Annual Report and Accounts 2013

The Trustees present this annual report with the audited financial statements for the year to 30 June 2013. These have been prepared in accordance with the Charity Commission’s ‘Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP): Accounting and Reporting by Charities’.

At NatCen Social Research we are driven by the belief that social research has the power to make life better. Our research works for society by providing a rich understanding of people’s views, circumstances and behaviours to underpin social policy making and help address the many challenges society faces.

Over the past year, we have delivered a wide range of projects across the full policy spectrum that have been used directly by clients and other decision-makers and practitioners to inform social policy and practice. We now undertake more secondary analysis of our datasets to further extend our impact by adding new insight on sections of society or issues. We are sharing our extensive knowledge of people and society more widely through events, comment pieces and making our data available to others for analysis via data archives. During the year we have regularly drawn on this data and our annual surveys of attitudes, British Social Attitudes and Scottish Social Attitudes, to inform topical debates, including those around welfare changes and Scottish independence.

We recognise our unique role in the industry. During the past year we have continued to help build research capacity through the work of NatCen Learning which delivers training in research methods, as well as contributing to methodological innovation and debate. We have also recognised the role we can play in ensuring that research is commissioned in a way that supports innovation and the potential to deliver impact.

Our role as Trustees is to provide stewardship of the organisation. As a Board we are confident that the organisation is in a strong position to continue to deliver the high quality with impact research that society needs. I would like to thank my colleagues on the Board for their ongoing commitment to NatCen, and especially Sally Ford-Hutchinson who retired from the Board in December after over six years invaluable contributions as a Trustee. I would also like to welcome four new Trustees who joined in October 2013: Barbara Beckett, Nicholas Deyes, Barbara Noble and James Thickett.