The NDIS Minister counts 14,500 SIL providers registered or on their way. The release does not say how many are which

SIL is the round-the-clock support package for people with higher support needs, often in shared homes. Since 1 July 2026, new SIL providers have needed registration with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission before they start. Providers already delivering SIL unregistered had until 1 October to apply. A provider that did not apply, in the Commission’s words, will need to stop providing supported independent living supports. We set out where SIL sits among the compulsory registrations in August.

What the minister announced

The 26 October release from Senator Jenny McAllister says more than 14,500 SIL providers are registered or progressing through registration requirements under transitional arrangements. It says providers that did not engage now face targeted compliance and enforcement action, and that Regulatory officers have already begun site visits to providers who have failed to respond. It also says new powers under the NDIS Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Act 2026 let the Commission require information within five days instead of 28.

The release adds three figures about registration generally: processing times cut by 78 per cent since 2024, more than 40,000 registration conditions imposed, and More than 14,000 provider applications have been refused. None of the three comes with a period or a base.

What the penalties actually are

The release’s penalty figures check out against the law. Section 73B of the NDIS Act makes it a contravention to provide a support under a participant’s plan that the rules say only a registered provider may provide, when you are not registered. One contravention can be dealt with three ways. The Commonwealth penalty unit rose to $364 on 1 July 2026, for offences committed from that date.

The release quotes the top civil figure, $3.64 million, as the ceiling, which is accurate. It does not mention that the $3.64 million is reserved for a serious contravention, that the ceiling in any other case is $91,000, or that a strict liability offence exists at all. The strict liability route matters in practice, because the prosecution does not have to prove the provider meant to break the rule.

What the 14,500 does and does not tell you

Set the minister’s figure beside the Commission’s own counts and it is large. The Commission’s quarterly performance report for April to June 2026 counts 27,257 registered providers of every kind at 30 June, up from 21,649 at the end of March 2025, with 968 newly registered in the June quarter. The NDIA’s quarterly report counted 36,808 participants in SIL at 31 March 2026. Against those, 14,500 SIL providers works out at about two and a half SIL participants for every provider counted.

Part of the explanation is likely to be how the count is built. The Commission says the new SIL group, 0138, will be added to registration certificates of approved providers, and its transition pathways start from whether a provider already held the old shared living group, 0115. So already-registered SIL providers are probably inside the 14,500 alongside new applicants. The register supports that reading: of the 53 revocations on it, effective from 31 July onward, for providers whose groups include 0138, every one also lists 0115.

Our view, labelled as such. The question a participant or family needs answered is not how many providers are “registered or progressing”, but how many were delivering SIL unregistered on 30 June, how many of those applied, how many stopped, and how many participants had to find someone new. The release answers none of those. A single number that merges providers who passed an audit years ago with providers whose application is still open cannot show whether the deadline did its job. The Commission holds the split; it should publish it.

The refusal figure has the same problem. The Commission’s quarterly reports record 1,840 refusals of registration across the six quarters from January 2025 to June 2026: 318 involving registered providers and 1,522 unregistered. So the release’s 14,000 must reach back further than that or count something different, and it does not say which.

What the register shows so far

We downloaded the Commission’s compliance and enforcement register on 28 October. It lists 35 actions with effect dates of 1 October or later, three of them still in the future: 18 revocations of registration, 16 banning orders and one compliance notice. None of the published reasons mentions section 73B, providing a support while unregistered, or unregistered SIL. That does not mean nothing is happening. Site visits and information demands are not register entries, the register carries no prosecutions or infringement notices (the Commission lists infringement notices separately), and it has run weeks behind before: in October we showed 242 revocations that took more than a month to appear. It means only that, on the public record, enforcement against unregistered SIL had not yet surfaced by 28 October.

If you live in SIL, or support someone who does

Ask your provider directly whether it is registered for SIL or applied by 1 October. A registered provider appears on the Commission’s NDIS Provider Register, which lists registered providers only, so for a provider that says it has applied, ask for the date it applied. If a provider stops delivering SIL, the Commission says it must follow the notification and participant transition steps in its guidance on stopping services. Ask what notice you would get.

One group is outside the rule. The Commission’s definition says it is not SIL when a person chooses and manages their own support workers, including directing, planning and rostering them. A participant or family member who arranges supports that way is not a SIL provider and does not need to register as one.

We will read the Commission’s July to September 2026 quarterly performance report when it is published and report whether the registered provider count shows the SIL intake. Last year’s July to September edition was uploaded in November.