The Trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2025.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the charity's memorandum and articles of association incorporated 19 March 2018 as amended by certificate of incorporation on change of name dated 30 May 2018, the Companies Act 2006 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)".
The Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW) is an independent charitable trust with a mission to shape a fairer future through better work. Our goal is to help everyone flourish through this period of technological transformation, and our belief is that creating, transitioning into, and sustaining good work is the best way to achieve this.
The charitable objects of the organisation, as set out in the articles of incorporation, are as follows:
To promote the education of the public around changes to the world of work with particular but not exclusive regard to the impact of technology on work and society.
To prevent or relieve poverty in the context of the impact of technology on work and society, with particular but not exclusive regard to those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage.
To advance any such other charitable purposes as the trustees in their absolute discretion determine by, in particular, but not exclusively:
i) Research and policy development
ii) the development and testing of new and improved ways of working and support for work
iii) recommendations on improving all aspects of work, and
iv) advocacy.
In addition, the Board of Trustees resolved that the activities of the Charity should include: work to promote the advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity.
Notable Developments
There continue to be strong discourses around the new impacts of generative AI on society as a whole, and on the labour market in particular. The government, which had recently taken office at the end of the last reporting period, has continued to commit to the idea of AI as a route to growth and productivity, and has backed this up with continued close work with US technology firms.
However, the hoped-for green shoots of better growth for the economy as a whole have been elusive, and the political climate across the country has reflected greater instability and tension globally – in part marked by the re-election of Donald Trump as US President in November 2024, with him taking office in January 2025. His policy of threats of heavy tariffs as a means of pressing for an ‘America first’ agenda in terms of trade have caused uncertainty and instability, with direct consequence for the UK, and to the context within which IFOW has been working, with trickle-down effects into a tight labour market and a stagnant economic picture, as well as increased pressure to deploy AI at pace. This sense of stagnation and disenfranchisement has been accompanied by a changing political landscape and growing sense of division across the country, something we have witnessed in community research in projects through this reporting period.
Despite this wider turbulence and challenges, IFOW has continued to enjoy strong connections across our stakeholder groups and appetite for our policy approaches. In particular, with the culmination of our Pissarides Review, we not only secured a senior government minister to deliver a keynote address at our closing conference in January, but – following the release of the Final Report – have co-convened a roundtable series with DSIT on AI and the Future of Work, delivered workshops for DWP, and worked with the AI Security Institute to implement and integrate our frameworks for automation into their econonmic modelling. We have also been working closely with firms to operationalise finding from our research on people-centred technology adoption, and with young people from low-income backgrounds across different parts of the country in new spin-outs from the Review focused on improving access to better work.
With the shape of the new parliament, and new rules around APPGs, there were some complications around reconstituting the APPG on the Future of Work. However, we had a successful AGM in October 2024, with new officers elected and with support from new partners, and were able to deploy successful programme of events and roundtables.
Following the completion of the 3-year Pissarides Review, it was a good opportunity to refresh our Strategy, with the creation of three new pillars to guide our work, as well as key challenges and targets for our work. The continued development of this has helped us to expand our vision for how we frame our work across governance, civil society and industry, with a wider focus on the creation of a flourishing society, and work as a site of catalysis for that, as well as a lens through which change can be observed.
Across this work, we continue to have six groups of key stakeholders that we interact with across our pillars of ‘people-centred technology’, ‘good transitions’, and ‘flourishing places’:
Government (prioritising and creating good work)
Regulators (steering and intervening to protect good work)
Industry (developing and modelling good work)
Investors (prioritising and requiring good work)
Academia (researching the impacts of technology on good work)
Civil Society (engaging and informing good work)
IFOW’s work can be grouped under each of these three themes, and activities are regularly reviewed to ensure that they further the aims and objectives of the organisation. The IFOW executive team meets regularly to reflect on, refine and reformulate the challenges that we seek to address. The IFOW Board pays due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake, and regularly reviews IFOW’s work to ensure it reflects the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.
Achievements and performance
Summary
Running from September 2024 to August 2025, the 2024/2025 Financial Year was a highly significant one for IFOW, with the completion of the Nuffield Foundation-funded Pissarides Review into the Future of Wellbeing – without doubt the most important project in IFOW’s life to date.
Alongside a significant number of report outputs, this also saw a series of policy roundtables with major stakeholders in September 2024 – deploying IFOW’s SPIA methodology – and the closing conference of the Review, which took place in The Shard and across multiple satellite venues in January 2025.
The publication of the final report from the Review and its associated findings then precipitated a series of opportunities for dissemination, including work with major government departments and opportunities for IFOW to present at a number of high-profile events.
