THE NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Registered charity 313392 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q6972786 · Wikipedia · also known as N F E R, NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

The Foundation conducts research in all or any matters affecting education,widely disseminates the results of and related services educational research and collects and exchanges educational ideas, especially related to research.

Objects

TO CONDUCT RESEARCH IN MATTERS AFFECTING EDUCATION AND TO LIAISE ADVISE AND DISSEMINATE INFORMATION THEREON

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · Other Charitable Purposes · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Slough, South East, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net deficit of £3.9m for the year ended 31 March 2025, resulting in total reserves of £21.2m. The trustees confirm that free reserves of approximately £16m exceed the stated policy target of £4.5m to £9m, and the going concern basis is adopted with no material uncertainties identified.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by HaysMac LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.

In its annual return the charity told the Commission it is also regulated by: Ofsted (Office For Standards In Education). This is the charity’s own declaration; it is not a rating and has not been verified by the Commission or by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 00900899
• Trading subsidiary: NFER TRADING LIMITED Companies House 03954591

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Luke Bocock — Research Director (source)
• Jude Hillary — Co-Head of Policy and Practice (source)
• Michael Scott — Senior Economist (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.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• MURPHY, Andrew Charles — director, appointed 05/11/2025on trustee list
• TOMLINSON, Christopher, Dr — director, appointed 05/11/2025on trustee list
• TIDD, David Peter Alan — director, appointed 05/11/2025on trustee list
• KROGER, Karen Linda — director, appointed 06/03/2023on trustee list
• ROSE, Donya — director, appointed 05/01/2023on trustee list
• JAMES, Paul Alexander — director, appointed 24/06/2022on trustee list
• CAPSTICK, Jennifer Anne Fiona — director, appointed 13/08/2018on trustee list
• MADOC-JONES, David — director, appointed 27/07/2018on trustee list
• DAY, Michael Donald, Professor — director, appointed 19/03/2018on trustee list
• KEEN, Melvyn — director, appointed 08/07/2015on trustee list
• SROKOSZ, Nathaniel — secretary, appointed 21/05/2026

Official officers record.

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)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (3,535 followers) · instagram (312 followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~11.1 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (98% 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 (3.7%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (30/07/2012) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Samuel Macdonaldchair
• Andrew Murphy
• DAVID MADOC-JONES · trustee of 1 other charity
• David Tidd · trustee of 1 other charity
• Donya Rose
• Dr Christopher Tomlinson
• Fiona Capstick
• Melvyn Keen · trustee of 2 other charities
• Paul James
• Professor Michael Donald Day

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

Operates in: Australia · Hong Kong · Kenya · Mozambique · Netherlands · Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales · United States

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

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

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 CHARITABLE FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT.

• THE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT income £259k
• THE ECONOMIST EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION income £940k
• THE EDUCATION ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION income £52.4m
• NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH income £53.2m
• FOUNDATION FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY income £278k
• FOOD FOUNDATION income £2.0m

Side by side with its peers

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