2024-07-31-accounts - Centre For Research And Innovation In Social Policy And Practice

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Centre for Research and Innovation in Social Policy and Practice (CENTRIS) Charity No. 299877 and Company No. 2277906 Annual Report

A review of activities from

August 2023 to July 2024

Address for correspondence

Crane House 19 Apex Business Village Annitsford Newcastle NE23 7BF Telephone: 0191 250 1969 Email: barryknight@cranehouse.uk

Introduction

This is the 2023-4 Annual Report of CENTRIS (officially known as the Centre for Innovation in Social Policy and Practice Ltd). This is Charity No. 299877 and Company No. 2277906.

CENTRIS is an independent not-for-profit organisation committed to the identification and development of innovative social policy and practice.

The period reviewed runs from 1 August 2023 to 31 July 2024.

Objects

CENTRIS was established in 1988. Its mission is to support innovative social policy and practice. Its method is to work with partners active in the field to develop solutions to social issues, through a mixture of research and innovatory initiatives.

Its constitution describes charitable objects ‘for the benefit of the public to advance education, to promote the relief of sickness and the preservation of health and to promote the relief of poverty, in particular by promoting research into the role of individual self-awareness, self-development and personal responsibility in these fields, and the dissemination of the useful results of that research’.

Methods

CENTRIS works with partners active in the field to develop solutions to social issues, through a mixture of research and innovatory initiatives. The CENTRIS method develops policy and practice solutions using a combination of theoretical, empirical and evaluative approaches.

A central philosophy is to work closely with the people responsible for implementing solutions.

CENTRIS works both nationally and internationally on a wide range of matters including social services, civil society, economic development, philanthropy, and governance.

Achievements

Since its inception, CENTRIS has completed more than 300 successful projects involving more than 50 different funders, including the Ford Foundation, C.S. Mott Foundation, Bertelsmann Foundation, the European Foundation Centre (now known as Philea), Charities Aid Foundation Southern Africa, Commonwealth Foundation, Greater New Orleans Foundation, British Government, British Embassies, British Council, WINGS and many others.

CENTRIS Ltd is an independent not-for-profit organization committed to the identification and development of innovative social policy and practice. Registered Office: 4 The Terrace, Ovingham, Northumberland, NE42 6AJ. Company Reg. No. 2277906. Charity Reg. No. 299877.

Work programme in 2023-4

Alongside maintaining our work programme during 2023-4, the trustees have devoted considerable time to planning the charity's future from 2025 onwards.

A key focus has been on how to advance the key work programmes - ‘rethinking poverty’, ‘the role of institutional philanthropy’ and ‘community philanthropy’ - to an advanced stage in a manner that allows others to build upon the work from a solid foundation to foster a good society.

Work in UK

Having reviewed our work, we have made further investments in our efforts in Hull. This will enable the achievements of the past decade to advance to a new stage, providing local community volunteers with a more robust infrastructure for their work. The initiative is designed to train local individuals in community service and encourage local civil society groups to collaborate on poverty alleviation efforts. A grant of £17,000 was awarded to Citizens UK to provide this support.

We have continued collaborating with Tyne and Wear Citizens, supporting their initiatives to engage 40 communities across the region in addressing the cost of living, racism, mental health, and housing. In April 2024, an assembly involving 1,000 citizens from the area was convened to discuss these issues with various politicians and officials.

We documented some of this work in an article for the Fairness Foundation and delivered a talk about it at the Action on Poverty Conference organized by Staffordshire University in September. We supported a book titled “Action on Poverty,” published by Palgrave Macmillan, and co-authored two articles in the book. One highlighted our work in Hull, while the other showcased our efforts in developing civil society responses to poverty, which were discussed at the Bournville Conference in July 2023.

We furthered this by collaborating with Professor T.T. Arvind, Head of Law at York University, to plan a book titled “Seeing like a community.” It will be an empirical study in the UK, examining how local people value various features of their communities and their aspirations for how government and other agencies might better support their initiatives.

International work

The annual report for 2023/4 detailed our extensive work on international development. Our work has made good progress in the past year.

The highlight of our work this year was supporting the organisation of a major convening in Bogotá, Colombia. This event brought together 730 people from 77 countries to collaborate on improving the organisation of global civil society and to explore whether community philanthropy can be an effective tool for successful

development. Evaluation of the meeting suggests that it was highly successful. Our contribution involved running sessions on dignity in development and measuring what matters.

We maintained our partnership with Alliance magazine, writing about our work every month. This effort is supported by the H & S Davidson Trust and involves identifying creative approaches to reforming international development. We conducted a large survey called “Philanthropy for a Safe, Healthy, Just World,” which was presented at a conference in Belfast organised by the Social Change Initiative, bringing together 200 funders to consider more systematic financial backing for peacebuilding worldwide. This work was subsequently followed up by Philea (The European Philanthropy Association), which planned to use the findings to consult with its members in autumn 2024.

