our social impact
As a Community Interest Company, everything we do serves a wider social purpose. Here is what that has looked like over the past five years.
community interest company
our social purpose
ThemPra Social Pedagogy is a Community Interest Company, founded in 2008 with a single, enduring purpose: to support the development of social pedagogy in the UK and beyond.
We work with children, young people, families and vulnerable adults – not directly, but through the practitioners, teams and organisations we support. By helping them build more relational, empowering and ethical ways of working, we aim to make a lasting difference to the lives of the people they support.
Each year we report on our community benefit to the Regulator of Community Interest Companies. The highlights below are drawn from our last five annual reports, covering the years from October 2020 to September 2025.
2020–2025
five years in numbers
A snapshot of the reach of our work, from October 2020 to September 2025.
17
cohorts of Developing Relationship-Centred Practice, including newly qualified social workers and National House Project teams
10
cohorts of Courageous Conversations for social workers across London since 2022
78
articles published in the open-access International Journal of Social Pedagogy, which we co-edit
250
participants at our 2023 SPDN hybrid event, across 15 linked gatherings in 6 countries
14
leaving care services supported through the Relational Practice peer learning programme
170+
people from 36 countries now involved in the Global Alliance for Social Pedagogy and Social Education, up from 80 in 2021
annual community interest reports
year by year
Open each year to see the highlights from that year’s report, or download the full report.
2024–25 · year ending 30 September 2025
- Delivered 9 cohorts across our online courses: Developing Relationship-Centred Practice (3), Courageous Conversations (3), Making Co-Production Meaningful (2) and Relational Leadership (1).
- Ran 2 cohorts of our SPPA-endorsed Social Pedagogy Practice learning programme with the National House Project, plus 4 in-person courses for the whole staff team at Windmill Therapeutic.
- Acted as learning partner to the Bray & North Wicklow Area Partnership, embedding Human Learning Systems in their pilot project on child poverty.
- Hosted 7 Relational Practice webinars with the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum and 6 free webinars on Human Learning Systems with partners across the UK and Ireland.
- Co-ordinated the SPDN’s hybrid event Transformative Tales across six locations in Europe, launched free monthly Learning Out Loud sessions and relaunched the Social Pedagogy Reading Club.
- Guest-edited an IJSP special issue on social pedagogy and eco-social justice (9 articles), alongside 14 IJSP publications, and published a chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Power, Politics and Social Work.
- Researched equity and leadership in Human Learning Systems with Collaborate CIC, including a six-part podcast series and report.
- Supported the Global Alliance for Social Pedagogy and Social Education as it grew to 150+ participants from national associations in 12 countries.
2023–24 · year ending 30 September 2024
- Delivered 11 cohorts across our online courses: Developing Relationship-Centred Practice (3), Courageous Conversations (3), Making Co-Production Meaningful (3) and Relational Leadership (2).
- Delivered the Social Pedagogy Practice learning programme and 4 one-day courses with the National House Project, and supported Fife Voluntary Action, Sisu Services and Ochil Tower School.
- Co-facilitated the Relational Practice peer learning programme with the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum, supporting 11 local authority leaving care services and 3 voluntary organisations.
- Brought 85 people together at an SPDN virtual gathering and co-designed a hybrid event with 6 linked gatherings across England, Slovakia and Greece.
- Launched Learning Out Loud, free monthly reflective learning sessions open to anyone interested in social pedagogy.
- Published 16 articles in the IJSP and brought together guest editors for a special issue on eco-social justice, attracting 24 abstracts from around the world.
2022–23 · year ending 30 September 2023
- Launched our new online course Making Co-Production Meaningful and refreshed Relational Leadership as a nine-session programme.
- Delivered 4 cohorts of Courageous Conversations for social workers in Haringey, Brent and the West London Alliance, and 3 cohorts of Developing Relationship-Centred Practice.
- Began the Relational Practice peer learning programme supporting 14 leaving care services, and continued our Social Pedagogy and Human Learning Systems peer learning community with 14 organisations.
- Co-ordinated an SPDN hybrid event with 15 linked gatherings across England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Slovakia and Greece – 250 participants in total.
- Supported the National House Project, Fife Voluntary Action, Sisu Services, Juno and Resi Action to embed social pedagogy in their organisations.
- Published 16 articles in the IJSP and a free Social Pedagogy toolkit for adult social work, and shared our work at conferences and workshops in Slovakia, Germany, Wales and Ireland.
2021–22 · year ending 30 September 2022
- Delivered 4 two-day in-person courses across the National House Project’s local House Projects.
- Ran 4 cohorts of Developing Relationship-Centred Practice, including 2 cohorts of newly qualified social workers in Bradford, and developed and piloted Courageous Conversations.
- Hosted 7 webinars on Exploring Social Pedagogy Concepts in Turbulent Times with the SPPA and the Social Pedagogy Association (US), each attracting 20 to 40 participants.
- Set up a peer learning programme on Social Pedagogy and Human Learning Systems involving 14 organisations.
- Held 2 SPDN virtual gatherings and established a sub-group on social pedagogy in Ireland.
- Published 13 articles in the IJSP and co-facilitated the Social Pedagogy Reading Club for its 100+ members.
2020–21 · year ending 30 September 2021
- Responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by moving our work largely online.
- Ran 4 cohorts of Developing Relationship-Centred Practice and a cohort of our online Social Pedagogical Leadership course.
- Delivered a series of 10 webinars on Exploring Social Pedagogy Concepts in Turbulent Times and held 2 SPDN virtual gatherings.
- Supported Renfrewshire Council’s 5 children’s homes and helped 3 new organisations – Juno, Sisu and Lighthouse Children’s Homes – build social pedagogy into their foundations.
- Co-authored 4 chapters of Human Learning Systems: Public Service for the Real World and co-hosted the international online conference Creating Hope in Dystopia.
- Helped convene the first sessions exploring a Global Alliance for Social Pedagogy and Social Education, with 80 participants.
Understanding how we can contribute
listening to the social pedagogy community
Our ongoing aim is to understand what practitioners, organisations and the wider sector need in order to develop and embed social pedagogy in their practice and organisational structures.
We draw on a range of opportunities to do this: our online and in-person courses, Social Pedagogy Development Network events, the Social Pedagogy Reading Club, our webinar programme, research activities and direct conversations with the people and organisations we work with. Their feedback helps us respond to a rapidly changing environment and shapes how our offer develops each year.
be part of the difference
Every course place and partnership helps us sustain our wider work for the social pedagogy community. Find out how we could work with you.