Short-term accommodation (STA)

What is short-term accommodation (STA)?

Short-term accommodation (STA) is NDIS funding for a participant to stay somewhere else overnight, with support, so they get time apart from the family or friends who usually support them and those people get a short break. It covers the participant's disability support during the stay and standard accommodation. The NDIA generally funds STA for up to 14 days at a time and up to 28 days a year.

STA is the NDIS support most people mean when they say "NDIS respite". The difference is worth knowing: respite is the purpose — a break for the person and their carers — while STA is one specific funded support that can deliver it. The NDIA's short-term accommodation page describes STA as giving participants "mutually rewarding time apart" from their primary informal supports overnight, so those supports can sustain their usual caring arrangements.

STA has had a confusing few years of names. It was once called "short term accommodation and assistance", the NDIA renamed it short term respite in October 2025, and in 2026 it went back to short-term accommodation after community feedback. Providers and plans may still use any of these names.

How STA works

STA is part of a participant's Core supports, under Assistance with daily life. The NDIA's 2026 short-term accommodation guideline sets out when it is funded and how much.

How much STA is funded

The NDIA generally funds STA for up to 14 days at a time and up to 28 days a year. Within those limits, the amount in a plan depends on the participant's needs and their primary informal supports' situation. A "day" of STA involves at least one night away; it is not a day activity.

Where STA can happen

STA can be delivered in standard accommodation such as a respite house, hotel, motel, short-stay rental, cabin, cottage or hostel. It can be individual or shared with other participants. What matters is that the participant is supported away from their usual informal supports overnight, not that the place is a dedicated "respite centre".

How STA is priced and claimed from 2026

For years STA was claimed as one bundled daily rate covering accommodation, food, activities and support worker time. That changed with the 2026-27 pricing arrangements. The NDIA's changes to payments and claims from 1 July 2026 separate the disability support from the accommodation, so STA is now claimed as:

• Hourly support items for the support worker time, split by time of day (weekday daytime, evening and night, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays), with standard and high intensity levels and a sleepover item.
• A daily participant accommodation item for the participant's accommodation.
• A daily support worker accommodation item where a worker needs accommodation to deliver the support.

The aim is to show the hours, timing and intensity of disability support actually delivered, and to make sure STA funding only pays for NDIS supports rather than holiday packages, airfares or activities. STA items sit in registration group 0115. Current price limits are in the NDIS pricing schedule; look up each STA item in the free NDIS price guide rather than relying on old bundled rates.

Who STA is for

STA is built around primary informal supports: the family members or friends who give a participant most of their unpaid, active, disability-related support. Under the guideline, the NDIA looks at whether:

• the participant lives with, or gets daily drop-in support from, their primary informal supports;
• those informal supports give significant disability-related help — generally more than 6 hours a day on an ongoing basis for adults;
• the informal supports' wellbeing or capacity to keep caring is at risk, or they have other caring responsibilities such as young children or another family member with disability;
• for children, the child's disability-related support needs are greater than is typical for their age, and STA would help the family keep caring for them.

The NDIA usually considers other supports before STA, such as personal care at home or a support worker for a regular community activity, which may give carers a break without an overnight stay. STA also doesn't replace ordinary parenting responsibilities, such as settling a young child to sleep or babysitting.

Sources: the NDIA's short-term accommodation page and guideline.

STA vs respite, MTA and SIL

STA is easy to confuse with other home and living supports. STA is a short overnight stay so informal supports can have a break; it is not somewhere to live. Medium-term accommodation (MTA) is for people waiting to move into a long-term home, and Supported Independent Living (SIL) is ongoing support in a person's own home.

Because STA exists to give primary informal supports a break, it generally doesn't fit someone who already lives in SIL with paid workers rather than family. And because STA is capped by days, it is not a fix for a family in crisis needing longer-term housing; that is a conversation about home and living supports, a plan reassessment or mainstream housing services.

How to get STA in your plan and use it

STA is requested like other supports: you explain the need, give evidence, and the NDIA decides whether it is reasonable and necessary. The evidence that helps most is about your informal supports, not just your diagnosis:

1. Describe a typical week of informal support. Who helps you, with what, and for how many hours a day, including nights.
2. Explain the impact on your supports. For example a carer's own health, work, age, or other caring responsibilities. A letter or written statement from the carer can help.
3. Show what else has been tried. In-home support, community activities or other breaks that haven't been enough on their own.
4. Say how STA would be used. How often you would stay away and why that pattern would help your supports keep caring.
5. Raise it at the right time. Bring it to your plan reassessment or ask for a change if your circumstances have changed.

A support coordinator or local area coordinator can help put this together. If STA isn't funded and you disagree, you can ask for an internal review of the decision.

Before you book a stay

Once STA is in your plan, a few checks avoid surprises:

• Check how many STA days you have left this year, and how much funding remains for the support hours.
• Ask the provider for a quote that shows the support hours (by time of day and ratio) separately from the accommodation.
• Agree what you will pay for yourself, such as outings, entertainment and personal spending.
• Read the provider's cancellation terms; NDIS short-notice cancellation rules can apply.
• If you self-manage or use a plan manager, make sure invoices show the separate STA support and accommodation items.

What STA providers need to do in 2026

The 2026 unbundling changed how STA is quoted, rostered and invoiced. A provider delivering STA now needs to:

Record keeping matters more under the new structure. Each claim needs to line up with the support actually delivered: who was on shift, when, at what ratio, and for which participants. Shift records, progress notes and a clear service agreement that explains the hourly and accommodation components make audits and plan-manager queries much easier.

Common mistakes with STA

• Treating STA as holiday funding. Holiday packages, travel and entertainment are excluded; STA pays for support and standard accommodation only.
• Still quoting a single daily rate. For supports from 1 July 2026, support hours and accommodation are separate items.
• Ignoring the day limits. Stays are generally capped at 14 days in a row and 28 days a year unless the NDIA has funded otherwise.
• Using STA for day respite. STA involves an overnight stay; day-time breaks are usually funded as other core supports.
• Using STA as a stopgap home. If someone can't return home or is waiting for a long-term home, look at MTA or other home and living supports instead.
• Confusing the name with the purpose. STA is one way to get respite; respite can also come from in-home support or community activities.