Description of the programme
The Children and Young People Financial Education Innovation and Evaluation Programme was commissioned by The Money and Pensions Service in October 2020. It aimed to address gaps in the wider understanding of effective financial education by developing and evaluating new, innovative solutions or by evaluating existing but untested interventions.
Teenage Cancer Trust and The Money Charity’s ‘Money, Cancer and Me’ project was one of seven pilot projects funded, and was one of two projects with a with a focus on providing financial education for children and young people in vulnerable circumstances. ‘Money, Cancer and Me’ provided financial education to young people with a cancer diagnosis or who had recently finished treatment.
The pilot’s aim was to support young people aged 13-19, with lived experience of cancer, to better understand their finances, become confident to make informed decisions, and know where to go for information on managing their money.
Project activities included: developing a financial education module through consultation with professionals and young people; a pilot workshop with young people; training workshops with Youth Support Co-ordinators; eight, one-hour interactive workshops with young people aged 13-17; one hour-long interactive workshop with 18–19-year-olds; and developing a pack of resources (e.g., factsheets, animated videos, and sheets signposting to further support) for young people to use in future.
The study
Ecorys conducted a development, process and outcomes project-level evaluation of ‘Money, Cancer and Me’, between February and August 2021. The evaluation aimed to assess:
- The effectiveness of the design, development and delivery of the sessions run within the project, and;
- What difference taking part in the pilot made to young people, Youth Support Co-ordinators, The Money Charity and Teenage Cancer Trust.
The evaluation first involved developing a Theory of Change with the project team, to outline the anticipated activities, outputs and outcomes for the pilot. The mixed methods included: pre- and post-workshop surveys with young people who attended the workshop, a user feedback survey with Youth Support Co-ordinators, interviews with the project delivery team, Youth Support Co-ordinators and young people virtually via Microsoft Teams, and analysis of project management information.
Key findings
Overall Conclusions and Implications:
- The evaluation found that the pilot largely achieved what it set out to do, in terms of delivering bespoke financial education workshops and resources to young people with a cancer diagnosis, and a related set of training to Youth Support Co-ordinators. It confirmed a need for tailored and targeted financial education for young people with a cancer diagnosis, and financial education training for the professionals that support them.
- Recruitment was an ongoing challenge and fewer young people participated than were anticipated. This was due to the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on staff members’ ability to give time to recruitment of young people; varying levels of interest among young people; staffing shortages; and, different approaches to recruitment depending on the staff available.
- However, for those who did take part – and who responded to the survey – the pilot appeared to contribute to an increased understanding of, and positive attitudes towards, budgeting and saving money, as well as an increase in self-confidence in managing their money.
- For Youth Support Co-ordinators, there was evidence of an increased understanding of the financial capability needs of the young people they support, and increased knowledge of where to signpost young people to if needed. The training also helped equip Youth Support Co-ordinators with skills to start conversations about money with young people and families in a sensitive and appropriate way.
- Consulting with experts and young people on how to tailor existing financial education materials to be context-specific (i.e., suitable for young people with a cancer diagnosis) was a key element in facilitating success. This approach could be emulated to help develop content for other groups with long-term health conditions.
- The evaluation found that there is a need to work flexibly with young people with a long-term health condition, recognising young people may not always be able to engage with workshops as intended. A rolling programme of support, that young people could join as and when needed, could be helpful for this cohort.
Points to consider
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Methodological strengths/weaknesses: The timescale (November 2020 to August 2021) meant the focus was on capturing evidence to assess the progress of MCM against the activities, outputs and short-term outcomes listed in the ToC.
- Response rates to the surveys were too low to allow for sub-group analysis.
- The YSC survey was follow-up only, meaning the evaluation could not measure pre- and post-training changes.
- A theory-based approach was used to qualitatively assess the contribution of the project to the outcomes (i.e., from the perspectives of CYP, YSCs, the project team), building on the survey findings. Assessments of causality were treated with caution because the hour-long workshops and training sessions were short, although triangulating data from multiple sources helped to provide evidence of impact.
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Generalisability/ transferability: The evidence suggests that the delivery model could be transferred to other topic areas, or could be incorporated into workshops with a broader focus. In particular, young people indicated they were interested in learning about employment and making money, so future workshops could incorporate these themes into financial education.
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Relevance: This report is applicable to anyone with an interest in understanding how toengage vulnerable young people (specifically, in this project, with a cancer diagnosis) with financial education.
