An optional short stay to help you get started

In short

Do I have to stay?

No.

Can I do my program from home?

Yes.

Is the accommodation part of Sunshine Life Skills?

No; it's booked and invoiced separately by Sundeck Gardens.

Will the NDIS pay for it?

Not automatically; it depends on your plan and needs checking (plan-managed: confirm with your plan manager first).

How long?

Two to seven nights, with sessions each day.

Who decides?

You.

A change of environment makes practice easier for some people and harder for others — we'll talk that through with you before anything is booked.

Is a stay right for you?

Under current NDIS guidance, Short-Term Accommodation may be available where you live with your primary informal support, or receive daily drop-in support, and receive more than six hours a day of disability-related support from that primary informal support. It is generally funded for up to 28 days a year, to give you and the people who support you time apart while your disability support continues. Your own plan and circumstances determine what applies to you.

STA doesn't cover: Travel to and from the accommodation (unless your plan has separate transport funding), meals, entertainment, holiday extras and anything that's a normal personal cost. NDIS funding also can't pay for a stay whose purpose is a holiday.

How it works

• You book accommodation with Sundeck Gardens, and you book your program with Sunshine Life Skills. They are two separate businesses, two separate agreements and two separate invoices.
• Sundeck Gardens' normal accommodation rate applies.
• Deb and Ian are involved in running both. We tell you this plainly because you have a right to know it, and because it's part of why the arrangement works: the people supporting you already know the place.
• Staying at Sundeck is never a condition of working with Sunshine Life Skills, and choosing not to stay changes nothing about your program.

What a starting stay can look like

Sundeck Gardens in Cotton Tree gives you a practical base: your own kitchen, and shops, cafés, the beach, the river and public transport within an easy walk — the same everyday places we'll be practising in.

Two to seven nights, with sessions each day. A typical few days might include planning meals and shopping for them at the local supermarket, cooking in the apartment kitchen, taking the bus to somewhere new, and building a simple weekly routine you take home with you. What we work on comes from your goals and your plan — not a set itinerary.

Paying for the accommodation with NDIS Short-Term Accommodation funding

An optional stay for life-skills practice does not by itself establish eligibility for NDIS Short-Term Accommodation funding. STA is intended to give you and your primary informal supports time apart while your usual disability support continues.

If your NDIS plan includes Short-Term Accommodation (STA) funding, you may be able to use it for a stay at Sundeck Gardens. The NDIS allows STA to be used for standard accommodation such as hotels, motels and short-stay apartments where the stay is for an STA purpose — it can't be used for an ordinary holiday. Whether a stay is an appropriate STA support for you depends on your plan and your circumstances.

The NDIS price limit for STA participant accommodation is currently $162.85 per day (2026–27). Sundeck Gardens' rate is usually higher than this, so there may be a gap. How that gap is handled depends on how your funding is managed:

• Self-managed: the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026–27 and the NDIS guidance on managing your funding let self-managed participants agree a price above the published limit. That means you can choose to put more of your STA funding towards each night, which reduces the amount you pay yourself. Doing so uses your STA budget faster — it's designed to last your whole plan, and you may want it later in the year. This is your decision; if you're unsure, your support coordinator, nominee or the NDIS can talk it through with you.
• Plan-managed: your plan manager can only pay up to the NDIS price limit. If the accommodation price is higher, don't assume the difference can be added as a private payment — check with your plan manager or the NDIS before you book.

We'll always give you the accommodation price and the Sunshine Life Skills price separately and in writing before you commit to anything. Nobody should book expecting the NDIS to cover the full amount and find out afterwards that it doesn't.

Support worker accommodation

If a support worker genuinely needs to stay with you, there's a separate NDIS item for their accommodation (also $162.85 per day, 2026–27). It applies only where that's part of your disability-related support arrangement, and it doesn't cover the worker's actual support time — that's agreed and invoiced separately.

Don't have STA in your plan yet?

Short-Term Accommodation isn't in every plan, but you can ask for it.

• Check what you already have. Depending on how your plan is structured, existing flexible Core funding may be able to be used for an eligible STA support. Check your plan and speak with your plan manager or my NDIS contact before booking.
• Ask about changing your plan. If your current plan doesn't include STA, or your circumstances have changed, talk with your NDIS contact — or your support coordinator, or the NDIS directly on 1800 800 110 — about whether a plan variation or a plan reassessment is the right pathway. A plan variation is for changes that are urgent, minor or short-term. A plan reassessment request goes on the NDIS form, must explain what has changed and why, and needs evidence, which may have to come from a GP or health professional. Only the participant, their nominee or their child representative can ask for one.
• Explain why it would help. The NDIS funds STA to help sustain your everyday support arrangements. Ask your NDIS contact what evidence to include with your request.

Read the NDIS guidance on Short-Term Accommodation.

We can't apply for funding on your behalf, and we can't promise the NDIS will agree. What we can do is talk through with you what you'd use a stay for, so that when you ask, you're asking for something concrete. If you'd like that, use the enquiry form and say so.

How to enquire

Use the enquiry form and tell us you're interested in starting with a stay, roughly when, how long, and whether your funding is self- or plan-managed. We'll come back to you with the Sunshine Life Skills side; Sundeck Gardens will confirm the accommodation and its price. You decide from there.