🚨 BREAKING: Government Finally Recognises Self-Directed Supports in SIL Registration Rules 

By Self Manager Hub

Keywords | Supports | Flexibility | Choice and control | NDIS

Category | Policy and Advocacy | Build your team | Rules for hiring | News | Know your rights

Formats | Text only

A new definition of Supported Independent Living, or SIL, has gone live on the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission website. 

For the first time, we are seeing government policy clearly recognise self-directed support arrangements in official government policy. 

That is a big deal. 

The definition says it is not SIL if a person chooses and manages their own support workers, including directing, planning, and rostering those workers. 

This recognition has not happened by accident. 

It is the result of the hard work of our community of people who self-direct and self-manage our supports. People have spoken up, shared our stories, explained how our support arrangements work, and pushed for the NDIS to recognise that self-directed supports are different from traditional provider-controlled models. 

This matters because people who self-direct our supports should not be forced to use registered providers. 

Many people with disability choose, train, roster, and manage our own workers because that gives us more control, more flexibility and often safer support. 

It is very positive to see this recognised in the SIL registration rules. 

A new SIL line item is also being introduced:

0138, Assistance with Supported Independent Living 

This is the line item that SIL providers will need to claim from. Providers claiming from this line item will need to:

• have certification audits,
• comply with the core module of the NDIS Practice Standards,
• comply with a new supplementary module for SIL.

But there are still questions. 

SIL was originally a term used for group home-style supports. It now seems to apply much more broadly to people with “higher support needs” who receive home and living support. 

But what does “higher support needs” actually mean? 

That part is still not clear. 

You can go to the NDIS Commisssion website for more information.

So while we welcome the recognition of self-directed supports, we still need clear, practical guidance from the NDIS Commission and the NDIA about what this means in real life. 

The Self Manager Hub will be releasing an explainer on this soon, so please keep an eye on our website and socials. 

See what the NDIA and NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission said about SIL registration.