2025-07-31-accounts - Centre For Research And Innovation In Social Policy And Practice

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Trustees Meeting 6 May 2026

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

A review of actvites from August 2024 to July 2025

Address for correspondence

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

Introducton

This is the 2024-5 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 identifying and developing innovative social policy and practice.

The period reviewed runs from 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2025.

Objects

The mission of CENTRIS is to support innovative social policy and practice. Its approach is to work with partners active in the field to develop solutions to social issues through a combination of research and innovative 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. 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 operates both nationally and internationally across a wide range of matters, including social services, civil society, economic development, philanthropy, and governance.

Work programme in 2024-5

This has been a year marked by both transition for Centris. Across our work, a unifying question has emerged with increasing urgency: what becomes possible as existing systems falter?

Nowhere is this more evident than in the shifting landscape of international development, where long-standing aid architecture is in retreat. Centris has sought to engage this moment as an opportunity to rethink the role of civil society, to reimagine how we understand value, and to explore new pathways to peace and human flourishing.

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.

Global Civil Society: Rethinking Value, Practce, and Possibility

A central strand of our work this year has been the re-examination of how civil society understands and measures its own contribution.

In October 2024, a series of thirteen lectures delivered in Aotearoa/New Zealand explored the limitations of dominant measurement frameworks, particularly those that reduce complex social realities to narrow economic indicators. These lectures have formed the basis of an academic article currently in development, extending a growing critique of how value is constructed and recognised within the sector.[1]

This work has been enriched through collaboration with the Global Fund for Community Foundations, in which Centris has contributed to international learning groups in Bali and Tangier, focused on ‘measuring what matters’. These conversations have brought together practitioners and thinkers seeking to ground evaluation in lived experience, relational dynamics, and community-defined priorities.

In November 2024, this inquiry moved into practice through engagement in Australia, where Centris was invited to run workshops with philanthropy, community foundations, and government actors as part of a conference organised by Community Foundations Australia. These exchanges have since evolved into a monthly online learning circle, creating a sustained space for reflection and experimentation. Together, these initiatives signal a shift from critique to construction: from questioning inherited models to building alternatives rooted in practice.

Alongside this, Centris has continued to engage with the profound transformations underway in international development. As traditional systems show signs of fragmentation, our work has focused on articulating what might come next by exploring new forms of solidarity, new financing mechanisms, and new relationships between local agency and global structures. A series of commissioned articles in development reflects this emerging field of inquiry. In the year covered by this report, 29 articles were published on Alliance’s Reforming International Development Portal.[2] The articles, from a wide variety of authors around the world, amount to a ferment of new ideas that are providing material for the field of international development, which is struggling to find a new identity.

Attention to economic life has also remained central. Contributions to global labour discussions, including technical support for the Global Labour Institute’s report Understanding Informal Transport in Africa ,[3] highlight the realities of informal work and

1 Knight, B. (2025). ‘Measuring what matters in Aotearoa/New Zealand’, Public Sector Journal , Autumn, 48.1.

2 Supported by the H&S Davidson Trust, the portal can be found at htps://www.alliancemagazine.org/reformingid/

3 Global Labour Institute. (2025). Understanding informal transport in Africa: Labour impact assessment as tools to improve workers’ conditions . Available fromhttps://vref.se/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Labour-impact-assessmentmethodology-report.pdf.

the need to re-anchor economic thinking in dignity and lived experience. These themes connect closely to wider conversations around the global living wage and the role of civil society in shaping more just economies.

Peace: From Fragmentation to New Forms of Dialogue

A symptom of the failure of systems worldwide has been the dramatic rise in violent conflict. Centris has prioritised peacebuilding for many years, and this work has gained ground over the past year.

A major undertaking has been to support Bassma Kodmani’s autobiography. Bassma Kodmani was a key player in efforts to build peace in Syria until her untimely death in March 2023. She left behind a partially written manuscript and extensive notes on her experiences as the Arab Spring of 2011 gave way to the Arab Winter. This project traces the journey of a scholar drawn into diplomacy amid conflict, offering a rare perspective on peacebuilding from within the lived realities of war. Begun in July 2024, the work is conceived as a two-year process involving the careful examination of notes, experiences, and historical context, as well as collaborative writing. It stands as both a personal testimony and a contribution to the wider understanding of peace in fractured societies. A book contract was negotiated with I.B. Tauris, a leading publisher of academic work in the Middle East.

