Talk Learn Do: Evaluations of recent projects

As part of the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing, the Money and Pensions Service has a national goal of two million more children and young people receiving a meaningful financial education by 2030.

To help achieve this goal, MaPS first worked with partners to develop and deliver the flagship Talk Learn Do programme, targeted at parents of children aged from three to 11, which supports them in talking to their children about money.

Talk Learn Do aims to encourage parents to talk to their children about money and create opportunities for their children to experience managing it.

It’s a two-hour session that includes practical activities around ‘modelling money’, shopping trip scenarios, talking about ‘pester power’, pocket money games and more.

In 2019 MaPS partnered with Campaign for Learning to deliver and embed Talk Learn Do in Wales, while also commissioning Arad Research to evaluate the effectiveness of the project for practitioners, parents and children. This project differed from the original approach in the following ways:

• both practitioners working on parenting programmes and others could receive training and deliver TLD
• practitioners could deliver to parents in one-to-one and group settings, and deliver structured and unstructured activities
• as a result of the above, it was offered to a wider set of parents – not just those who were attending parenting programmes.

In 2020 MaPS partnered with Reed in Partnership (in Northern Ireland) and Campaign for Learning (in Scotland) to test the feasibility of delivering TLD at scale in other parts of the UK. Again, there were a number of ways in which the projects differed in their approach to the original TLD pilot, which we were keen to test:

• The TLD session delivery method was flexible: it could be embedded into existing parenting programmes or as a standalone session
• The sessions for parents could be delivered by practitioners/professionals who support parents in various capacities, as opposed to specifically parenting practitioners
• Reed in Partnership engaged a range of organisations across Northern Ireland to cascade training down to their parent networks in a ‘Train the Trainer’ model

The projects coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore materials were adapted for virtual delivery, which also differed to the original face-to-face mode of delivery.

In Northern Ireland, IFF were commissioned to undertake a process and outcomes evaluation of the project, and in Scotland this was conducted by ScotCen.

In 2020 MaPS partnered with NatWest Group to explore the digital delivery of TLD sessions by Community Bankers and other bank staff to parents. This gave MaPS the opportunity to test a version of Talk Learn Do that differed from the original approach in the following ways:

• The digital delivery of TLD sessions, rather than face-to-face
• The delivery of TLD via a different type of partner (NatWest Group)
• The delivery of TLD sessions by a different type of intermediary (Community Bankers and other bank staff, who are not parenting professionals)

IFF were commissioned to undertake a process and outcomes evaluation of the project.

• Adapting and digitising Talk Learn Do to make it accessible for a wider variety of parents
• Developing Talk Learn Do for parents of older children (12–17 years old)
• Continuing to use insights and evidence to influence policy, practice and funding of interventions aimed at supporting parents to develop and improve the financial wellbeing of their children and families

For further information about our financial education work, including Talk Learn Do, contact our children and young people’s policy team by emailing cyp@maps.org.uk.

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