Description of the programme

Your Money Garden is a project that provides financial capability education training to women living on low incomes across Belfast, Newtownabbey and surrounding areas in Northern Ireland. The training is delivered to existing community groups across a series of workshops and aims to address gaps in knowledge around finances.

The training helps participants to develop their money management, budgeting and practical skills so that they may increase their level of financial knowledge and economic activity. 73 women participated in the project during the evaluation period. There were three key aims:

• Increasing financial capability by improving confidence, motivation, knowledge and behaviour in relation to personal finances
• Increasing economic activity - defined as actively managing finances by setting and reviewing goals
• Highlighting the need for a financial inclusion strategy in Northern Ireland and demonstrating the impact that such interventions can have on financial exclusion.

The study

This is one of four schemes within the RBS Innovate Scheme identified for evaluation, using criteria of size, remit, population served and geographical location.

The focus of this evaluation is on establishing what works (summative evaluation) and how the service can be improved (formative / process evaluation). Quantitative data collection was carried out via two surveys: one on financial capability before and after the course and one on course satisfaction at two separate points in the programme. Qualitative methods were used to discuss progress with participants three months after the course. Case studies were collected to illustrate the impact of the course on participants’ lives.

What are the outcomes?

• The study evaluates improvements in the confidence, motivation, behaviour and goals of participants in relation to personal finances.
• The study evaluates improvements in the knowledge of participants in relation to personal finances.

Key findings

53% of participants provided feedback on satisfaction levels. Respondents reported an average of 92% satisfaction with the overall course.

Financial capability (ability): 46% of the participants provided feedback on this aspect. Financial capability was measured using eight indicators of motivation, confidence, knowledge and skills. These were self-reported and captured before and three months after the course, using a five-point scale.

• On average the financial capability of respondents increased by 24%.
• When asked what they had gained as a result of taking part in the course, 71% of respondents highlighted skills in budgeting and saving.
• Three months after the course, 58% of respondents felt they were doing well in relation to financial goals, while 38% were still struggling.
• When asked about future goals, 53% of respondents cited examples of long-term goals and 37% cited short-term goals.

The model of delivery is judged as representing a good balance between engaging participants and ensuring that the course delivers the necessary learning, though using paper-based evaluation tools posed difficulties for some participants due to low literacy levels. Key strengths of the model highlighted are:

• the benefits of delivering through women’s centres in terms of engagement and access;
• testing and refining the tools and course content with participants to ensure relevance to the target group;
• covering costs of travel and childcare for participants; and
• producing a guide and conducting progress review calls with participants after three months.

Points to consider

• One of the three key aims of RBS Innovate (the overarching programme of which this is one project) was to design evaluation frameworks that are applicable to the whole sector. The report provides reflections on the challenges of evaluating work in financial capability that could be of interest for evaluations of other types of services working in financial exclusion.
• The report could be of interest to projects wishing to target women facing financial exclusion or other specific groups by working through centres where a relationship has been established.
• Participants were involved in the design of evaluation tools which ensured they were clear and easy to use
• The author describes the review as focusing on learning what works in order to improve (rather than to prove) and emphasises that it is not an external, fully objective evaluation. Findings are based on participants’ self-reported outcomes and interviews with the course leader, who also collected and collated all data. T

Full report

Planting the seed: Your Money Garden financial education project - full report