What the Practice Standards are for
The Practice Standards set out what quality and safe support looks like. Registered providers must meet the standards that apply to their supports, and an approved quality auditor checks this before registration and again during it. They also tell participants what to expect from a registered provider.
Each module has outcomes, written from the participant's point of view, and quality indicators, which describe how a provider can show it meets the outcome. Auditors rate each indicator.
The core module
The core module applies to all registered providers delivering higher risk supports. It has four parts:
- Rights and responsibilities: person centred supports, individual values and beliefs, privacy and dignity, independence and informed choice, and violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination
- Provider governance and operational management: governance, risk, quality, information, feedback and complaints, incidents, human resources, continuity of supports, and emergency and disaster management
- Provision of supports: access to supports, support planning, service agreements with participants, responsive support provision, and transitions to or from a provider
- Provision of supports environment: safe environment, participant money and property, management of medication, mealtime management and management of waste
Supplementary modules
Depending on what you deliver, you are also assessed against one or more supplementary modules:
- High intensity daily personal activities
- Specialist behaviour support
- Implementing behaviour support plans
- Early childhood supports
- Specialised support coordination
- Specialist Disability Accommodation
- Supported independent living
The verification module
Providers who only deliver lower risk, lower complexity supports, often professionals already regulated through AHPRA or a professional body, meet the verification module instead. It has four areas: human resource management, incident management, complaints management and resolution, and risk management.
In practice that means keeping worker records and checks, making sure workers complete the NDIS Worker Orientation Module, having proportionate incident, complaint and risk systems, holding appropriate insurance, and training workers in infection prevention and control.
New SIL Practice Standards from 1 July 2026
Supported independent living providers must be registered from 1 July 2026, and must meet the core module plus a new supported independent living module. The new standards focus on the voice, rights and freedoms of participants and what good practice looks like in the home. They were developed with Inclusion Australia and people with disability, and include a supported decision making standard tested in a pilot audit in early 2026.
The Practice Standards review
The NDIS Commission has run a national consultation on a broader review of the Practice Standards, including a possible NDIS Quality Framework and changes to how standards are assessed. The Commission is still considering that feedback, so the current modules remain the ones you are audited against. With mandatory registration expanding to higher risk supports such as personal care from 1 July 2027, more providers will need to meet these standards in the coming years.
Tips for providers
Read the standards for your registration groups early and compare your real practice against each quality indicator. Write policies that describe what you actually do, train staff on them, and keep evidence such as incident logs, complaint records, supervision notes and participant feedback. Auditors want to see that systems work day to day, not just that documents exist.