Description of the programme

Lifesavers is a financial education programme designed for primary schools, with the aim of equipping children to manage money sensibly in the present and the future. It provides training and resources for teachers to help them deliver financial education to primary school children of all ages (i.e. 4-11). It also offers support to set up and manage ‘school savings clubs’, while also encouraging parental and wider community engagement. LifeSavers is a partnership between the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Just Finance Foundation and Young Enterprise, with financial support from Virgin Money, as well as Government.

There are three elements to the approach taken by the Lifesavers programme to financial education:

• Continual professional development and training on financial education for teachers, along with resources to help schools entrench financial education within the school curriculum.
• The scheme also provides support to facilitate school savings clubs so that children get first-hand, practical experience of handling and saving money. This is run in association with local credit unions.
• A ‘whole community’ approach that involves parents, credit unions, churches and community groups in enabling children to learn about money.

Following a pilot in six schools in 2015/2016, the aim in the first year of the programme was to roll Lifesavers out across 30 schools in four different regions (the North East, Nottinghamshire, South East London and West Yorkshire) in 2016/17. The second year, 2017/18, sought to extend the programme to two more regions (Liverpool/Wirral and South West/Gloucestershire) and work with a further 40 schools. The final year of the programme (Year 3) will work with an additional 50 schools in 2018/19 (these schools have been recruited and brought onto the programme on a rolling basis throughout 2017/18 so they are in a position to implement LifeSavers at the start of 2018/19).

The study

Public Perspectives is an independent research and evaluation organisation commissioned to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the Lifesavers programme. The evaluation was embedded in the programme from the start, and is classed by the authors as both a ‘learning’ and ‘impact’ evaluation.

This report is an evaluation of the delivery and impact of the first two years of the programme, between 2016 and 2018. It builds on an interim evaluation of the first year of the programme (available elsewhere on the Hub).

The evaluation developed a theory of change model and evaluation framework to capture learning outcomes and measure how successful the programme was. Indicators were then developed to measure the impact of the programme on the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours of pupils, as well as the impact on schools/teachers, parents, credit unions and the wider community. The evaluation employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. These included surveys of pupils, schools and teachers, as well as case studies and stakeholder interviews.

Key findings

The evaluation identifies the following key findings from the first two years of the project:

• Lifesavers engaged with almost 1,200 teachers and 16,000 pupils. It also had over 1,500 ‘savers’ across 69 schools.
  • 69 schools registered (against a target of 70).
  • 66 schools delivered financial education to their pupils (target 70).
  • 48 schools fully participated in Lifesavers (target 70).
  • Of these 48, 46 continued to have active savings clubs at the date of the report.
  • 1,196 teachers had received professional training in teaching financial education.
  • 1,590 pupils were saving through savings clubs, with £61,500 having been deposited by the schools in the first two years.
• Over both years of the programme there is evidence of improvements regarding the financial behaviour of pupils, schools and teachers. There is also some evidence of impact on parents and credit unions.
• On average, at Key Stage 1 there is an increase of 43% on knowledge outcomes, 7% on skills outcomes and 6% on behavioural outcomes.
• At Key Stage 2 there is an increase of 18% on knowledge outcomes, 7% on skills outcomes, 6% on attitudinal outcomes and 8% on behavioural outcomes.
• Among schools and teachers:
• 92% agree LifeSavers has increased the importance placed on delivering financial education.
  • 81% agree LifeSavers has improved knowledge of schools and teachers about financial education/
• Many head teachers of schools where Lifesavers was rolled out were committed to continue delivering Lifesavers and the savings clubs for the ‘foreseeable future’.

Points to consider

• Results are tested for statistical significance throughout the evaluation, though it is not however always clear which results are significant.
• The evaluation covered significantly more schools and pupils than in year one, and while caution should be exercised in generalising from the results, they are likely to be indicative of the wider primary school population.
• This report is relevant to all stakeholders and policymakers with an interest in financial education among primary school children.