Other projects also saw IFOW operationalise findings from the Review into work with firms on responsible AI adoption, with the AI Security Institute with young people from low-income backgrounds on access to better work and green jobs, and with key stakeholders across the creative industries.
Our work with the CIPD saw new opportunities for us to employ expert researchers on AI impacts, including Semeli Hadjiloizou. We also expanded our capabilities in comms and events, upgrading the Comms Associate role to full-time.
Significant developments across our work included:
Continued publication of major research outputs from the Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing, funded by a £1.8m grant from the Nuffield Foundation, which enjoyed coverage in the national press and allowed us to deepen engagement and potential for impact across our stakeholder groups.
The Closing Conference of the Pissarides Review, which saw Sir Patrick Vallance – Minister of State for Science, Innovation and Technology – deliver a keynote address, and major figures from across academia, firms and policy gather in The Shard in London and across satellite venues in Cornwall, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff to discuss findings from the Review.
A series of expert roundtables with senior stakeholders in DSIT to discuss findings from the Review.
An all-day workshop with senior leaders at DWP to discuss findings from the Review, and implications for their work. This was organised in conjunction with lead economists at DWP.
Continued parliamentary work, with sessions of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Future of Work, of which IFOW acts as Secretariat and Strategic Research Partner.
Fruition of our major BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides) project on the impact of AI on the UK Creative Industries, working with the Turing Institute, Queen Mary University London, and the University of the Arts, London. This culminated in a series of launch events at SXSW London, and in parliament, as well as a webinar featuring key figures from across the creative sector.
Work on three major new funded projects: AI Adoption in Organisations project with the CIPD, the Motivating Futures project in partnership with the EY Foundation, and the Flourish project, funded by UfI.
Alongside these major developments, IFOW also enjoyed opportunities to share findings from our work at numerous events hosted by a wide range of organisations. These included the Employment Lawyers Association, Anthropy UK at the Eden Project, the ACAS Conference 2025, the TUC conference in Brighton, techUK’s policy conference, Politico’s AI and Tech Summit and the Health and Wellbeing at Work conference. We were also delighted to be invited to attend a closed roundtable with Sir Charlie Mayfield to feed into the Keep Britain Working review.
In accordance with IFOW’s charitable objectives, all research reports and events (where possible) are made publicly available via the IFOW website. IFOW undertakes policy engagement and advocacy work that further its charitable objects, strictly adhering to relevant regulatory guidance from the Charity Commission on the activities of charitable think tanks, and on campaigning and political activity. IFOW is independent of any political party, and the organisation is careful to ensure that engagement with political actors remains balanced across political parties.
The following details the activities of the IFOW over the last financial year, within the structure of the three core IFOW pillars:
Pillar 1: People-Centred Technology
The first core pillar of our work through this period concerns the issue of new technologies and business models being designed in ways that challenge the traditional mechanisms of good governance and meaningful accountability. One of the key things that we have surfaced through the Pissarides Review is that technology adoption processes are not centred on people, leading to impacts on the conditions, design, experience and quality of work. We have been addressing this challenge through a number of different projects.
The Final Report of the Pissarides Review aggregated findings from across the different workstreams. Through a new social and economic paradigm of Good Work, it proposed a new model of human-centred automation, a comprehensive socio-technical approach that understands technological transformation as highly interconnected, and interdependent with socio-economic change.
Part of this work involved in-depth case studies, which were published in January 2025. These investigated how workers across diverse sectors were experiencing technology in their daily roles, and its broader impact that this was having on job quality, workplace relationships, and mental health. Based on in-depth focus groups with 84 workers, the study highlighted the divergent nature of technological change—offering greater flexibility and efficiency but also exacerbating stress, job insecurity, and social isolation. Key findings revealed how emotional responses to technology - ranging from anxiety to empowerment – were shaping productivity and wellbeing. The report called for policies and practices to prioritise worker needs in designing and deploying technology to foster inclusive workplaces.
A connected report, published in December 2024 with funding from Trust for London and led by IFOW Senior Research Fellow, Professor Phoebe Moore, explored the growing issue of ‘affective computing’ - systems that seek to read workers’ emotions, and use these reads to feed algorithmic management systems that may impact pay, hours or work conditions. This is opening a new frontier in surveillance and privacy concerns, and has significant regulatory implications across domains, from definitions to the need for specific, updated protection in both hard and soft law.
This work led directly to a major new project in partnership with the CIPD being commissioned. Working directly with a number of firms, this has sought to understand the areas of HR, organisation strategy, and people development practice crucial to successful AI implementation at work. Publishing in spring 2026, this work aims to build a deeper understanding of how AI is or could be used by organisations, and its impact on workers.
