The final report of a two-year research programme supported by 13 leading foundations is being launched at a high-profile event on 7th December. Sinking and swimming: understanding Britain’s unmet needs is the culmination of The Young Foundation’s Mapping Emerging and Unmet Needs programme and offers new insights into how the UK’s unmet and emerging social needs can be prioritised and addressed.

The final report brings together a number of research strands examining the experiences of different groups across the UK. It aims to complement current research and help to guide the policies and actions of civil society organisations, government, policy-makers and service providers.

“The programme is a fairly rare example of a truly strategic collaboration between many of the UK’s top foundations,” Geoff Mulgan, director of The Young Foundation, told Philanthropy UK.

“Their aim was to get a sense of which needs are most pressing, most urgent and which ones could be getting worse. The project has used statistical analyses, ethnography, case studies and hundreds of interviews all over the country, covering everything from isolated older people to teenagers, refugees to frontline staff, and including inputs from dozens of staff within the foundations as well as many top academics,” he continues.

The foundations funding the research are the Baring Foundation, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Bedford Charity and Harpur Trust, Big Lottery Fund, City Parochial Foundation, City Bridge Trust, Comic Relief, ESRC, John Lyon’s Charity, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Northern Rock Foundation, Wates Foundation, and LankellyChase.

The launch will take place at the Institute of Engineering and Technology in Savoy Place, London. Speakers will include Rt Hon Liam Byrne, Oliver Letwin MP and Vincent Cable MP.

The report will be available from 7th December from The Young Foundation website.