Towards impact

In planning for the future, we continue our efforts to integrate UK and international work, enabling us to develop a common thesis that draws on insights from both domains. There are six main reasons:

Common problems. The UK may comprise islands, but this does not insulate us from issues such as the pandemic, climate change, supply chain disruptions, conflict, refugees, economic security, and deteriorating social systems and services. Many of the challenges we face in the UK require an international resolution.
Solutions on offer are failing both in the UK and internationally because the remedies stem from an out-of-date paradigm. Originating in the 1940s, intervention strategies were based on the leitmotif that the ‘gentleman in Whitehall knows best’. This approach shaped the worldview that guided plans following the Second World War and is exemplified by the Beveridge Report (1942), the Bretton Woods conference (1944), and President Truman’s inauguration speech of 1949. Post-war strategies of social and economic development, from the Marshall Plan onwards, illustrated immense confidence that the world could be governed from the top down through a combination of goodwill, international cooperation, and new institutions.
Although reasonably effective for 30 years, the approach deteriorated in the 1970s as the market supplanted the state as the primary guiding force in the world, undermining the public sphere. In the UK, the welfare state was significantly reduced from the 1980s onwards, and the Bretton Woods arrangements that had allowed nation states to manage their affairs in a climate of global financial stability came to an end.
Efforts to eradicate poverty have failed both in Britain and internationally. Widespread poverty exists in both contexts. Historically, poverty has been less pronounced in the UK, where the standard measure relies on relative criteria

(defined as less than 60 per cent of the median income), while the international standard is based on absolute criteria (living on $1.90 per day). However, it is increasingly evident that absolute poverty is becoming more pertinent in the UK, as an increasing number of individuals depend on food banks. Even during the best of times, the bottom quintile of the population has consistently been excluded from mainstream life in the UK.

Drawing on the principles of systems theory, particularly the concept of requisite variety, the solutions to the crises we confront must be more intricate than the crises themselves. Consequently, the interventions cannot depend solely on straightforward linear transfers from the top-down; instead, they necessitate multiple interventions from both top-down and bottom-up approaches, as well as from all points in between. Given the porous borders between countries around the globe, it is clear that we need solutions sourced from across the world. The UK cannot be hermetically sealed.
Our research suggests that there is much to learn from other countries, both in finding common solutions to the crises we face and in discovering ways for people to lead flourishing lives. Adopting new approaches will require a shift in mindset—from narrowly financial and competitive methods of organising society to broader and more open-hearted models such as Ubuntu in South Africa or Buen Vivir in Latin America. We have explored some of these models in the context of our work with #ShiftThePower as well as in PSJP and Foundations for Peace learning circles on topics such as resilience, peacebuilding, and compassion, which demonstrate the power of cooperative energy, though much remains to be done. This work has shown the power of Bohm Dialogue.

The key method to be employed in developing the work's integration is a process of ‘create and adjust’. The thesis is emerging naturally through the dialogue process and will be developed with a group of individuals who co-own it and apply it in their work, test it, and refine it so that it becomes part of collective consciousness. A variety of articles and blogs are published through outlets such as Alliance Magazine and the Global Fund for Community Foundations. An academic book is being prepared for publication in 2026 by Palgrave Macmillan that brings the thesis together.

Our series of dialogues should lead to agreements, creating a critical mass of people in favour of a thesis on achieving flourishing lives for individuals. This, in turn, informs new understandings of how to invest in emerging systems to produce the desired results. Where possible, we will embed these ideas into the work programmes of key institutions, ensuring they take root in practice. This may establish a common platform of principles and practices that can ensure our work continues beyond our lifetime as an organization.

Plans

Following the review of governance and staffing, we reported in our last annual report, one new staff appointment is to be made, and discussions are ongoing with prospective trustees to replace some of our long-standing trustees.

Trustees have identified areas for further development over the next year. This includes a conference on governance in civil society and a range of publications to support this. This will involve various partners, including Citizens UK, Staffordshire University, and the Global Fund for Community Foundations, with the aim of pooling learning and developing practical action plans for people to learn from and use in their work.

Structure and operations

The effectiveness of CENTRIS depends on an energetic group of associates, and volunteers, combined with extensive use of modern technology, and oversight from a skilled group of trustees:

Roy Evans (Chair)
Andrew Webster
Hélène Turner

Barry Knight is Secretary to the Trustees, Mike Clark provides assistance, support and administration services. Kevin Briggs is currently appointed as auditor.

Finance

The audited accounts for 2023 - 2024 show that CENTRIS remains in a healthy financial position. Reserves stood at £253,623 the end of the financial year on 31 July 2024. The total being ‘unrestricted’. Funds in the current account address immediate cash flow requirements, the balance is in an interest-bearing deposit account.

Summary of accounts 2023 - 2024 (year ending 31[st] July 2024)

Income	£	Expenditure	£
Grants	0	Exchange Rate gains	0.00
Investment	5515	Project Costs	28348
Fees,sales etc.	29136	Administration	25888
Donation	24886	Office costs	25000
		Accommodation	19920
		Sundry	509

Totals	59537		99665
Balance Sheet

	7	7
Tangible Fixed Assets	2482
Net Current Assets	251141
Net Assets	253623

The policy of the Trustees is to maintain a level of resources sufficient for effective financial management, which is generally understood to mean having adequate funds to cover one year’s expenditure in advance.

Risks and resources

Upon reviewing the risks, the primary concern identified was the potential failure to create a legacy that justifies the effort invested in achieving our charitable objectives over the years.

To manage this risk, trustees will monitor the work closely and carry out a comprehensive review of progress towards the conclusion of the financial year 2024-25.

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