Work in this pillar has also explored the impacts on the creative industries, which remain such a powerhouse of the UK economy. With funding from BRAID, and working in partnership with the Turing Institute and Queen Mary University London, the CREAATIF project – Crafting Responsive Assessments of AI Tech-Impacted Futures - took the Good Work Algorithmic Impact Assessment methodology that IFOW pioneered and sought to apply this to those working in the creative industries, many of whom are in freelance roles, or roles highly exposed to displacement by automation. The project ran a large survey, and – with support from key unions – convened workshops to listen to the experiences of workers across film, television, animation, translation, music performance and writing. By this, it sought to bring the voices of creative workers into the foreground, particularly within policy guidance for the UK labour context. Centring their experiences in this period of technological transformation hopes to sustain a sector able to create high-quality creative outputs while minimising adverse working conditions and job displacement. We were delighted to be invited to present this work at the inaugural SXSW event in Shoreditch, with an expert panel on one of their mainstages, featuring the writer Tracey Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring.
This work has also been extended by IFOW in a further BRAID-funded project conducted in partnership with the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, with IFOW Research Fellow Dr Clementine Collette exploring the impact of generative AI on the novel. Through this reporting period, Dr Collette convened expert roundtables to listen to writers across all genres, those in publishing, and those working in policy in DCMS and DSIT. She also convened a day-long policy forum hosted by Jesus College, Cambridge in June 2025. Publications from this work will be reported in the next reporting period.
Supporting all of this work on people-centred technology, the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Future of Work – of which IFOW acts as Secretariat and Strategic Research Partner – convened a session on 5th June 2025 to discuss the impact of AI on the creative industries. This generated huge interest and led to extremely moving stories being shared by those whose livelihoods have already seen significant impacts. This session was chaired by Lord Jim Knight, and also featured Lord Jim Knight, Paul W Fleming, General Secretary of Equity UK, Professor David Leslie, Director of Ethics and Responsible Innovation Research at The Alan Turing Institute, Nicola Solomon OBE, Solicitor and independent consultant to creators, former Chair of the Creators’ Rights Alliance and former Chief Executive of the Society of Authors, Linton Stephens, Classical Musician and Broadcaster for BBC Radio and TV, and Deborah Williams OBE, Data Governance Coach and Futurist.
The Final Report of the Pissarides Review was published in January 2025 and was very well received. This led to numerous engagements with key stakeholders in a Chatham House style, leading to a wide range of applications, including – in this reporting period:
Close work with senior policymakers and key stakeholders in a series of five workshops curated and co-hosted by IFOW for and with DSIT. Other departments attended regularly including HMT, DfE, DWP. The final session was attended by Secretary of State for DSIT and Minister for AI, listed as official engagements taking place May-July 2025. A separate remote event to disseminate findings was held for DLUHC which was not working with the other departments in this area at the time of the seminars.
A whole day bespoke workshop convened by chief economists at DWP to explore implications of the Review’s findings for their work across the Department – both internally and externally.
Ongoing work with the AISI, including the adoption of the automation archetypes as a framework in a major study exploring the impacts of LLMs on demand for labour, through an RCT which examined the impact on timeliness and quality of people, people augmented by LLM’s, and LLMs only at ONET activities.
Ongoing work through our Regulatory Sandbox to develop better AI governance mechanisms to support people-centred approaches. This was also a forum to disseminate findings to major regulators of work futures including ICO, EHRC, DRF, BSI and others.
The DSIT seminars were particularly significant, as they spoke to IFOW’s work influencing policy discussions. Though these covered work across other pillars of IFOW’s work, for simplicity they are aggregated here:
Roundtable 1 (April 2025) - exploring AI’s potential impact on work and labour markets.
Understanding how best to monitor the impact of AI on the labour market in real time to improve the government’s situational awareness and preparedness.
Roundtable 2 (April 2025) - Equipping the workers and employers of the future.
What skills will the UK’s future workforce need to thrive in the AI-era and how will those change as AI’s abilities advance?
How can we ensure equitable access to retraining and upskilling opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged groups?
Roundtable 3 (April 2025) - Championing regional approaches
What are the unique opportunities presented by AI adoption in labour markets in regions across the UK?
What role should universities as anchor institutions play in cultivating particular AI-related skills specialisms?
Roundtable 4 (May 2025) – A safety net for AI transitions
While the overall net impact AI will have on employment is still unclear, the potential for rapid and sizeable labour market transformation unemployment creates a significant risk for the UK economy.
