NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH

Registered charity 1091768 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as NATCEN, NATCEN SOCIAL RESEARCH, SCPR, SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY PLANNING RESEARCH · also registered in Scotland as SC038454 (OSCR)

The provision on education and research into all areas of social policy particularly health, employment, housing, travel, education and crime. Most of the projects undertaken include surveys carried out throughout Great Britain

Causes: Education/training · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity generated a net income of £1.2m for the year, with total income growing to £53.2m. However, the charity reports negative net assets of £3.3m primarily due to a defined benefit pension scheme liability of £17.2m, though it maintains positive free reserves of £5.1m.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by MHA. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.

In the news

Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).

• National Centre for Social Research appoints Maisie Anderson-Davis as Director of External Engagement natcen.ac.uk · 07/04/2026
• New research from National Centre for Social Research identifies opportunities to help health and disability benefit customers into work natcen.ac.uk · 07/02/2025
• National Centre for Social Research to lead evaluation of UK Space Agency Inspiration Programme natcen.ac.uk · 24/07/2024
• National Centre for Social Research to investigate Gambling Act Review next.io · 12/03/2024
• National Centre for Social Research to lead Monitoring and Evaluation of Gambling Act Review natcen.ac.uk · 11/03/2024
• National Centre for Social Research to lead the evaluation of three educational programmes natcen.ac.uk · 28/02/2024
• National Centre for Social Research to lead two new studies, Five to Twelve and Growing Up in the 2020s natcen.ac.uk · 19/07/2023

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — National Centre for Social Research (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Michael Davis — Chief Executive (source)
• Sir Stuart Etherington — Chair (source)
• Gillian Prior — Deputy Chief Executive (source)
• Robert Swinchatt — Director of Finance and Chief Commercial Officer (source)
• Lola Olujobi — Director of People and Culture (source)
• Paul Bradshaw — Director of the Scottish Centre for Social Research (source)
• Joy Mhonda — Director of Policy Research Centre (source)
• Lovisa Moller Vallgarda — Director of Innovation and Analytics (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Public-sector contracts awarded

From the official Contracts Finder and Find a Tender notices (supplier matched by exact registered name). Contract income is distinct from grants.

Property (HM Land Registry)

3 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (2 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/06/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~1.8 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (99% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.8%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Sir Stuart Etheringtonchair
• Alison Park
• BRUCE MALCOLM GORDON · trustee of 1 other charity
• Helen Jane Barnard
• Ian Rivers
• James Brooks
• Mark Duke
• Nina Skero
• Oliver James Foster
• Phyllis MacFarlane
• Professor Sundari Anitha
• Saratha Rajeswaran Gabbitas · trustee of 1 other charity

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH.

• THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH income £4.0m
• THE SOCIAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION income £690k
• THE NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN income £120.3m
• NATIONAL NUMERACY income £2.2m
• National Centre For Universities and Business income £2.9m
• CENTRE FOR COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY EDUCATION TRUST income £1.9m

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.