Sharon Witherspoon, director of the Nuffield Foundation, has left the charity after 19 years following “recent discussions about strategic issues”.

A statement from the Foundation said that she decided to step down as director and that the decision is “entirely amicable on both sides”.

The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors.  Its endowment is now worth around £260m, from which it targets a return of 8 per cent per annum.  It spends around 4.5 per cent annually through seven funding programmes.

Sharon Witherspoon worked at the Foundation for 19 years in a variety of roles, becoming deputy director in 2000 and director in 2012.  She devised the Foundation’s programmes on children and families, on law, and a number of broader issues in social policy.

In the last three years, since she became director, she has led the Open Door programme, covering work on poverty and disadvantage, the financial circumstances of older people, constitutional issues, and general work on strengthening the role of evidence in policymaking.

She also spearheaded the development of the Q-Step programme to boost qualitative skills among UK undergraduate social scientists – the Foundation’s largest programme in decades. Eighteen universities are currently engaged in this programme.

Before joining Nuffield in 1996, Witherspoon was a senior researcher at the Policy Studies Institute and the National Centre for Social Research. She was awarded an MBE for services to social science in 2008.

According to the Nuffield statement, Witherspoon also played a “very significant role externally in influencing a broad range of national policy discussions on research impact, data access and sharing, ethical reviews and other areas”.

Professor David Rhind, chair of trustees, said Witherspoon’s contributions have been “immense”.

He said: “Her astonishing capacity for work, her high intelligence and ability to go to the root of issues speedily, her ability to work successfully in partnership with other funders, academics and professional practitioners, and her devotion to making things better mark her out as a very special person.”

Witherspoon said: “The Foundation has been a wonderful place to work, and I still marvel at the way it continues to punch above its weight, which will, I am sure, continue. I am grateful for all the opportunities the Foundation, its past and present trustees and my colleagues have given me.
“I will continue to seek ways to promote the strengthening of UK social science, recognising its importance, and improving its impact."

The director of education at the Foundation, Josh Hillman, has taken over as acting director.