Roundtable 5 (May 2025) - Monitoring AI’s impact on the labour market
Understanding hidden, changing and future impacts and likely requirements for policy approaches and intervention in a highly disruptive future.
Pillar 2: Good Transitions
This second pillar of IFOW is concerned with the critical lack of insight into the nature and potential for good work transitions, both within and between jobs. In particular, this means working to improve the recognition and development of people’s skills and capabilities and ‘matching’ of workers to good, future jobs.
One of the key reports relevant to this pillar published as part of the Pissarides Review focused on the capabilities that workers are able to draw on as they navigate work transitions. For the first time, this report explored the distribution of capabilities across the UK workforce, revealing critical disparities and highlighting opportunities to enhance worker resilience and wellbeing in periods of transition. It used survey data from over 5,000 employees to evaluate capabilities such as stability, autonomy, attachment, and achievement, applying the ICECAP-A framework to provide a nuanced understanding of worker experiences. It uncovered significant disparities in capability levels, highlighting inequalities across age, ethnicity, and education. Importantly, it also found that workers exposed to advanced technologies like AI and robotics face disruptions to traditional capability dynamics, emphasising the critical role of institutional frameworks and supportive HR practices in promoting resilience and equity. A key finding highlighted the positive impact of institutional support—such as HR practices, unions, and workplace policies—on employees’ capabilities, offering a vital avenue for resilience amid rapid technological disruption. These support mechanisms were consistently associated with better outcomes, underlining their importance for an equitable future of work.
An earlier publication on the changing skills demands being seen across the UK – reported in the last period – gave rise to a new partnership with the EY Foundation. The Motivating Futures project sought to understand how to improve transitions for young people from low-income backgrounds. Based on a wide review of literature, and workshops with young people, it showed how lessons in motivation could be a vital component in helping those from low-income backgrounds access better work in this age of AI labour market disruption. As evidenced in our Pissarides Review, better technical skills and ‘AI literacy’ alone will not be enough for young people from low-income backgrounds to thrive. Intrinsic motivation and self-agency are becoming increasingly important for young people to adapt and succeed in this fast-evolving and technologising labour market. While the findings indicated that many young people exhibit strong intrinsic or internal motivation linked to their values and identity, the research also revealed that, if young people are lacking this, it can hold them back from building fulfilling careers. Yet evidence indicates that while young children generally start with similar levels of intrinsic motivation, it often erodes more quickly over time for children from low-income backgrounds. This is a critical insight because this group of young people are more likely to feel excluded from new learning opportunities, such as those presented by AI. Right at the end of this reporting period, members of the IFOW team created a pilot intervention – based on insights from this research – to ‘shift the dial’ on motivation for young people. This was deployed through August 2025, and the results of this – and a comprehensive review of careers support structures for young people – will be published in the next reporting period.
Two events for our APPG on the Future of Work were pertinent to this issue of transitions. On 27th March 2025, Lord Jim Knight chaired a panel examining the evolving landscape of employment rights in the UK as the Employment Rights Bill progressed through Parliament. An expert panel – including Professor Simon Deakin (Professor of Law at the University of Cambridge), Dom Armstrong (Head of Policy, Community Union) and representatives from Prospect Union and the law firm Simmons and Simmons - explored the gaps between policy intentions and implementation, emerging challenges, and the road ahead. This looked to surface elements of the White Paper that could be missing from the Bill, which MPs or groups could continue to lobby for, and what emerging challenges might require protections not yet covered within the legislative framework as workers across the country see changes in work and ways of working.
Secondly, on April 24th 2025 the group met to consider how - as industries evolve and technology reshapes jobs - we ensure that workers and businesses have the skills they need to thrive. This covered the vision for the newly created Skills England, the importance of life-long learning to good transitions, and policies that might be needed to future-proof the UK’s workforce. Lord Jim Knight – APPG Co-Chair – was joined by Lauren Edwards – MP for Rochester and Strood, Donna Ford-Clarke – VP of Vocational Qualifications and Portfolio at Pearson, Simon Parkinson - Chief Executive and General Secretary of the Workers Educational Association, Dan Howl – Head of Policy and Public Affairs at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and Lizzie Crowley – Senior Skills Policy Advisor at the CIPD.
Pillar 3: Flourishing Places
This third pillar of our work is concerned with creating innovation systems to create good work and enable people and places to flourish. It is based facing the challenge of improving the capabilities of institutions for systematic, sustained and inclusive growth and innovation policy.
