In 2016/17 the Money Advice Service (MAS) aims to contribute up to £7m to fund and evaluate programmes and pilots across the UK to deepen their understanding of what types of interventions can make a real difference to people's financial capability.
The core aim of the What Works Funding Programme is to build the evidence base around what types of interventions can make a measurable impact on people’s financial capability and to share that evidence with stakeholders across Government, the third sector, financial services and beyond. MAS want organisations to learn from this evidence to improve the impact of what they do on financial capability, and to share that learning with others – to make a difference to peoples’ lives by improving their financial capability.
The What Works Funding Programme will also invest in projects to enhance the capacity and expertise of the wider financial capability sector – to help ensure there is a firm foundation on which to share insight, evidence and offer consistent and high quality guidance to people.
Stream A – What works evaluation and pilot activity
The majority of the Programme’s funding will fall under this stream and will go towards funding and evaluating interventions to identify what works well, and what works less well, in influencing people’s financial capability. Organisations should apply for this funding if they want to:
• Evaluate an existing financial capability intervention that they are already delivering and learn what’s working and how the programme can be improved.
• Expand and evaluate an existing financial capability intervention and test its effectiveness in reaching, engaging and building the financial capability of a wider group of beneficiaries or a particularly hard to reach group.
• Test and learn from a new approach to improving
Stream B – Building the sector’s capacity
To complement Stream A, at least £600,000 of Programme funding will be committed to piloting different ways to help financial capability practitioners boost their capacity to deliver consistent, high quality money guidance based on evidence of what works. Funding in Stream B will support pilot projects that aim to test ways to achieve the following objectives:
• understand more clearly what generalist knowledge and learning needs money guidance/financial capability practitioners have;
• provide a platform to identify and share generalist knowledge and learning materials among practitioners;
• enhance professional standards through accreditation of generalist practitioners and continuing professional development;
• foster more coordinated sharing of best practice, peer review and evidence of what works;
• embed good, generalist practice within key community sectors, such as social
• housing; and
• enable a deeper, evidence-based understanding of ‘what works’ in relation to money guidance and financial capability provision.
Expressions of Interest for Stream B – Building the sector’s capacity will be open in early July 2016 once the bidding period for Stream A has closed.
Applications for Stream A are welcome from any organisation that delivers financial capability interventions, or which may wish to do so in the future. This includes:
• charities and other third sector bodies including trusts;
• commercial organisations
• social enterprises
• local authorities
• housing associations and
• education bodies
For further information and to apply, visit: https://mas.bravosolution.co.uk/web/login.html
Deadline: Friday 8 July 2016, 12noon