Social planning consulting services
Vaere Social is a social planning consultancy based in Canberra, delivering social impact assessment, social infrastructure planning, and strategic advisory across Australia. We work with government and industry to navigate complex social, environmental, and community challenges, translating them into clear, place-based decisions.
Our services
Social impact assessment
Assessment of the social impacts associated with infrastructure, development, and policy proposals. Includes impact analysis, risk identification, mitigation strategies, and reporting aligned with statutory and approval requirements.
Planning for community infrastructure to support population growth and changing needs. Includes needs analysis, service planning, and integration with land use and infrastructure strategies.
Social infrastructure planning
Affordable housing and social policy
Analysis and strategic advisory to support affordable housing outcomes within planning and policy contexts. Includes integration of housing considerations into land use, infrastructure planning, and social policy, with a focus on equity, access, and long-term community outcomes.
Social research and analysis
Evidence-based research to inform planning and decision-making. Includes demographic analysis, community profiling, policy analysis, and translation of findings into clear, practical recommendations.
Climate change and resilience social planning
Integration of social considerations into climate adaptation and resilience planning, ensuring communities are supported through environmental and structural change.
Inclusive and neurodiversity informed planning
Research and advisory services focussed on inclusive environments and diverse community needs, including neurodiversity-informed approaches to planning, design, and policy.
Approach
Vaere Social works at the intersection of social, environmental, and spatial planning. Our approach is grounded in evidence and shaped by place, with a focus on translating complex social dynamics into clear, practical outcomes. We engage with projects at multiple scales, from strategic policy through to infrastructure and development, ensuring social considerations are meaningfully integrated into decision-making.
We bring a structured yet flexible methodology, combining quantitative analysis, qualitative insight, and stakeholder input. This includes demographic and policy analysis, social risk and impact assessment, and the synthesis of community perspectives. Our role is to clarify complexity, supporting clients in understanding the social implications, navigating uncertainty, and making informed, defensible decisions.
Our work is defined by a people-centred lens, recognising that social outcomes are shaped by systems, place, and lived experience. We focus on delivering analysis and advice that is both rigorous and usable, aligned with statutory requirements while also supporting better long-term outcomes for communities.
Vaere Social is based in Canberra and works across Australia.
Get in touch
If you’re shaping policy, infrastructure, or urban places and want to do so with care, clarity, and social impact that lasts, I’d love to hear from you.
At Vaere Social, we help clients navigate complexity with integrity. We bring the human layer into big decisions, and support strategies that are inclusive, future-focussed, and built to hold.
Every project is different - and so is our role. Whether you need strategic advice, embedded support or just someone to sense-check a path forward, let’s talk about how we can work together.
Experience
Vaere Social brings experience across infrastructure, land use planning, policy development, and applied research. Work spans government and industry contexts, contributing to projects that require integrated social, environmental, and strategic planning expertise.
This includes social impact assessment for major infrastructure and development projects, social infrastructure planning to support growth and change, and strategic advisory to inform policy and long-term planning frameworks. Projects often involve working within multidisciplinary teams, translating social considerations into formats that align with planning, engineering, and environmental processes.
In addition to project-based work, Vaere Social undertakes targeted research exploring emerging issues in planning, including inclusive and neurodiversity-informed approaches. This research informs both practice and broader conversations about how planning systems respond to diverse community needs.