At the same time, Centris has worked to convene new forms of dialogue among philanthropic actors. In partnership with Philea, a series of futures-oriented discussions has brought together around fifty foundations to reflect on philanthropy’s role in peacebuilding. These dialogues, building on an earlier peace survey, have culminated in presentations at Europhilantopics in December 2024 and are informing the development of a forthcoming white paper.

Complementing this work have been a range of more exploratory initiatives. Centris has facilitated various conversations, inviting participants to think differently about peace. Examples include the Impact Trust’s Antarctica series and the bridging dialogues hosted by Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace. These discussions have sought connections among peace, security, philanthropy, and economic justice, including links to global labour and living-wage discussions.

Together, these efforts reflect an evolving approach: one that moves beyond institutional silos and towards a more integrated understanding of peace as both a social and systemic process.

UK Civil Society: Grounded Practce and Lived Experience While much of Centris’s work operates at a global level, this year has also seen a renewed focus on the textures of civil society within the UK.

Central to this has been the development of Seeing Like a Community , a body of work that challenges policy perspectives which overlook the lived realities of those most affected by poverty and inequality. Developed through dialogue and reflection, including a retreat in York in June 2025, this work has informed a paper for the Fairness Foundation and contributed to wider debates about how poverty is understood and addressed.[4]

This commitment to grounded understanding is further reflected in Centris’ engagement with local community organising. Centris has supported work in two locations: Hull and East Yorkshire Citizens and Tyne and Wear Citizens. These examples provide rich case studies of civic action in practice. These partnerships offer insight into how communities organise, articulate their priorities, and create change from the ground up - reminding us that civil society is not an abstraction, but a lived and contested space.

A New World is Rising

To bring the diverse strands of Centris’s work together, writing has begun on a new book, A New World is Rising , which seeks to synthesise insights from across these domains - civil society, peacebuilding, and systems transformation - into a coherent narrative to guide change in a turbulent century. Writing will continue through the rest of 2025, and the book will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2026.

Organisatonal Development: Contnuity and Renewal

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

Roy Evans (Chair)
Andrew Webster
Hélène Turner

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

Next year will see significant transitions. In September 2024, Centris reached an important milestone in its organisational development, marked by decisions to recruit new trustees and to plan the appointment of Rebecca Hanshaw as Secretary to the Trustees, succeeding Barry Knight.

This transition reflects both continuity and renewal, ensuring that the organisation remains responsive to the challenges ahead while grounded in its longstanding

4 Knight, B. (2024). ‘Rethinking the roots of poverty’, Fairness Foundation. Available from: htps://www.faircomment.co.uk/p/rethinking-the-roots-of-poverty

6 commitments. This investment in organisational capability is essential as the scope and ambition of the work continue to grow.

The role and function of Centris will remain unchanged. Its role is not to provide definitive answers, but to act as a convener, a bridge-builder, and a site of inquiry. By connecting different domains - civil society, philanthropy, labour, and peace – Centris seeks to contribute to a wider process of renewal across society, equipping people with the tools to build the societies they want.

Finance

The audited accounts for 2024 - 2025 show that CENTRIS remains in a healthy financial position. Reserves stood at £217,513 the end of the financial year on 31 July 2025. 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 2024 - 2025 (year ending 31[st] July 2025)

Income	£	Expenditure	£
Grants	0	Exchange Rate gains	0.00
Investment	5053	Project Costs	47450
Fees,sales etc.	16877	Administraton	16036
Donaton	35978	Ofce costs	22107
Other	5000	Travel and accommodaton	12993
		Sundry	432

Totals	62908		99018
Balance Sheet
Tangible Fixed Assets	5985
Net Current Assets	211528
Net Assets	217513

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 reach diverse audiences in government and elsewhere, so they can learn the lessons from our work to build the kind of society people want to see.

To manage this risk, trustees will monitor the work closely and conduct a comprehensive review of progress towards the end of the financial year 2026-27.

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