What is respite and Short Term Accommodation?
NDIS short-term accommodation gives a participant and their primary informal supports time apart for at least one night. It may take place in standard accommodation, in the participant's own home or through a suitable homestay arrangement, depending on the participant's plan and usual disability-related support needs. Its purpose is to sustain the participant's usual informal support arrangement, not to provide a holiday.
The NDIS introduced the name "Short Term Respite" in October 2025, but its current participant page and detailed guideline still use "short-term accommodation". Families may also encounter the common acronym "STA" in plans and provider information, so we explain all three terms without treating them as different supports.
What does respite usually include?
Depending on the plan, short-term accommodation funding may cover clean, comfortable standard accommodation with basic amenities and the accessibility features the participant needs. It may also cover disability-related support for everyday activities such as showering, cooking, eating, drinking and toileting, based on the level of support the participant usually needs.
Participants pay for their own food and meals. They also pay activity costs such as tickets, entry fees, equipment and memberships. NDIS funding may cover the disability-related support needed to prepare or eat a meal when that support is separately funded, and the support needed to take part in an activity, but not the activity itself. We confirm what a proposed arrangement includes before anything is booked.
What respite is not: it is not a holiday
Current NDIS guidance is clear that short-term accommodation funding is not for holidays. It cannot pay for cruises, holiday packages, holiday accommodation, airfares, passports, visas, travel insurance, entertainment tickets, food or meals.
It also does not replace ordinary time apart through school, work or community activities, and it does not replace crisis accommodation or other mainstream services. A participant can keep doing their usual activities and may use funded disability support to take part, but they pay the activity cost themselves.
How many days of respite can someone get?
The NDIA generally funds short-term accommodation for up to 28 days per year, used flexibly in blocks of up to 14 days at a time. For example, a participant might use a weekend each month or a longer block within that limit. More than 28 days may be considered only in exceptional circumstances.
These are general limits, not a promise that funding will be included. The NDIA decides what is funded for each participant. Check the support in your plan and ask your NDIS contact about funding or eligibility. If Support Coordination is funded, a Support Coordinator can help implement the arrangement once the funded scope is clear. A plan manager can help with budget, invoice and payment questions.
Who can usually access respite?
For adults, the current detailed NDIS guideline says the participant must live with or get daily drop-in support from their primary informal supports, and get more than six hours a day of disability-related support from those primary informal supports on a long-term basis. At least one additional factor from the detailed guideline must also apply. Read the current guideline for the complete list rather than assuming one general circumstance is enough.
These are decision criteria, not a guarantee. For participants under 18, the NDIS applies separate criteria and funds short-term accommodation only in exceptional situations; it does not replace ordinary parenting responsibilities. Ask your NDIS contact and read the current NDIS guideline for the full criteria that apply to the participant.
How is respite funded?
Short-term accommodation is included as flexible funding in a participant's Core budget when the NDIA approves it. The participant must use it in line with their plan and make the funding last for the plan period. Horizons does not decide eligibility or funding. Ask your NDIS contact about inclusion in the plan, confirm the support arrangement with your provider and funded Support Coordinator, and ask your plan manager about budget, invoice and payment administration.
How is respite different from SIL and MTA?
These supports are easy to mix up. Short Term Respite or short-term accommodation is overnight time apart from primary informal supports, generally up to 28 days a year. Supported Independent Living (SIL) is ongoing support with daily tasks in the place a person lives. The current NDIS guideline says short-term accommodation is generally not funded when a participant lives in SIL or has primary or supplementary Individualised Living Options funding. Horizons does not provide SIL.
Medium Term Accommodation (MTA) is temporary accommodation, generally for up to 90 days, when a participant cannot yet move into a longer-term home. If you are weighing up these options, ask your NDIS contact which funded support applies to your situation.
How Horizons supports respite in Brisbane
Horizons Support Network is a Brisbane-based, person-first team. When we support a funded Short Term Respite arrangement, we take time to understand routines, preferences and the participant's usual disability-related support needs. Where overnight support forms part of those usual funded needs, we plan it carefully and keep communication clear.
We work across Brisbane and surrounding suburbs. We can coordinate implementation with the participant's funded Support Coordinator and allied health team so the arrangement fits alongside other supports. Where funding is plan-managed, the plan manager can confirm budget, invoice and payment administration.
What Horizons does and does not provide
Horizons provides planned Short Term Respite support for self-managed and plan-managed participants only; we do not support NDIA-managed participants. The arrangement must match the participant's funded plan, usual disability-related support needs, our verified worker capability and the service agreement.
We do not provide Support Coordination or plan management. We do not provide SIL, clinical services or high-intensity clinical supports. Overnight support is accepted only when it sits within our verified training and agreed service scope.
