Two dates define the SIL registration reform, and they do different jobs. 1 July 2026 is when registration became mandatory and the new rules took effect. 1 October 2026 is the hard edge for providers who are still unregistered: the last day to lodge an application and keep delivering. Miss it and the funding stops, whatever the quality of your service.

Who this is for

You deliver Supported Independent Living and you are not yet registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. If you are already registered, you have less to do (see the last section), but the 1 October date still shapes the market you operate in.

What changed on 1 July 2026

From 1 July 2026, every provider delivering SIL must be registered with the NDIS Commission. Two things took effect on that date:

  • A new registration group, 0138, replaced the old SIL class 0115. Providers already registered under 0115 transition to 0138 automatically, with nothing to lodge.
  • The SIL supplementary module of the NDIS Practice Standards commenced, layered on top of the Core Module. It is the standard your audit is measured against.

SIL is now a registration-only support. Delivering it without registration is not a grey area: the penalty for providing SIL unregistered runs to two years imprisonment, 120 penalty units, or both.

The 1 October 2026 deadline: apply, or you cannot claim

If you were delivering SIL before 1 July 2026 and you are not registered, you have a transition window, but it closes on 1 October 2026. The rule is specific:

  • Apply by 1 October 2026 and you can keep delivering SIL while the Commission assesses your application. Your claims continue.
  • Do not apply by 1 October 2026 and you can only claim for SIL delivered up to 30 September 2026. After that you must stop delivering SIL.
  • If you apply but are later refused registration, you must cease delivering SIL.

This is the part providers underestimate. The deadline is not 'be registered by 1 October', it is 'have lodged a complete application by 1 October'. Registration itself can take weeks of audit and assessment after that. What protects your claims is getting the application in on time.

The deadline is not 'be registered by 1 October'. It is 'have applied by 1 October'. The application is what keeps you delivering.

Who the deadline applies to

What you do next depends on where you are today:

  • Existing unregistered SIL providers: apply by 1 October 2026 to keep delivering during assessment. This is the group the deadline is written for.
  • New SIL providers (not delivering before 1 July 2026): no grace period. You cannot deliver SIL until your registration is approved.
  • Existing registered providers (group 0115): you roll to 0138 automatically. Your job is to be ready for the SIL Practice Standards module at your next audit, not to re-apply.

What 'applying' actually involves

Registration for SIL is a certification-level process, assessed by an approved quality auditor against the Practice Standards. Applying through the Commission's portal means having these ready:

  • Details of your key personnel, and a worker screening clearance for everyone in a risk-assessed role. Clearances that are missing or expired are the most common cause of delay.
  • A self-assessment against the applicable Practice Standards: the Core Module plus the SIL supplementary module.
  • The policies, procedures and evidence that show how you meet each outcome, from incident management to restrictive-practice authorisation to complaints.

None of this is quick to assemble from a standing start, which is why the weeks before 1 October matter. If your records are scattered across spreadsheets and inboxes, the self-assessment is where that shows.

What to do now

With the window closing, a short, ordered list beats a long one:

  1. Decide, on paper. Register and keep SIL, or move to a plan-managed base and exit SIL. Both are valid; drifting toward 1 October without deciding is the costly option.
  2. Check every worker screening clearance now. Fix the gaps before they hold up the application.
  3. Run the self-assessment against the Core plus SIL modules, and note where the evidence is thin.
  4. Close the evidence gaps: the policies, the incident trail, the supervision records, the restrictive-practice authorisations.
  5. Lodge the application before 1 October 2026. Complete beats early-but-thin, but do not leave it to the last week.

For the fuller decision, registering versus staying unregistered, we wrote up the framework in register or stay unregistered. Want these dates on your calendar rather than in a browser tab? Download the .ics file.

Common questions

What is the 1 October 2026 SIL registration deadline?
From 1 July 2026, registration is mandatory to deliver Supported Independent Living. Existing unregistered SIL providers must apply to register with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission by 1 October 2026. If you apply by then, you can keep delivering while your application is assessed.

What happens if I do not apply by 1 October 2026?
You can only claim for SIL supports delivered up to 30 September 2026, and you must stop delivering SIL. If your application is later refused, you must also cease. New providers get no grace period: they cannot deliver SIL until their registration is approved.

Do existing registered SIL providers need to do anything?
Providers already holding registration group 0115 transition automatically to the new group 0138. The new SIL supplementary module of the NDIS Practice Standards applies from 1 July 2026, so review your evidence against it before your next audit.

Where Clearline fits: honestly

Aura OS by Clearline Health is NDIS compliance software built around exactly what a SIL registration application asks for: the policies, the audit evidence and the self-assessment. It carries 35 Commission-aligned policy templates, keeps your incident, supervision and restrictive-practice records in one place, and the 60-second audit test packages the evidence for a participant into a branded PDF in two clicks.

Aura OS is free for your first two participants: the full app, no time limit, every audit-ready feature included. Beyond two, simple bands grow with you from A$290/month (all prices AUD, ex GST). The bands track your participants, never your team size: adding a worker, family member, coordinator or OT is always free, and Compass and Scrive are free, always. Pilot is free for solo coordinators, forever. Migration is free. AI for admin, humans for care. Australian-owned and Sydney-hosted.

Honest about the limit: software does not register you. The Commission and its auditors decide that, and the accountability stays with you. What Aura OS does is make the evidence the application needs something you already hold, not something you build in a panic before 1 October.

Get registration-ready before 1 October.

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This is general information drawn from the NDIS Commission's published guidance on mandatory SIL registration and the NDIS registration rules, not legal advice. Dates, transition arrangements and requirements can change and can turn on your circumstances: check the current guidance on the NDIS Commission's website before you act.