To support learning and sharing of evidence and good practice across the Fund and more widely, The Money Advice Service (MAS) together with the dedicated What Works Fund evaluation and learning partner facilitated a series of webinars, workshops and presentations. Recordings of these events and any associated resources as published here.
We examined evidence from the What Works Fund to help us understand how best to support the work of financial capability messengers – making sure they are equipped with the knowledge, skills, resources and support needed to work with their target audiences.
This new briefing is aimed at practitioners, and offers a useful checklist for practitioners when designing and implementing financial capability programmes.
Download the messenger effectiveness report
We examined the evidence from 49 What Works Fund studies that tested the effectiveness of different channels to deliver financial capability support. The channels tested were:
We published a report on the findings. This briefing is aimed at financial capability practitioners and supports service design, service delivery and the management of interventions. Those who commission financial capability programmes may also be interested in using this briefing to inform their strategic and funding decisions.
Download the channel effectiveness report
The What Works Fund evaluation and learning partner has carried out an analysis of the evidence from funded projects. Their comprehensive report provides an overall view of the What Works Fund portfolio and its contribution to the evidence base for financial capability, before looking in depth at the evidence generated for each life stage: children and young people, young adults, working age adults and older people in retirement.
Download Findings in Your Hands, a nine page summary of findings by life stage.
Download the full report (82 pages) and appendices (13 pages).
The final webinar in this WWF series focused on the legacy and sustainability of the fund. The webinar kicked off with reflections from Peter Bailey and Joseph Surtees from MAS on the contribution that the WWF has made to MAS and the wider financial capability community by addressing key evidence gaps.
Steve Korris from MyBnk and Damon Gibbons from the Centre for Responsible Credit followed with two presentations explaining the legacy of their WWF projects and plans for sustaining activity.
The webinar ended with a panel discussion responding to questions posed by WWF grantees on how to best go about ensuring the legacy and sustainability of their WWF activities.
For anyone who missed the May 2018 Legacy and Sustainability Webinar, you can access a recording.
The third webinar in this series focused on how to communicate evidence effectively.
The session featured presentations from Natasha Kutchinsky at MAS and Sharon Collard at Personal Finance Research Centre on how to communicate effectively, including the communication support that MAS can provide to the WWF grantees. A2Dominion Housing Group and their partner Housing Association Charitable Trust also spoke about their experience of communicating findings from the Debt Overdraft Savings Help project. The webinar ended with a panel of MAS and ELP colleagues answering questions from the audience.
The second webinar took place on Tuesday 23 January and focussed on tools and tips for generating robust evidence. Professor Sharon Collard and Louise Scott from the Evaluation Learning Partner took the audience through some of the support options available to WWF grantees in writing their reports, including the Evidence Hub. They highlighted how the WWF evidence will help others in the wider financial capability community.
We also heard from:
The first national workshop brought together WWF grantees, evaluators and partners with colleagues from the MAS and the Evaluation and Learning Partner (Ipsos Mori, Ecorys and PFRC). Sir Steve Webb, member of the Financial Capability Strategy Board and Director of Policy at Royal London, kicked off the event with a keynote speech on the importance of evidence in policy making. This was followed by a series of workshops with over 100 delegates sharing lessons about developing and implementing financial capability projects and generating robust evidence.
Shelter Scotland, 16-25ip, Wales Co-Operative Centre and Young Enterprise delivered presentations about their WWF projects. The event rounded off with a panel discussion, in which representatives from MAS, the Evaluation and Learning Partner and project presenters reflected on strengthening the evidence base and potential opportunities to share learning with external dissemination audiences.
Download the November 2017 National Workshop report
The first webinar took place in September 2017 and focused on how to engage target users.
The webinar featured:
For anyone who missed the September 2017 Engagement Webinar, you can access a recordingopens in new window. Download supporting materials in the box to the right of this page.
