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Children and young people navigate an increasingly complex financial landscape. From a young age, they are exposed to subscriptions, adverts and in-app purchases online. Later, they encounter opportunities – and temptations – to spend, contributing to indebtedness.

Incorporating financial education into the school curriculum, starting as early as primary schools, could potentially play an important role in building the skills of young people to manage their money, recognise online scams, and develop health spending and saving habits.

There is clearly a need for more support: just 1% of primary school teachers believe the majority of their pupils possess adequate financial skills.

It’s in this context that the Policy Institute is conducting an independent evaluation of a financial education programme run by the charity RedSTART Educate.

It is the largest randomised controlled trial of financial education ever undertaken in UK primary schools, involving 61 schools and more than 6,000 children, with initial findings showing statistically significant improvements in pupils’ financial knowledge after just one year.

At the same time, this topic is gaining traction among policymakers. The Commons Education Select Committee recently called on the government to bolster financial education, including at primary school level, and the new education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has pledge to expand the teaching of “real-world” maths skills in schools.

But progress has been slow, and significant challenges persist in effectively integrating this into the curriculum. There is also a lack of concrete evidence on how to effectively teach financial literacy across all age groups.

With the government currently reviewing the national curriculum, what should the future of financial education in the UK look like? And how can we convert political interest into change at the classroom level?

Speakers

Susannah Hume, Director of Evaluation at the Policy Institute, King’s College London
Baroness Sally Morgan, former Chair of Ofsted, and Director of Government Relations in 10 Downing Street, 1997–2005 (chair)
Jonathan Slater, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education, 2016–2020
Ruston Smith, Chair of Tesco Pension Fund and the Lifetime Savings Initiative
School
Bernice Warwick, Headteacher at Beulah Junior School in Thornton Heath

This event will be live-streamed and recorded. The recordings may be used for promotional and archival purposes. If you do not wish to appear in the live stream or recordings, please notify us at policy-institute-events@kcl.ac.uk before the event.

Financial education fit for the future: the case for policy change