In July 2025, IFOW published the fourth annual update of the Good Work Monitor (GWM), the first holistic measure of the availability of good work in each local authority area of England outside London. Work from the Pissarides Review found that technological transformation is having profound and increasing impacts on good work – impacts that are often masked by headline statistics. The Review also found that good quality work mediates better outcomes from AI and automation, and that indicators of good work can serve as measures and proxies for well-functioning local innovation ecosystems and inclusive growth. Our Good Work Monitor therefore has matured in the context of this review to become a means by which progress on key findings can be monitored. Our 2025 edition – incorporating data from 2009 up to 2024 – built on annual releases to reveal good work trends over a 15-year period, allowing economic shocks and regional variation to be situated in a longer-term context. Alongside the Disruption Index (released as part of the Pissarides Review), the Good Work Monitor Time Series tracks the environment in which work is created and shaped, distributed and disrupted, and begins to show the likely outcomes of technological transformation, on current trajectories. To enhance this picture and support delivery of the government’s Industrial Strategy, this 2025 edition of the Good Work Monitor added an analysis using the most current, available data on productivity.
Together, our analyses invited challenge to several persisting assumptions: that employment levels and job quality, fairness and growth are somehow incompatible; that growth may result in fewer jobs or fewer good quality jobs; and that the acceleration of AI adoption and automation will not automatically lead to good jobs or other good outcomes. We then indicated how these challenges would be critical to effective delivery of the growth mission and the Industrial Strategy.
In March 2025 we published a ‘Cornwall Spotlight Report’ in collaboration with the University of Exeter’s Penryn campus, Cornwall Council, Cornwall Chamber of Commerce and other local stakeholders. This focused work from our Good Work Monitor into the local context of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. It revealed that while the region has made significant strides in implementing good work principles, there are deeper structural economic challenges to be addressed to ensure sustained and equitable growth and lasting job quality improvements. It was released to accompany the Disruption Index Spotlight Report that was commissioned as part of our Pissarides Review. Using case studies and local expertise, it outlined Cornwall's labour market dynamics and how seasonal fluctuations and market conditions remain obstacles to faster change. This work represented a new area of opportunity for IFOW, offering focused analysis using our datasets. This is something that we are keen to explore further in the next reporting period.
Another dimension to our more place-focused work is in the Flourish project, which we have been undertaking with funding from UfI’s VocTech Challenge fund. Grounded in research findings from our Pissarides Review – especially those on networks of skills - we have been developing ways to help people access training and work opportunities in the green sector, with a key focus on two peripheralised economies: Cornwall and Grimsby. The growth in green jobs presents a strategic opportunity for UK regions, but current skills shortages have been creating bottlenecks for achieving the government's industrial ambitions. The Flourish project seeks to address these challenges, by focusing on three stakeholder groups. Firstly, there are Job Seekers and Learners, who face struggles to navigate online resources to find, understand, and pursue local entry-level positions with vocational training. Secondly, Employers and Training Providers, who face difficulties attracting, engaging and retaining local job seekers who possess the right mix of qualifications, aptitude, and motivation. Finally, Regional Stakeholders, where government and policymakers lack clear visibility of programmes in their areas that align with green industry goals, and can struggle to coordinate effectively between training centres, providers, and employers. With the project kicking off at the beginning of 2025, through this reporting period, the team have been working on the ground in Cornwall and Grimsby to understand the particular challenges in those areas. We have used Community Researchers – young people embedded in communities to explore research within their peer groups – to get as close as possible to those who we would like to have improved information and access to jobs in the green sector. This has helped us to develop a deeper understanding of the complexities and lived realities of priority cohorts in each region related to pathways into green jobs, including young people, those who are 'NEET', potential ‘job switchers’, and people who are currently ‘economically inactive’. Our approach has centred empathy, participatory engagement at a community-level, ethnographic methods (e.g. at job centres and job clubs), user interviews, and user testing.
Alongside user research, we have also undertaken a comprehensive programme of stakeholder engagement, talking to businesses, training providers and other key stakeholders in each region, such as Job Centre and local councils. This is to enable us to identify product requirements for businesses and contribute to our commercial objectives related to sustainability. The end goal – which we are aiming for in the next reporting period – is to develop the Flourish platform, and towards this the team have undertaken a comprehensive UX (user experience) process through design-thinking workshops.
External profile and communications
IFOW continues to enjoy a strong profile externally and looks to share its work strategically across core audiences of politics, academia and business through a variety of channels.
As already discussed around our work with DSIT, closed meetings to share our work with policy leads in government departments, government and shadow teams, regional leaders, c-suite business leaders, academics and civil society representatives remain a core way for us to communicate our mission and build support for it.
