If you are anywhere near a SIL request, somebody will eventually say “we need the roster of care”. It is one of the most consequential documents in the whole home and living process, and one of the least explained. This guide covers what a roster of care is, who writes it, how it relates to the OT assessment, and why the two documents agreeing with each other matters more than most people realise.
What a roster of care is
A roster of care (often shortened to ROC) maps out the support a person will receive in a Supported Independent Living arrangement, hour by hour and day by day: when support workers are present, how many, whether support is shared between housemates or one-to-one, and what form overnight support takes. The NDIA uses it to understand what is actually being proposed and to work out SIL funding, so it is not an internal admin document. It is part of the evidence a funding decision rests on.
Think of it as the timetable version of the support need: if the functional evidence says what a person needs, the roster says how that need will be met across a real week.
Who writes it, and who deliberately does not
The roster of care is generally developed by the person’s chosen SIL provider, with the participant and the people supporting them. That makes sense: the provider employs the workers, runs the house, and knows what a workable shift structure looks like.
What the provider should not be the source of is the underlying evidence of need. That comes from independent assessment, usually an occupational therapist’s, and the separation is deliberate: the organisation paid to deliver support hours should not be the one deciding how many hours are needed. We keep those roles distinct on purpose: our SIL assessments establish the need; the provider’s roster proposes how to meet it. When someone offers to do both at once, it is fair to ask who the evidence serves.
What a roster typically covers
- The weekly pattern: support hours across each day, including the differences between weekdays and weekends.
- Ratios: which hours are one-to-one and which are shared across housemates, and at what ratio.
- Overnight arrangements: whether nights are covered by an awake worker, a sleepover arrangement, or no on-site support.
- The shape of the household: how many participants share the arrangement and how their supports interact.
Formats vary between providers and the NDIA’s requirements evolve, so treat any template you find online as indicative rather than final.
The consistency test: where SIL requests quietly fail
Here is the part worth reading twice. The NDIA receives two documents that describe the same person’s support: the functional assessment and the roster of care. When they tell the same story, the request reads as coherent. When they do not, one of two things happens: the funding follows the more conservative document, or the whole file goes back for more evidence.
The mismatches are rarely dishonest. They happen because the documents were written months apart, by people who never spoke, from different information. The classic examples:
- The roster proposes an active overnight worker; the assessment contains no overnight evidence at all.
- The assessment describes substantial informal support from family; the roster assumes it all continues, or all stops, without saying which.
- The roster proposes 1:1 support through the day; the assessment describes tasks that could clearly be supported at 1:2 or 1:3.
- The assessment describes a fluctuating condition; the roster is built for the average week, which exists on paper and never in life.
The fix is sequencing and communication: functional evidence first, roster developed against it, and any divergence resolved before submission rather than discovered by a delegate. When we write SIL evidence we ask to see the proposed roster where one exists, precisely so the two documents meet before the NDIA reads either.
How the roster relates to the rest of the process
In a typical sequence: the person has a home and living goal in their plan; a support coordinator assembles supporting evidence, including the occupational therapy assessment; the NDIA considers the request; and where SIL is approved, the roster of care is developed with the chosen provider and used in working out the funding. The order varies in practice, and the planning framework itself is being progressively reworked under the 2024 legislation, so treat process detail as current-best rather than permanent. The evidence logic, need first, roster against need, does not change.
Frequently asked questions
Does an occupational therapist write the roster of care?
No. The roster is developed with the SIL provider. The OT provides the independent functional evidence the roster should be consistent with: the support need, its pattern across day and night, and the ratios the evidence supports.
Can the roster change after funding?
Arrangements do get adjusted as needs change, and significant changes generally mean going back to the NDIA with updated evidence. A good initial assessment names likely review triggers, which makes later changes easier to evidence.
What if the provider’s roster asks for more support than the assessment supports?
That mismatch is exactly what delegates look for. The honest fixes are either better evidence, if the need is real but was not captured, or a revised roster. Submitting the mismatch and hoping is the slowest option of the three.
Who should I talk to first if none of this exists yet?
Usually a support coordinator, and early functional evidence rarely goes to waste. Our home and living supporting evidence page explains who writes which part of the file, and our home and living hub maps the five support types a request can point to.
Sources
- NDIS guidance on supported independent living and roster of care submissions for providers, ndis.gov.au, accessed August 2026. Requirements and formats change; confirm the current position with the NDIA, your provider or your support coordinator.