from 1 July 2026, and four supplementary SIL practice standards now apply on top of the Core Module.
When is the SIL registration deadline?
Unregistered SIL providers must lodge a registration application by 1 October 2026. After that date, supports can only be claimed up to 30 September 2026.
How long does NDIS SIL registration take to prepare for?
Most providers underestimate it. The evidence has to be current, consistent and provable all at the same time, and some of it — rehearsed emergency drills, dated training records, signed separate agreements — takes calendar time that cannot be manufactured retrospectively.
What evidence do auditors sample hardest?
Worker records. Screening checks, first aid and other credentials are the easiest area to get quietly wrong through expiry, and they are one of the most consistently sampled.
Do I need to change my policies to register?
Not necessarily. What matters is whether the policies you already have reflect how you actually operate, and whether you can evidence that. Buying a generic policy pack you have never read is a common and expensive mistake.