It is certainly no secret that the Agency has had concerns with the rising cost of Supported Independent Living (SIL) for some time. The NDIA’s last quarterly report identified that 23,368 (5.4%) participants were accessing SIL, with a staggering 27% of total NDIS supports committed to those 5.4% of participants. The Agency’s constant messaging about the increasing average cost of SIL is a strong indicator of the trepidation they have about the ongoing sustainability of the scheme.

The recent consultation paper “An Ordinary Life at Home”, released in September 2021, provides a strong indication about the direction the agency wants to take. Their vision of “an Australia where people with disability live ordinary lives in ordinary homes and are included in their communities” (NDIA: Consolation Paper: An Ordinary Life at Home, September 2021) is a bold and inspirational position. The paper emphasises Individualised Living Options (ILO) as its pivotal way to make the change towards its newly articulated vision. It even goes so far as to raise some serious concerns with SIL in its current form and in its inability to create an ordinary life for people with a disability, including the highlighting of research that shows that people with a disability in SIL are at a higher risk of abuse and neglect; inappropriate placements; workforce issues; cultural issues; and isolation. Is this a clue to perhaps the demise of SIL as we know it?