We explored which elements of Moneywise work well/least well with young people through a process evaluation focusing on engagement, experience and effectiveness.
Executive Summary
Project context
Centrepoint annually supports over 9,200 homeless young people aged 16 to 25 into housing and employment across England. These young people are some of the most vulnerable in society, often having complex needs. Moneywise is the umbrella term for the range of activities delivered by Centrepoint as part of its holistic support; aimed at improving the financial and mental wellbeing, financial resilience and financial capability of homeless young people. Moneywise is a support programme comprised of accredited training, mentoring, workshops, external experts, ambassadors and ad-hoc advice, the delivery of which varies from hostel to hostel, duration of stay permitted and hostel service structure/management. Depending on the situation and individual needs of young people, when and how target beneficiaries engage with any or all of the above activities will vary.
Evaluation approach
The core research question for this evaluation was, “To what extent do the individual or combined elements of the Moneywise intervention impact on the financial capability of homeless young people?” To assess this, we set out to conduct 20 longitudinal interviews with young people over two or three points (across 5-6 months), supplemented by MAS Adult Outcomes Framework questions, key worker interviews and focus groups, and a quantitative analysis of management information. The evaluation took place between May 2017 and February 2018.
Outcomes were assessed against parameters in the MAS Adult Outcomes Framework: Ability, Mindset, Connection and Financial Capability behaviours. We also explored which elements of Moneywise work well/least well with young people through a process evaluation focusing on engagement, experience and effectiveness.
Key findings and recommendations
Findings
Ability - Learning to budget and how to ensure that spending does not go over a weekly or monthly limit set, seems to have been the main ability young people gained from Moneywise. Making activities relevant and relatable to individual circumstances appears important to improving abilities, as does recognising the need to practise skills i.e. budgeting in different situations.
Mindset – Moneywise has helped the financial confidence and spending mindset of some young people, but attitudes towards money advice were mixed and were often the result of external factors such as pre-existing views/upbringing. Young people find maintaining a good mindset difficult, particularly confidence, when faced with life events and financial shocks e.g. unexpected unemployment, receiving fines, additional costs such as getting a car fixed etc.
Connection - CitizenCard has helped some young people’s access to financial products, acting as an interface to other services, but this was not universal. Support around connection has to be relevant to the young person's circumstances and needs to continue after they leave Centrepoint.
Financial capability behaviours - Moneywise helped several young people successfully transition to living independently, providing them with the tools they needed to manage well daily, reduce debt and deal with life events.
Process - There have been minor improvements in young people’s attitudes toward money management due to Moneywise. The programme exceeded its target engagement of 200 people, but take-up of more than one activity was lower than expected. The experience of Moneywise for young people depended mainly on having an effective relationship with their key worker; frontline staff working with young homeless people at each Centrepoint hostel. The key worker is the young person’s main point of contact throughout their stay at Centrepoint. Key workers offer holistic support to their young people, supporting them with issues they may encounter, and referring them to other services where appropriate.
Recommendations
- Improve assessment and monitoring of young people’s financial capability as they transition through services. This should include:
- Monitoring young people as they transition in and out of employment, education and training, and onto independent living
- Regular assessment of each young person’s progress, across a range of health and wellbeing indicators. More consistent and more frequent measuring of the distance travelled for young people as they enter, participate and move on from different services and programmes, including Moneywise
- More in-depth, and more focused, assessment of the progress of young people, with training of key workers as to what to ask young people, and what data is needed
- Better understanding of who should be collecting what data, when and why
- More retrospective analysis of young people’s progress, ensuring questions are designed to track a client’s journey, rather than how they felt during a one-off assessment
- Improve profile and services - establish a cross-organisation reference group, meeting regularly to review and refine the Moneywise offer
- Ensure consistent access and quality – implement a regular promotional campaign to ensure all key workers are informed about the Moneywise offer through their service managers. Review training and policy for permanent and temporary staff, using the learning from the case studies in this evaluation