An Evaluation Becky Nixon April 2018 Delivering Community Financial Advice Workshops in Leicester an Evaluation
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Delivering community financial advice workshops in Leicester An evaluation Becky Nixon April 2018 Delivering community financial advice workshops in Leicester An evaluation Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................................3 Executive summary .............................................................................................................................................4 1. Overview of project ..........................................................................................................................................7 1.1 Background and aims ............................................................................................................................7 1.2 Delivery organisations ...........................................................................................................................7 1.3 Target participants..................................................................................................................................8 1.4 Workshop structure ................................................................................................................................8 1.5 Changes to the project ...........................................................................................................................9 2. Overview of the evaluation approach ..........................................................................................................10 2.1 Initial evaluation proposal ....................................................................................................................10 2.2 Revised evaluation proposal ................................................................................................................11 3. Key Findings: Outcome/Impact Evaluation .................................................................................................13 3.1 About the participants ..........................................................................................................................13 3.2 Participants’ confidence .......................................................................................................................17 3.3 The importance of family relationships ................................................................................................19 3.4 Actions following the workshops ..........................................................................................................20 3.5 Financial capability and behaviour change ..........................................................................................21 3.6 Outcomes and Theory of Change ........................................................................................................22 4. Key Findings: Process Evaluation ...............................................................................................................23 4.1 Project success ....................................................................................................................................23 4.2 Changes in original delivery .................................................................................................................23 4.3 Quality of the workshops .....................................................................................................................24 4.4 What helped success ...........................................................................................................................27 4.5 What hindered success .......................................................................................................................27 5. Limits of the evaluation and future evaluation ...........................................................................................35 5.1 Evaluation limitations ...........................................................................................................................35 5.2 The effect of evaluation on service delivery .........................................................................................35 5.3 Consistency between training providers ..............................................................................................35 5.4 Qualitative research .............................................................................................................................36 5.5 Transferability of research ...................................................................................................................36 5.6 Further evaluation ................................................................................................................................36 6. Implications and Recommendations for Policy and Practice ...................................................................37 6.1 Need for financial capability support ....................................................................................................37 6.2 Participation engagement and retention and client group ...................................................................37 6.3 Workshop content and format ..............................................................................................................37 6.4 Project inputs and processes ...............................................................................................................39 6.5 Further research ..................................................................................................................................39 6.6 Evaluation process ..............................................................................................................................39 6.7 Project next steps ................................................................................................................................40 7. Sharing and Learning Activity ......................................................................................................................41 Appendix for Evidence Summaries ..................................................................................................................42 2 Delivering community financial advice workshops in Leicester An evaluation Acknowledgements Thank you to everyone who worked to make this project successful and participated in the evaluation: Vista: Paul Bott, Jamie Mackrill, Sam Larke, and freelance consultant Steven Lyons CALS: Kathryn Burgess, Michael Moreton, Daljit Singh, Irene Harbis WEA: Karen Chouhan, Devi Cardero, Diane Johnson and trainer Harsha Kotecha Thank you to the external organisations and community venues that held workshops, without whose involvement the programme would not have been possible. Organisations that participated in the evaluation included: Anchor Housing, Belgrave Yoga Group, Department for Work and Pensions, Eyres Monsell Community Centre, Pakistan Youth and Community Centre (PYCA), The Emerald Centre, The Oak Centre, Thurnby Lodge Community Centre, and West Humberston Gospel Mission. Other organisations and venues that held workshops were: Age UK, Aylestone Hall, Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre, Birstall Parish Council, Confederation of Indian Organisations, Evington Park House, Highfields Centre, Leicester Forest East Library, Manor House Community Centre, St Albans Church, and Thurmaston Community Centre. Thank you to Ideas to Impact researchers Ann Gilbert and Krista Blair. And finally, but most importantly, to all of the participants who shared their time and their experiences. Becky Nixon Ideas to Impact [email protected] 07932 061446 www.ideastoimpact.co.uk 3 Delivering community financial advice workshops in Leicester An evaluation Executive summary Background and aims Leicester Ageing Together is a Big Lottery Funded project working in Leicester city to reduce loneliness and isolation. Poverty was highlighted locally as a key cause of loneliness and isolation, so this What Works project aimed to offer an additional resource within the city, complementing the Leicester Ageing Together programme, by exploring how to improve older people’s financial capability. The project aimed to address this by identifying whether more strongly grounding people’s financial decision making within their wider life context, family and social connections leads to greater and longer lasting changes than more traditional information-based financial capability support, particularly in relation to mindset, behaviour and seeking advice. There were three partners in the project, Vista, who are the lead body of the Leicester Ageing Together programme, CALS, who provide social welfare law and support, and the WEA, who provide educational opportunities including to older people. The original project design was to run two strands of workshops, one covering “traditional” financial capability skills and knowledge (the “financial capability” strand) and another that delivered the same financial capability skills and knowledge but within the context of what people wanted to achieve for their retirement as a whole (the “holistic” strand). This was designed to be delivered as two workshops, a week or two apart, in community venues across the city. Participants ranged from 60 to over 90 years old, were three quarters women and a quarter men, and just under half came from an ethnic minority background. The full project did not run as planned, as early delays with set up, predominantly difficulties