The Social Licence
Every successful institution depends upon something that rarely appears in organisational charts or governance handbooks. It is not legal authority. It is not regulatory approval. It is not financial sustainability or inspection outcomes. It is something far less tangible, and often far more important.
In the business world, it is what we call a social licence: the continuing consent of the community to exercise authority on its behalf.
Schools rarely speak in these terms, but they experience the phenomenon every day.
