The Nuffield Foundation’s CEO shares his thoughts on the past year as part of our 2023 annual report.
The Nuffield Foundation’s value has always derived from the capacity of the work we fund to stand back from the noise of day-to-day debate.
In 2023, 80 years after the Foundation was established, our founders would recognise current projects as being true to our original purpose of improving lives, while reflecting contemporary pressure points of uncertainty and insecurity.
Our most ambitious projects of the past five-year strategy are now coming to fruition. The IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities paints a holistic picture of what is known about inequality in the 21st century, in the UK, Europe and USA. The Economy 2030 Inquiry, from the Resolution Foundation, brought the phrase. ‘Stagnation Nation’ into the public lexicon. It has also provided a diagnosis and prescription for the structural problems in the UK economy.
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) is now an essential tool in many of England’s primary schools, helping largely disadvantaged children master language challenges intensified post-Covid. A large-scale trial of NELI Preschool also shows children made the equivalent of three months’ additional progress.
Our Changing Face of Early Childhood programme, a synthesis of over 90 Nuffield-funded grants alongside many other studies, has framed the urgent debate on the well-being of UK infants and preschool children. Carey Oppenheim, its author, is now an adviser to the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, along with Beverley Barnett-Jones, Associate Director of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory.
From our research centres
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ independent review of disagreements in the care of critically ill children recommended a new Government taskforce, now established. The Ministry of Justice has also committed to exploring less adversarial court models.
The Ada Lovelace Institute has become a powerful voice in the understanding of the impact and regulation of generative AI, taking its place at the UK government’s global AI Safety Summit. The Ada team is now working with Nuffield’s Education team on the future impact of AI for children, teaching and teachers.
The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory is now the trusted data source for those working in the family courts system. In 2023, it identified major questions around how children are subjected to deprivation of liberty orders. We also funded work on children’s participation in the justice system and the implications of racial disparity in the schemes designed to divert them from the criminal courts.
Further achievements in 2023
Other Nuffield-funded projects included Professor Emma Hitchings’ Fair shares?, investigating what really happens to assets at divorce. Dr Laia Becares’ work on Ethnic inequalities in later life, still in progress, has already led to the ONS considering changes in the way it collects data.
Nuffield awards research funding to original and robust ideas. We look for comprehensive proposals that use rigorous methodology credible to policymakers and practitioners. We are seeking new and more diverse talent to reflect the complexity of modern Britain.
Our online webinar, designed to reach new audiences, led to a 40% increase in applications. Our new Emerging Researchers Network is now connecting post-doctoral and early career researchers working on our projects.
In 2023 we also met with the Ukrainian refugee social science researchers our funding has brought to UK universities, through the Researchers at Risk Fellowship Scheme.
In the coming year we will publish our next five-year strategy. We will address the changing nature of work within the context of the UK’s demographic change and culture.
Our longstanding interests in place, communities and education will focus on the skills that new generations will need to flourish. We must continue to interrogate the enduring question of the relationship between a caring and a productive society.
It has been a huge privilege to lead the Foundation for the past eight years. Our new Chief Executive will continue to lead our mission to advance educational opportunity and social well-being as we have always done.
