This literature review represents the first phase of a project that investigates and applies a social licence framework as a means of building improved understanding and pinpointing opportunities and advice for strengthening policy reform. Social licence offers an established means of analysing key aspects of major, successful policy reform that are either rarely measured or taken-for-granted.

While the social license to operate (SLO) has clear relevance to public policy implementation, its application remains relatively novel, originating first in the resources sector and later transferring to other major projects and areas of public policy. It is not yet well understood how public servants interpret SLO, how transferable it is from the private to public sector for policy development and implementation, or what capabilities are needed to build and maintain it in a government context. 

This resource seeks to explore these questions through a comprehensive literature review of how SLO is defined and applied in Australia and internationally. It found that while explicit references to SLO in policy are rare, many of its core elements such as trust, legitimacy and fairness, are well recognised. Terms like stakeholder buy-in and policy acceptance can be understood as proxies in some cases when SLO is not named. 

The review also identifies key mechanisms governments use to build legitimacy including participatory processes, transparent communication and long-term relationship-building. It highlights barriers too such as politicisation, inconsistent engagement and short-termism that undermine public trust and erode reform capability.