Where someone lives, who they live with, and how much support that arrangement actually needs. These are the assessments behind SIL, SDA and independent living funding requests.
Home and living is the part of the NDIS that decides where a person lives and what support is funded there. The decisions are large, the evidence requirements are specific, and a report written without them in mind is the most common reason a request stalls.
What the assessment covers. Current living arrangement and why it is or isn't working. Daily support needs across a full 24 hours, including overnight. Safety, risk and what happens when support isn't present. Decision-making, communication and how the person directs their own support. What the person wants, in their own words.
A full day and night, not a snapshot. Support needs at 2pm and support needs at 2am are different questions, and funding requests are decided on both. Where overnight support is part of the request, the assessment has to evidence what actually happens overnight.
Options, considered honestly. The NDIA expects to see that alternatives were weighed — individual living options, home modifications, assistive technology, informal support, shared arrangements — before a more expensive option is recommended. A report that names only one option is a weaker report.
SDA and SIL are different requests. SDA funds the dwelling itself and turns on physical design and functional impairment. SIL funds the support delivered in it and turns on the hours and intensity of assistance needed. They are often sought together and they need different evidence.
Input from everyone involved — family, current support workers, other clinicians, the support coordinator — with consent. Home and living reports are stronger when several people describe the same week.
These are substantial pieces of work with a lot riding on them. Call before booking — we will talk through what the request needs and whether we are the right practice for it, rather than starting an assessment that turns out to be the wrong one.
Under the NDIS, the assessment and report sit in Capacity Building — Improved Daily Living. The funding being sought — SIL, SDA or an Individualised Living Option — sits elsewhere in the plan and is decided separately.
We work with self-managed and plan-managed participants. We are not able to take NDIA-managed plans.
A home and living report structured the way the request is assessed: current arrangement, functional profile across a full 24-hour period, risk and safety, options considered and why they were or weren't suitable, and a recommendation with the reasoning attached.
Reports are with you one week from the final assessment session. If more than one session is needed to cover overnight and community support properly, we will say so before starting rather than after.
SDA funds the building — a dwelling designed or modified for someone with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. SIL funds the support delivered inside it. They are separate requests with separate evidence, and people often need one without the other.
Longer than a standard functional capacity assessment, because it has to cover a full day and night and usually involves several people. Expect more than one session, then one week for the report.
ILO work is about designing an arrangement rather than placing someone in an existing one, and the assessment reflects that — who the person wants to live with, what support comes from where, and what makes it sustainable. Call and we will talk it through.
No, and any practice that says otherwise should worry you. What a good report does is present the evidence clearly and honestly so the decision is made on an accurate picture.
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