SIL Providers in Australia: Compare Supported Independent Living

Who are the best SIL providers in Australia?

The ranked list above names the top supported independent living (SIL) providers on Carevo, ordered by the methodology explained above it. SIL is NDIS funding for help with daily tasks in a shared home, paid from the Core Supports budget under Assistance with Daily Life through hourly line items in the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 (effective 1 July 2026).

The SIL market in 2026

Under the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, standard weekday daytime support is capped at $73.58 an hour and a night-time sleepover at $311.79 a shift. On the supply side, Carevo lists 32,033 NDIS providers across 8,918 suburbs, and SIL houses turn over slowly, so vacancies matter as much as quality.

Turning the ranked list into a shortlist

The rankings come from the methodology above; your own shortlist should turn on four things.

Registration category. SIL providers must be registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, or have applied before 1 October 2026, whether the plan is agency-managed, plan-managed or self-managed. Check any registration claim against the Commission’s public NDIS Provider Register, and confirm it covers daily personal activities.

Pricing transparency. A good SIL provider walks you through a draft roster of care in half-hour blocks and shows how each block maps to a 2026-27 line item. Anyone quoting a single annual dollar figure without a roster behind it is guessing; the NDIS does not publish annual SIL price bands.

Carevo measures whether a provider accepts an enquiry, not when care starts or a practitioner contacts you. Confirm current capacity and a start date directly. How Carevo measures enquiry acceptance.

Coverage and vacancies. A great provider with no vacancy near your supports and family is not an option. Ask what is vacant now and what opens in the next three months, then judge the houses, housemates and staff, not the brochure.

How much does the NDIS pay for SIL?

There is no flat SIL amount and no published annual price band. Funding is built from an assessed roster of care that sets support hours and staffing ratios for the household, then billed in half-hour blocks against the hourly caps in the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27: standard weekday daytime support is capped at $73.58 an hour, high-intensity support at $79.60, and a night-time sleepover at $311.79 a shift, with loadings for evenings, weekends and public holidays. Support shared between housemates costs less per person than one-to-one hours, which is why the roster, not the provider’s brochure, decides the number. The NDIA pays the provider for delivered hours; you never handle the money and there is no out-of-pocket cost for funded support.

What SIL does not pay is rent, board, groceries or utilities. Those come from your own income, usually the Disability Support Pension plus Commonwealth Rent Assistance, and where the home is SDA you pay a capped Reasonable Rent Contribution to the housing provider instead.

How do I choose the right SIL provider for my loved one?

Work through it in this order. First, vacancy: ask which specific homes have a room now and what opens in the next three months, because a provider that offers SIL in general may have nothing suitable today. Second, the roster: ask to see the proposed roster of care in half-hour blocks and how each block maps to a 2026-27 line item, and treat a single annual figure with no roster behind it as a guess. Third, registration: confirm the provider on the NDIS Provider Register and that its registration covers daily personal activities, which has been required for every SIL provider since 1 July 2026, however the plan is managed. Fourth, separation: ask for a SIL agreement that is separate from any tenancy or SDA agreement, so you can change support provider without losing the home. Then meet the current residents, ask for a trial stay, and judge the house, the housemates and the staff who will actually be there. The questions to ask before signing, further down this page, put all of that in writing.

Who is eligible for SIL funding under the NDIS?

SIL is for NDIS participants with higher support needs who require significant help throughout the day, usually including overnight support, and who typically live with other participants (NDIS operational guidance, 2025). A few drop-in visits a week is not SIL.

To get it into a plan you must show at a planning meeting why 24/7 support availability is reasonable and necessary: usually a functional capacity assessment, carer statements and medical reports, and an explanation of why lower-intensity options fall short. A support coordinator can help you prepare.

What does SIL funding cover, and what does it exclude?

SIL pays for rostered support workers in your home: personal care, meal preparation, medication management, household tasks and overnight support. It does not pay rent, board, groceries or utilities; those come out of your own income.

Your funding is built from an assessed roster of care that sets support hours and staffing ratios, from support shared across housemates up to one-to-one for complex needs, in half-hour blocks billed against the hourly caps in the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27. The building is funded separately, through Specialist Disability Accommodation or private rental; community access and allied health sit under separate budgets.