Social media impact has continued to grow over the reporting period. Our LinkedIn followers grew by over 1000 during this time, representing nearly 28% growth. We achieved around 45000 organic impressions, corresponding to the number of times IFOW posts were seen by LinkedIn members, without a sponsorship push. This reflects a highly engaged audience, as we continue seeking to be the go-to hub on the future of work. Meanwhile, our Bluesky account grew to over 1000 followers and continues to connect with an engaged audience who regularly repost IFOW content. We have continued to hold the line on not using X through this reporting period, and feel that more recent events have vindicated this approach, especially in view of our charitable object to promote harmony and equality.
Visits to the IFOW website show 43.6k unique visitors, representing a sustained position following a year of huge growth in the previous period. Page views reflected strong continuity, sitting at 94.8k over the period. Views per visit and visit duration were all up, reflecting a strengthening engagement with the site. Unsurprisingly, our top page was the IFOW landing page, and the Final Report of the Pissarides Review was our most viewed report.
Subscriptions to our monthly newsletter have continued to grow, gaining 160 new subscribers, ending the period with a total of 2736 subscribers, and ‘open’ rates have been pleasingly sustained with this growth and stand at around 40% - substantially more than the ‘top-tier’ score of 30% expected nationally and mean for Mailchimp of just over 20%. The format we have been using continues to draw in audiences looking for a digest of what is happening in the Future of Work space, and covers an introductory overview piece, a deeper dive into some current research and then a list of interesting reads and forthcoming events.
Our LinkedIn newsletter has seen impressive growth, with, on average, 70 new subscribers per month over the second half of the reporting period, ending with a total of 2074 subscribers. We feel that this has represented a shift towards LinkedIn as more people have migrated away from platforms such as X, and our decision to engage in this – and host a version of our newsletter there, as well as on Mailchimp – was warranted.
We also enjoyed further press and media coverage and activities across the reporting period, particularly in print and online media.
In January 2025, the Pissarides Review received strong attention in print and online media, including features in the Guardian and Business Matters on the potential for new technologies to widen existing inequalities in the UK, as well as a longer-form feature in the Financial Times ‘Working It’ newsletter.
Print and online coverage of IFOW’s partnership with the CIPD on the Innovate UK BridgeAI-funded project has also been notably strong, as covered in, among other publications, Personnel Today.
IFOW were also invited to contribute to print and online media, especially on issues around potential labour market disruption to entry-level jobs and opportunities. IFOW contributed multiple articles to different outlets on these topics, including a piece on skills, capabilities, and graduates to Luminate magazine, and a similar article on young people and the changing skills landscape for the Edge Foundation’s Skills Bulletin. Interest in the entry-level labour market also extended to an IFOW interview on graduate recruitment for the CIPD Work Magazine that goes out to all expert HR professionals, and a statement in a Financial Times article titled ‘Is AI killing graduate jobs?’. This FT article generated significant further speculative interest from the Telegraph on the origins, current work, and upcoming IFOW publications, which we have looked to build on in subsequent months.
IFOW directors have been featured across different broadcast media channels, typically invited comment on relevant national policy developments, as well as to discuss IFOW work directly. On BBC channels like BBC 5 Live, BBC London, BBC Radio Ulster, and BBC Radio London, IFOW has commented on developments like the Government’s TechFirst schools programme and AI Action Plan, how AI is changing graduate jobs, as well as broader workplace transitions, principles of ‘Good Work’ and other findings of the Pissarides Review on technology adoption and innovation.
Among other academic contributions, particularly notable was a mention in Capabilities and Human Development Journal of IFOW's Final Report of the Pissarides Review as a key contribution to the study of work-related capabilities and its intersection with technological innovation. IFOW has also offered supportive quotes for other relevant reports, such as for the Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s Global Evidence Safety Centre.
IFOW continues to receive a large number of speaker requests from a wide range of organisations. Over this reporting period, this has included invitations to contribute to the FT Women in Business Summit, FT HR Forum, PCS Conference, Politico and AI Tech Summit, and Anthropy UK, as well as events by TechUK, University Alliance, York Festival of Ideas, LSE, UCL, SXSW, ACAS, Employment Lawyers’ Association, New Statesman, and DSIT and DWP.
At the end of the reporting period on 31st August 2025, IFOW remains in a stable financial position, reflecting prudent management of funds and a commitment to delivering its charitable objectives efficiently.
Total income for the year amounted to £993,111 (2024: £977,733), an increase of £15,378 compared to the previous year. Income was primarily derived from grants and donations. Total expenditure for the year was £1,030,469 (2024: £808,067), an increase of £222,402 compared to the previous year.
At year-end, the charity held total reserves of £382,579. Of which £1,464 is restricted and £381,115 are unrestricted reserves, providing flexibility for operational and strategic needs.
