SIL (Supported Independent Living) is for participants who need 24/7 support living in the same facility. It covers the cost of support staff providing services. These supports help participants to live as independently as possible by facilitating their development of basic living skills and engagement in the community.   Although they are funded individually, supports can be shared among the members/participants in the facility. This is where Groups of Support can be planned and included in the Program of Supports (POS).

‍

How to transition your NDIS Support Independent Living (SIL) to the new apportioned prices?

SIL submissions, a.k.a Roster of Care are submitted before getting the funds, so there’s a good opportunity for providers/support coordinators to plan and include Group of Supports in the schedule including extra services to request funding.

Groups of support in SIL provide flexibility for the participants to receive services each week as per their need and choice, giving them choice and control of the support they receive for their funding. For example, on a given week a participant might need fewer hours of support services as they are comfortable doing tasks one day, whereas they might need more support hours the following day due to fluctuations in their health. This really keeps the participants' funds more liquid and less rigid than the traditional Roster of care, but at the same time it can be a headache for managers and admins to do rostering. That’s where Comm.care can make it a breeze.

Let’s clarify this further with an example,

There is a SIL facility/home with a capacity of 4 participants with a mutual goal of increasing their independence for day to day tasks like cooking, increasing budgeting skills, laundry, dressing etc. This will require 2 support workers for almost 8 hours a day. We also include ‘Irregular SIL Support’ for extra services when participants fall ill or a day program is cancelled, resulting in the participants requiring additional SIL support at their home (this means the support workers need to travel there).

Now let’s see how to calculate the support with apportioned pricing for each session during a weekday daytime from 10:00 a.m to 6:00 p.m. The key is to calculate the apportioned pricing that will be charged based on the NDIS Price Guide.

Apportioned Pricing = (Unit Price * Number of Support Workers)/Number of participants

So for our example: $ 28.65 = ($ 57.30 * 2 support workers)/ 4 participants

This leaves us with :

Note the following:

• The unit price is the apportioned price we used = $28.65.
• Provider travel - non-labour costs are for the total kilometres travelled by support workers to the participant’s home.
• Irregular SIL support is for special needs when the participants fall ill or the day of the program is cancelled, resulting in them requiring additional support at home. 
• If other Non-face-to-face services are provided, they can be charged one-to-one as an extra line item under the main supports.

Now, SIL is usually a 24/7 support so the same appointment is x3 times daily. Each support delivery may vary by the line items too. For example. you might or might not need to charge travel or provide irregular SIL support every day. Entering each of these service delivery details for each participant after every session can be intimidating for the admins and/or managers.  

This is where Comm.care can save you hard work. It helps you create multiple repetitive appointments with line items that can be added or removed as per the service delivery. Staff will then be able to create progress notes in minutes which will be reflected on each participant's profile. Easy claim processing really fast-tracks the organisation's cashflow and lets you focus on the actual service delivery.  

If you are interested, we invite you booking demo with us to explore how Comm.care can empower your organisation.