If you run SIL houses, you have heard that registration becomes mandatory on 1 July 2026. The piece getting less attention is the structural change underneath it. SIL is being lifted out of the broad registration class it currently sits in and given a registration group of its own, with a set of Practice Standards written specifically for it. That changes what you apply for, and what an auditor measures you against.
Who this is for
You operate one or more SIL houses, whether you are a sole operator, running three houses, or twenty. You are getting registered before 1 July 2026, or moving from someone else’s registration to your own. Either way, the category you register under, and the standards you are held to, are both changing.
What registration group 0138 is
Today, SIL is delivered under registration class 0115, a broad grouping that covers daily personal activities. From 1 July 2026 the Commission introduces a dedicated registration group, 0138, named Assistance with Supported Independent Living, and SIL moves into it. Alongside the group, a new SIL supplementary module of the NDIS Practice Standards commences on the same day, sitting on top of the Core Module rather than replacing it.
In plain terms: SIL stops being a line item inside a general registration and becomes its own regulated category, with standards written specifically for shared accommodation and the daily supports that go with it.
Why SIL got its own group
The Commission has been clear that SIL carries higher risk than many other supports. People living in shared homes, often with high daily support needs, sometimes with restrictive practices in place. Carving SIL into its own group lets the regulator hold it to SIL-specific standards and run SIL-specific audits, rather than assessing it against generic disability-service criteria.
For honest operators this is not bad news. It rewards the providers who can actually show how they keep people safe and in control of their own homes, which is exactly the thing a generic registration never asked you to prove.
A word on “Module 5A”
You will hear consultants and auditors call the new SIL standards “Module 5A”. That is shorthand, not the Commission’s official term. The Commission refers to the SIL supplementary module, or the SIL Practice Standards. The shorthand is fine in conversation, but use the official language in anything you submit, and do not assume a document titled “Module 5A” is an official Commission publication. Check the source.
Who is actually in scope
Two provider types are caught from 1 July 2026: SIL providers, and platform providers (the online marketplaces that connect participants with workers). If you deliver SIL, you are in.
Worth knowing what is not in this wave. Mandatory registration for support coordination was flagged, but that reform has been paused, so “every unregistered provider must register by 1 July” is not correct. The 1 July obligation is specifically SIL and platform providers. If you are unsure which side of the line you sit on, confirm it before you spend money preparing for the wrong thing.
The audit pathway: certification, and it takes time
SIL sits on the certification pathway, the more rigorous of the two registration routes. That means a two-stage independent audit by an approved quality auditor: a stage-one review of your systems, then a stage-two assessment of whether those systems are real in practice. From application to certificate, providers are commonly looking at something in the order of eight to twelve months.
That timeline is the reason the dates below matter. This is not a form you fill in the week before. The audit has to be booked, run and closed, and good auditors are in demand in the run-up to a deadline.
The dates that matter
What it actually means in practice
The structural change is one thing. The day-to-day question is the same one every audit comes down to: can you produce evidence for a real participant, on a real date, mapped to the standard the auditor names?
The new SIL module sets out four outcomes: supported decision-making, safeguarding, practice governance, and agreements about tenancy, housing and support. We have walked through all four, and the evidence each one expects, in a separate piece: the four SIL outcomes, in plain English.
The trap for small providers is not the policy. It is pulling the proof together on the day.
The policy usually exists. What eats the weekend is assembling the shift notes, the incident and what followed, the consent, the training records, for one participant across a date range, when they live in four different systems. That is the gap NDIS compliance software is built to close: keep the evidence tied to the participant and the date, so it is there when the auditor asks, rather than scattered across a roster app, a folder of Word policies and a text thread.
Common questions
What is NDIS registration group 0138?
From 1 July 2026, Supported Independent Living moves into its own registration group, 0138 (Assistance with Supported Independent Living). SIL is currently bundled under registration class 0115. A new SIL-specific Practice Standards module commences on the same day.
Is “Module 5A” the official name for the new SIL standards?
No. “Module 5A” is shorthand used by some consultants and auditors. The Commission’s terms are the SIL supplementary module and the SIL Practice Standards. Use the official language in anything you submit.
By when does a SIL provider have to register?
Registration becomes mandatory from 1 July 2026. A provider already delivering SIL must be registered, or have lodged an application, by 1 October 2026, or stop delivering SIL. Delivering SIL unregistered from 1 July may breach the NDIS Act.
Where Clearline fits, honestly
Aura OS by Clearline Health is built for the operator with three houses, not three hundred. It tracks the six audit pillars live, and an empty pillar shows as empty, not as a flattering ninety per cent. When the auditor asks, the 60-second audit test packages the evidence: pick a participant, a date and a Practice Standard, and a branded PDF is on its way to your auditor in two clicks.
On price, it is free for your first two participants: the full app, every audit-pass-critical feature, unlimited workers and houses, no card and no time limit. Above two participants it grows in simple bands, $290 a month for three to ten participants, $690 for eleven to thirty, $1,200 for thirty-one to sixty (AUD, ex GST). Never per worker, never per house, and migration is free. We use AI narrowly, for admin like reading Webster packs and drafting handover summaries, never for care decisions. AI for admin, humans for care. Australian-owned and Sydney-hosted; the few US sub-processors we rely on are each named in our privacy policy.
Honest about the limit: software does not pass an audit, your practice does. What good software does is put the proof one click away.
Pass your audit without losing your weekend.
See where you stand against the SIL standards. Start free, every audit-ready feature included, no credit card.
This post is written from the Commission’s published material on SIL registration and the new SIL Practice Standards, and from our experience building compliance software for SIL providers. It is not legal advice, or a substitute for the Practice Standards themselves or guidance from your approved quality auditor. The SIL standards and some transition details are still being finalised, so check the current registration groups, standards and dates on the NDIS Commission’s website before you act.