The charity’s total assets stood at £469,499 including cash, investments, and tangible fixed assets. Liabilities, including short- and long-term obligations, totalled £104,462 resulting in a net asset position of £382,579.
IFOW has continued working towards developing a diverse and sustainable funding base. A broad donor pool remains an imperative to ensure IFOW can fund the whole strategy. The organisation is also grateful for the support of grant funding from Trust for London, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Nuffield, CIPD, Friends provident, Digit, IRC4HR and Alex Ferry. Further detail on the purpose of these restricted funds can be found in note 16 to the accounts.
All restricted funding is used solely for its intended purpose. IFOW research programmes are independent from all unrestricted funding the organisation receives and chosen solely on their relevance to IFOW’s mission.
The trustees are satisfied with the financial health of the charity at the end of the reporting period. Strategic planning continues to ensure sustainability, and efforts to diversify income streams are ongoing. The charity remains well-positioned to meet its objectives and respond to emerging challenges in the coming year. The trustees confirm that they have considered the charity’s financial position, reserves, and risks and believe the charity remains a going concern for the foreseeable future.
Reserves Policy
Taking into consideration the guidance issued by the Charity Commission, the policy of the IFOW trustees is to hold sufficient funds in reserve to cover three months of IFOW’s forecasted total operating expenditure, or 25% of total annual planned operating expenditure.
This chosen level of reserves will allow IFOW to meet its liabilities in the event of a reduction in income, whilst ensuring that the majority of funds are directed towards advancing the charitable purposes of the organisation. This reserves target will remain under review by the trustees throughout the year and will be reviewed annually.
IFOW closed the 2024-25 financial year holding reserves of £383k, of which £2k is restricted, the remaining £381k is unrestricted, including £17,542 of fixed assets. The Trustees consider these reserve levels to be adequate to fund the activities of the charity for the foreseeable future.
Principal risks and uncertainties and summary of plans and strategies for managing the risks
IFOW is constantly striving to attain a set of diverse and long-term income streams. The finance sub-committee (made up of representatives from both the Board and staff team) meets once every two months to discuss this desire, by closely inspecting the funding pipeline, always being aware of the three months reserves policy. IFOW maintains a risk register which is reviewed annually at Board level. As part of risk management, this documents the main risks and planned mitigations across several potential scenarios, including financial sustainability, governance, key-person risk, and IT security.
IFOW has incorporated the subsidiary, IFOW projects ltd, on 23rd July 2025, to permit wider impact and reach against our strategic objectives, while containing risk.
IFOW is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 19 March 2018 and registered as a charity on 15 November 2018.
IFOW was established under a memorandum of association which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its articles of association, IFOW's name changed from The Future of Work on 30 May 2018, when IFOW was granted institute status.
All trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity.
The Trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:
Appointment, Removal and Meeting of Trustees
Candidates for trustee positions are assessed by incumbent trustees and meet informally with senior management. Recommended candidates are considered by all incumbent trustees and are appointed by unanimous approval of all trustees, with no maximum limit on the number of trustees that can be appointed. Correspondingly, a trustee can be removed by a resolution passed unanimously by the other trustees. All trustees are members and Directors of the charity for Companies House purposes.
IFOW’s affairs are normally conducted under the supervision and leadership of its Co-Directors, Anna Thomas and Dr Abigail Gilbert. Trustee meetings are held quarterly, and staff members are in frequent communication with the trustees throughout the year and maintain a close working relationship together.
Key Management Personnel
The management of IFOW is led by Co-Directors Anna Thomas and Dr Abigail Gilbert. The Co-Directors are responsible for day-to-day management. Responsibilities are delegated by the Co-Directors to the management team.
Arrangements for setting pay and remuneration of key management personnel and any benchmarks, parameters or criteria used
The salaries of all IFOW staff are benchmarked against equivalent research organisations within the third sector. Recruitment is carefully managed to take benchmarking into consideration, as well as the overall budget to hand. An annual review process is in place, which links performance and development to any changes in staff remuneration. Finally, IFOW has an internal banding system to ensure that all people at the same level are paid fairly within each band.
Trustee Induction and Training
As and when new Trustees are recruited, a full induction into the charity is planned. This includes, but is not limited to, providing key policies and procedures and training on these as appropriate.
Neither IFOW nor any of its trustees are acting as custodian trustees.
The Trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
I report to the Trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Institute for the Future of Work (the charity) for the year ended 31 August 2025.
Having satisfied myself that the financial statements of the charity are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act 2011.