Do SIL providers need to be registered with the NDIS Commission?

Yes. Since 1 July 2026 every SIL provider must be registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, whether the participant’s plan is agency-managed, plan-managed or self-managed. Providers already delivering SIL that applied to register before 1 October 2026 can keep delivering while their application is assessed, and from 1 October 2026 plan managers should reject SIL invoices from providers that are neither registered nor applied (NDIA SIL guideline, September 2026).

Mandatory registration followed the NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce’s 2024 recommendation, because SIL runs 24/7 in the participant’s own home. Whatever a provider claims, verify it on the Commission’s public register.

How is SIL different from SDA?

SIL pays for the support workers; Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) pays for the building. SIL sits under Core Supports, while SDA sits under Capital Supports and is limited to participants with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs.

You can hold both in one plan and live in an SDA dwelling with SIL supports, often from two different organisations. Start with the NDIS accommodation options guide to compare the funding routes, then use the SDA provider guide for design categories, eligibility and vacancies.

Questions to ask a provider before signing a service agreement

1. What is your registration number and which registration groups does it cover? A good answer matches an entry on the NDIS Provider Register covering daily personal activities.
2. Can I see the proposed roster of care before I sign? A good answer is a written roster in half-hour blocks matching your plan, not a lump sum.
3. What happens to my supports if a housemate moves out? A good answer is a vacancy plan that does not quietly cut your hours while the ratio changes.
4. Is the SIL agreement separate from any tenancy or SDA agreement? A good answer is yes, two documents you can end independently.
5. Can I do a trial stay and meet the current residents first? A good answer is yes, with a compatibility meeting before any commitment.
6. Have you been subject to Commission compliance action? A good answer is a straight no, consistent with the Commission’s published compliance actions.

SIL supply by state

SIL supply concentrates where SDA stock and support workers do: the eastern capitals first, then regional centres. Carevo lists 10,277 NDIS providers in NSW, 8,923 in Victoria and 5,554 in Queensland. For local vacancy searches, start with the city pages for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, or the suburb directory below. Many participants search SIL alongside specialist disability accommodation, since a plan funding both needs a house that fits both.

How to read a SIL roster of care before you sign

The roster of care is the document that decides both the cost and the quality of a SIL arrangement, and it is where most disputes start.

It sets out, in half-hour blocks across a week, how many staff are present, at what ratio, and doing what. The NDIA prices SIL from this document, so a roster that overstates need inflates the quote, and one that understates it leaves the house short-staffed at the times that matter.

Four things to check line by line. Ratios by time of day, because 1:3 during the day and 1:1 at the evening routine is a very different service from a flat ratio. Whether overnight is active or a sleepover, since a sleepover is a fixed nightly rate while active support bills hourly at night rates. What happens when a housemate is in hospital or on holiday, because the ratio changes and the funding should too. And who absorbs staff absence, since a provider that pulls a worker from another house to cover is running a thinner roster than the document implies.

Ask for the roster in writing before signing, and ask the provider to walk you through a Tuesday and a Saturday. A provider unwilling to do that is telling you something.

SIL, SDA and ILO: which one do you actually need?

Three NDIS home and living supports get conflated constantly, and they fund different things.

SIL pays for the rostered support workers. It is a Core Supports item and it follows the person, not the house.

SDA pays for the building, from Capital Supports, and only for participants with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. See specialist disability accommodation.

Individualised Living Options (ILO) funds a personally designed living arrangement, often with a host or co-resident, rather than a staffed shared house. It suits people who want more control and less rostered support, and it is funded and designed quite differently.

You can hold SIL without SDA, which is the most common combination: rostered support in an ordinary rental. You cannot hold SIL and ILO for the same arrangement, because they are alternative models. If a provider offers you a shared house and calls it ILO, ask which support item is actually being claimed.

How this page is compiled

The provider rankings and figures on this page come from Carevo platform records, including provider registrations, measured response times and coverage, together with the cited official sources. Carevo is an Australian platform that connects families with NDIS and aged care providers. Carevo does not deliver care itself.

Funding sources and checks

Check the current NDIA pricing arrangements and Support at Home program rules for the proposed service. Funding depends on the approved support and available budget; a Carevo listing is not approval. Confirm availability and a start date directly with the provider.