NDIS Home & Living Assessments — SIL, SDA, ILO and STA

The NDIS Home & Living pathway covers every funding decision the NDIA makes about where and how a participant lives. It runs from temporary respite (STA), through tailored individual arrangements (ILO), into shared supported accommodation (SIL) and purpose-built specialist housing (SDA). Each of these funding categories requires its own structured evidence report — and each has a different decision framework.

FCA Reports Australia completes evidence reports across the entire Home & Living pathway. Because we deliver none of these services ourselves, our recommendations are structurally independent — the NDIA, Support Coordinators and participants can rely on the report being free from commercial conflict of interest.

SIL funds the 24/7 paid support that allows a participant to live in shared supported accommodation. The funding is delivered as a costed Roster of Care that quantifies support intensity hour-by-hour across each shift. Our SIL assessment provides the functional evidence and the costed Roster — sleepover, active overnight, 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 ratios are all addressed with clear clinical justification.

SIL is appropriate when the participant requires daily paid support across multiple shifts AND chooses (or requires) a shared living arrangement. SIL is not the only pathway to 24/7 support — see ILO below.

SDA funds the *physical dwelling* — the bricks and mortar — for participants with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs whose disability requires specialist housing features. SDA covers four design categories: Improved Liveability, Fully Accessible, Robust, and High Physical Support. Each has a specific clinical eligibility threshold.

Our SDA assessment documents the functional impairment, the design category match, and the housing features required — using the SDA Rules and the SDA Decision Maker's Guidance. SDA is normally combined with SIL (which funds the support inside the SDA dwelling).

ILO is the most flexible Home & Living option — it funds an individually designed arrangement, often combining paid support, host arrangements, co-residency, family arrangements or creative combinations of these. ILO is built around the participant's own choice of where, how and with whom they live.

ILO has two funded stages: Stage 1 (Exploration & Design) funds the planning of the arrangement, and Stage 2 (Build & Maintain) funds the ongoing arrangement itself. Our ILO assessment provides the functional evidence and Stage-2 ongoing-arrangement design.

ILO is often the right pathway for participants who could be eligible for SIL but want a more individualised, family-style or host-based arrangement.

STA funds short stays away from the usual living arrangement — for respite, carer recovery, trial accommodation, family crisis or skill building. STA is funded under Core — Assistance with Daily Life and can support up to 14 days per stay. Our STA assessment documents the participant's need, the appropriate frequency and the recommended support ratio.

STA is often a strategic stepping stone — used to trial supported accommodation before applying for SIL, or to build the participant's confidence in a new environment before formal transition.

SIL — Required when the participant needs paid support across multiple shifts in a shared supported living arrangement. Output: costed Roster of Care.

SDA — Required when the participant's disability is severe enough to require specialist housing features (Improved Liveability, Fully Accessible, Robust or High Physical Support). Output: SDA design-category recommendation.

ILO — Required when the participant wants an individually designed arrangement instead of (or in transition to) SIL. Output: Stage 1 (exploration) or Stage 2 (build and maintain) design and costing.

STA — Required when the participant needs short-term funded accommodation for respite, trial or crisis. Output: frequency, ratio and goal recommendation.

Where the participant needs more than one — for example SIL + SDA, or STA leading into SIL — we coordinate the assessments so the evidence tells a single coherent story.