Since the charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000, the independent examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 386 of the Companies Act 2006.
the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
the financial statements do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the Companies Act 2006 other than any requirement that the financial statements give a true and fair view, which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
the financial statements have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their financial statements in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.
Raising funds
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Institute for the Future of Work is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is Fieldfisher, Riverbank House, 2 Swan Lane, London, EC4R 3TT.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)". The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the Trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Liabilities are recognised as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to the expenditure. All expenditure is accounted for on a cash basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all the costs related to the category.
Cost of raising funds relate to those specific costs incurred in organising and staging fundraising events and seeking voluntary contributions together with attributable support costs.
Charitable expenditure comprises those costs incurred by the charity in the delivery of its activities and services for its beneficiaries. It includes both costs that can be allocated directly to such activities and those costs of an indirect nature necessary to support them.
Support costs include central functions and have been allocated to activity cost categories on a basis consistent with the use of resources, for example, allocating property costs by floor areas, or per capita, staff costs by the time spent and other costs by their usage.
Governance costs comprise those costs associated with meeting the constitutional and strategic requirements of the charity and the audit fees and costs linked to strategic management of the charity.
Intangible assets acquired separately from a business are recognised at cost and are subsequently measured at cost less accumulated amortisation and accumulated impairment losses.
Intangible assets acquired on business combinations are recognised separately from goodwill at the acquisition date where it is probable that the expected future economic benefits that are attributable to the asset will flow to the entity and the fair value of the asset can be measured reliably; the intangible asset arises from contractual or other legal rights; and the intangible asset is separable from the entity.
Amortisation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.
Fixed asset investments are initially measured at transaction price excluding transaction costs, and are subsequently measured at fair value at each reporting date. Changes in fair value are recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year. Transaction costs are expensed as incurred.
A subsidiary is an entity controlled by the charity. Control is the power to govern the financial and operating policies of the entity so as to obtain benefits from its activities.
At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible and intangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).
As a registered charity, the company is exempt from income and corporation tax to the extent that its income and gains are applied to charitable purpose only.
The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the Trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
Grants
Raising funds
Rent
Meeting room hire
Stationery & printing
Travel & Subsistence
Subscriptions
Bank charges
General expenses
Other legal & professional
Consultancy
Insurance
Governance costs includes payments to the independent examiners of £3,240 (2024: £2,580) for independent examination fees.
None of the Trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration or benefits from the charity during the year.
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
Deferred income is included in the financial statements as follows:
The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.
Trust for London
This funding supports the advancement and implementation of IFOW’s social policy innovation framework through the execution of targeted policy initiatives and pilot programmes. It also enables the dissemination of insights and solutions to promote fairer and more equitable work conditions within London’s retail and transport sectors.
World Openness Report
A chapter for an open access book on data and trade.
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
Funding is being sought to develop progressive legal and corporate responsibilities aimed at ensuring that Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and algorithmic systems deployed in the workplace support and empower workers, rather than diminish their roles or value in the future of work.
Nuffield
This grant supports a comprehensive investigation into the effects of new technologies on work and wellbeing across systemic, organisational, and individual dimensions, contributing to the broader understanding of their socio-economic impacts.
CIPD
Action research into the '6R's' as a method to focus on job design through AI adoption.
Braid
This initiative focuses on examining effective responses to the implications of generative AI on the creative industries, with the aim of shaping informed, future-ready strategies and policies.
Friends Provident
This project explores the evolving relationship between emerging technologies and work by identifying automation archetypes and developing robust frameworks for conducting algorithmic impact assessments aligned with the principles of good work.
Digit
In collaboration with the UK academic sector, this project aims to foster a well-informed and evidence-based policy dialogue on the future of work, grounded in interdisciplinary research and real-world data.
TFL Continuation Grant
Core support to ensure the rights and interests of economically marginalised workers are represented in national policy conversations.
Nuffield Continuation Grant
Work to deliver three additional working papers using the findings and work conducted in the original review.
IRC4HR/AFF
Research on the distribution of automation impacts and role of perceived rights as a moderator.
Ufi VocTech
A participatory action research project to advance uptake of green jobs in deprived communities through a novel matching tool.
EY Foundation
A study into intrinsic motivation in marginalised young people.
APPG
Work to support the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Future of Work.
AISI
Delivery of research on the impact of LLM's on the UK Labour market.
Evaluation Accelerator Fund
An evaluation of AI adoption in the public sector.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
These financial statements are separate charity financial statements for Institute for the Future of Work.
Details of the charity's subsidiaries at 31 August 2025 are as follows:
IFOW Projects Ltd was incorporated on 23 July 2025 and has remained dormant throughout the period to 31 August 2025.