The Now let’s talk money small project fund was supported by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and took place between spring 2008 and spring 2009. It channelled funding through the regional financial capability forums [link to forums front page] to support small training projects aimed at frontline workers. It also generated good practice training materials that were used to deliver sessions.

All 14 forums were involved, providing financial capability training to 1,658 frontline workers across England and Wales – well above the target of 1,250.

Materials

Citizens Advice produced training materials which forum members used to deliver their sessions. These covered topics such as common banking problems, the pros and cons of different types of credit, and how to help clients access debt advice.

Two half-day sets of materials were developed for the project. One was aimed at frontline workers who are not trained in money advice. This included topics such as how to prioritise debts, and was also translated into Welsh. The other set of materials was aimed at Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) workers, who were already trained money advisers.

The materials were found to be effective and have been reviewed and revised. All materials aimed at non-money-advisers are now available to bureaux and to forum members on request.

For further information: financial capability forums.                                                                                                                                                                       

West Midlands forum member

“I have recently been involved in the Now Let’s Talk Money Introduction to financial capability training for frontline workers, which went very well. I decided to use the same materials to do sessions for housing staff and in the first six months of next year it looks likely that I will deliver this training to over 80 employees within Dudley’s housing services. The number of people this may benefit within Dudley Borough is significant – the 50 estate officers alone are each responsible for 500 households within the borough.”