The chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Julia Unwin CBE, has announced that she will leave the organisation at the end of 2016.

Unwin has led the social change and research charity for the past ten years, overseeing the development of its anti-poverty strategy – the charity’s largest programme to date – due to launch in September. She has also developed a “four nation” approach at the charity – developing a stronger presence in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Unwin said today she was “privileged, and proud” to have led the organisation for the last ten years.

“I have tried to protect and enhance the great assets that the organisation has: its financial strength, its committed staff, and its great name,” she said. “At a time of great global, political and economic volatility, we have together worked to ensure that the needs and the aspirations of people and places in poverty are not overlooked, and that bold, practical and well evidenced solutions are found."

But she said her job was made easier by the "active engagement of trustees and staff".

"I am grateful to all of them for the support and encouragement I have received," she said.

A spokesman for the charity said Unwin will go on to pursue “a number of new opportunities” – including a two-year chair post for an upcoming inquiry into the future of civil society.

Recruitment for her successor will begin in the summer, with a new chief executive expected to be appointed in autumn, to start in 2017.

Chair of JRF, Tony Stoller said Unwin has been an “outstanding leader” during her time as chief executive.

“She has overseen major changes in our research, policy, housing and care work, and has established herself as a foremost authority in all these fields, contributing to improved awareness and better policies across the four UK nations,” he said.

“Her intellectual and practical contribution to our work to understand and overcome poverty in the UK has been second to none, and she has laid the groundwork also for the future development of JRF and JRHT in the changing circumstances of the coming years.”