Advising Communities have been awarded funding from the Money Advice Service’s What Works fund to explore a new approach in improving the financial capability of people with mental health conditions and low levels of well-being (those with low levels of positivity and confidence and high levels of anxiety).
They will be piloting a new approach which combines financial capability education, legal advice and 1:1 support. Participants in the project will benefit from small group training sessions as well as 1:1 advice and support over a 4-month period. They will be running the programme 3 times over the next year.
This project is aimed at providing participants with a holistic programme where they can deal with their immediate problems as well as building up their skills and resilience for the future with a heavy focus on financial capability.
As part of each programme the participant will attend 1 small group training session each month (4 in total). In addition, each participant will have regular 1:1 advice and support sessions with their caseworker, who will be a qualified legal adviser. 1:1 session’s will be organised directly with the participant’s caseworker who depending on capacity will try and be as flexible as possible to fit in with the participant’s schedule.
Start – October 2017. Finish – January 2018
This project is designed for clients with mental health conditions and low levels of wellbeing. In line with sector wide practice clients would fulfil this criterion if they self-identify as having a mental health condition or low levels of wellbeing (those with low levels of positivity and confidence and high levels of anxiety).
In addition, to benefit from this programme, clients must agree to complete all elements of the programme for the full 4-month period. This will include some evaluation exercises and questionnaires where results may be used anonymously in analysis. These will be used to ensure that participant feedback is used to shape the programme and also to demonstrate ‘what works’ about the project and the impact it has. Findings will be shared to improve learning in the sector and also to inform future projects. These questionnaires and exercises are designed to be user friendly and manageable. In addition, the participant’s caseworker will be available to assist in any way with completion of this.
To sign up for this service please complete and send the attached programme sign up form.
Once completed please scan and send this to jonakey@advisingcommunities.uk.
You could also post the completed sign up form by sending it to Jonakey Begum at the following address: Advising Communities, The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London, SE11 5RR.
 If you are unable to email or post this to us, please call 020 3752 5494 for assistance in signing up.
The project is focused at combining 1:1 advice, support and small group training to improve participant’s financial capability.
Small group training sessions
The financial capability education element of this programme will take place in 4 small group training sessions. These sessions will be 2 hours long. All training sessions will include interactive activities, a chance for questions and discussions and also provided the participant with resources they can take away and use in the future. Once we have all sign up forms we will allocate participants into small groups and notify them of the sessions they should attend. We will take into account the participants time preferences as much as possible. Trainings session will typically have 6-10 participants attending.
Session will cover the following topics: attitudes to money and budgeting, maximising your income, banking skills, borrowing and saving, dealing with debt and welfare benefits.
1:1 sessions
Each participant will be assigned a caseworker for the duration of the programme. This person will be there main contact throughout and will also be the person holding regular 1:1 appointments. The participant’s caseworker is a qualified legal advice who is able to advise on all areas of social welfare law, such as housing, welfare benefits, debt and more.
At the first appointment the caseworker will work with the participant to put together an action plan of what they hope to achieve throughout the programme. Appointment can be used to get legal advice regarding any issues the participant may be having. This can involve the caseworker taking some actions on the participant’s behalf. These appointments can also be used to give the participant support but where this may not require legal advice. For example, the client may require help completing forms, writing letters or accessing digital services. In addition to this the client can use these appointments to reinforce their learning from the small group training sessions and apply this to their personal situation. For example, this may include creating and monitoring a personal budget, setting up a bank account or choosing financial products that suit their needs.
Appointments can take place at our Advice Hub or outreach locations. Depending on the participant’s availability appointments may also involve telephone or email advice and support.
Appointments will typical be 1-2 hours long depending on both the participants and adviser’s availability and the participant’s needs for that session.
Nearest tube: Elephant & Castle underground station (Northern and Bakerloo lines).
Nearest Railway Station: Elephant & Castle
Buses from Elephant and Castle: ask bus driver for Burgess Park. Bus numbers: 12, 171, 148, 176, 68, 484, 42, 40, 45