Roster of Care for NDIS SIL Providers: 2026 Guide

What is a roster of care in NDIS SIL?

A roster of care (ROC) is the primary evidence document a SIL provider prepares to show the NDIA exactly what supports a participant needs, when they need them, and how many workers are required. The NDIA's own guidance describes the SIL roster of care tool as a spreadsheet that "combines worksheets and calculates a weekly support summary to help the NDIA understand if the cost of a participant's home and living supports are reasonable and necessary." It is not merely an internal scheduling document — it is a funding submission that goes directly to the NDIA for assessment.

From 1 July 2026, SIL providers must be registered under the new Registration Group 0138 — Assistance with Supported Independent Living. Mandatory registration brings mandatory audits against the new SIL-specific Practice Standards. Your roster of care sits at the intersection of both obligations: it is the document the NDIA uses to approve funding and the evidence your auditor will trace back to actual shift records.

What the NDIA roster of care tool must include

The NDIA provides an Excel-based SIL roster of care tool. When completed, it must contain the following for each participant:

• Provider and participant details — registered provider name, participant name, NDIS number, and the address of the SIL dwelling.
• 30-minute increment support mapping — every half-hour of every day across a full week, with the support type recorded for each slot.
• Support type classification — personal care, medication management, meal preparation, community participation, behaviour support, overnight care, and any high-intensity clinical supports (for example, PEG feeding, catheter care, or diabetes management).
• Staffing ratios at each time block — whether support is 1:1, 1:2 (one worker to two participants in a shared house), or 2:1 (two workers for one participant). Ratios must be backed by functional assessment evidence, not just asserted.
• Overnight support distinction — the ROC must clearly classify each overnight block as either an active overnight shift (worker awake and available continuously) or a sleepover shift (worker resting, available if required). This distinction has a significant effect on funding calculations and must be justified by clinical evidence.
• Informal support accounting — any support provided by family, friends, or unpaid carers must be documented. The NDIA factors informal support into its assessment of reasonable and necessary hours.
• Participant goals and independence outcomes — the ROC should link proposed supports to the participant's NDIS goals, not just list tasks.

Missing or orange-flagged cells in the tool must be resolved before submission. An incomplete ROC will delay funding decisions or trigger a request for additional information.

How the ROC links to the 2026 Practice Standards audit

The four SIL Practice Standards outcomes that apply from 1 July 2026 are: Supported Decision-Making, Safeguarding, Practice Governance, and Tenancy and Housing Arrangements. Your roster of care touches all four:

What an auditor looks for — practical notes

Under the 2026 model, NDIS Commission auditors are moving toward outcomes-based evidence rather than policy binders. Here is what they typically examine in relation to rosters and workforce scheduling:

• Clinical alignment — does the ROC match functional capacity evaluations, allied health assessments, and behaviour support plans? An assessment that calls for high-intensity behaviour support three times per week should not show standard support in those slots.
• Shift note consistency — actual shift logs and progress notes should be traceable back to the rostered activities. If the ROC shows medication management at 8:00 am daily, notes for that slot must exist.
• Participant voice in records — support notes should capture participant preferences in their own words, not just task completion. Auditors want to see that participants are active in decisions about their daily schedule.
• Workforce competency records — workers rostered for high-intensity supports (for example, complex bowel care or epilepsy management) must have training records on file that match those classifications.
• Supervision documentation — Practice Governance requires supervision records that confirm who was supervised, when, on what topic, and what changed in practice as a result.

Worked example: overnight support documentation

Consider a three-participant SIL house. Two participants require sleepover support; one requires active overnight support due to a seizure condition. A compliant ROC for this house would:

• Document 10:00 pm – 6:00 am for participants A and B as sleepover, with a single worker on the floor, costed at the NDIS sleepover rate.
• Document 10:00 pm – 6:00 am for participant C as active overnight, with a separate rostered worker, costed at the active night rate.
• Attach participant C's neurologist's letter or behaviour support practitioner's report as justification for active overnight classification.
• Include participant C's sign-off (or their nominee's, where capacity is limited) showing they agreed to this arrangement.

A ROC that simply marks all overnight hours as "sleepover" for cost purposes — when one participant's clinical needs require an active worker — is both a funding inaccuracy and a safeguarding failure.

Common ROC errors that delay funding approval

• Overestimating support hours without allied health justification
• Using generic task descriptions ("personal care") without specifying support type and intensity
• Failing to reflect informal support in the weekly schedule
• Submitting without documented participant input or consent
• Misclassifying sleepover shifts as active overnight to increase the funding request
• Ratios that exceed what functional assessments support

Submission process

Once complete, the ROC template and tool are submitted alongside supporting assessments to the NDIA. The NDIA's current guidance states providers can send the completed tool to [email protected] or provide it to the participant and their support coordinator to include in the participant's home and living plan. Note that the previous [email protected] inbox is no longer monitored. Always check the current NDIS provider guidance at ndis.gov.au for the most current submission instructions, as these have changed over time and may continue to change with the 2026 reforms.

The approved funding may not exactly match the total value in your proposed ROC. The NDIA will explain any variance to the participant and their representatives.

2026 mandatory registration: key dates for SIL providers

The Minister for the NDIS confirmed in December 2025 that SIL providers must register under the new model. Key dates to note:

• 1 July 2026 — mandatory registration commences; new SIL Practice Standards apply; you must have commenced a registration application to continue delivering SIL.
• 1 October 2026 — the apply-by deadline; providers who have not applied by this date must stop delivering SIL.

If you are currently unregistered and delivering SIL under a participant's plan, now is the time to act. Registration applications require evidence against the Practice Standards — including workforce systems, safeguarding policies, and governance documentation — that take time to build.

Prepare now with the free SIL Readiness Pack

If you are unsure where your ROC documentation or Practice Standards evidence sits right now, start with a structured gap assessment. Our free SIL Readiness Pack is a plain-English list of what the NDIS Commission expects from SIL providers under the 2026 model — covering roster documentation, workforce records, safeguarding systems, and the four Practice Standards outcomes — so you can identify gaps before an auditor does. This is general information to help you prepare, not legal advice. Being audit-ready means having your evidence in order; it does not guarantee an audit outcome.

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