Social Impact Assessment

Social impacts are the effects people experience when a new project brings change to their lives, communities, or environment.

The Department’s Social Impact Assessment Guideline helps deliver a clear and consistent approach to assessing the social impacts of State significant projects.

The guideline provides a framework to identify, predict, and evaluate social impacts of major projects and develops appropriate responses. This provides clarity and certainty for both project proponents and the community.

All State significant projects need to prepare a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) in accordance with the Secretary's Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs).

In July 2025, we refined the guideline to provide a clearer messaging and more practical guidance. The refined guideline aims to support more effective social impact assessments to contribute to better social outcomes for State significant projects.

The refinements include:

• Clarifying social impact assessment expectations for State significant housing projects.
• Clarifying that social impact assessments should detail social impact mitigations and management actions that will be implemented post approval.
• Clarifying when a post-approval Social Impact Management Plan (SIMP) would be required.
• Refining key terms and concepts, including social locality, social and engagement data, mitigation strategies, and social impact management.

The guideline is supported by a Technical Supplement and Scoping Worksheet. Specific guidance for State significant housing projects is provided in an example case study that illustrates how to consider social impacts.

The guideline and supporting resources are available for download on the NSW Planning Portal.