Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to
promote financial literacy in schools.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, we work closely with the Money and Pensions Service and
the Treasury to support the effective teaching of financial
education in schools. The Money and Pensions Service has
published financial education guidance for primary and secondary
schools and we will deliver webinars for schools in due course.
Our national network of 40 maths hubs also supports schools to
improve their mathematics teaching, including financial content
in the mathematics curriculum, based on best practice from east
Asia.
I thank the Minister for her reply and I am glad to hear what His
Majesty’s Government are doing. I do not know whether the
Minister is aware, but the Church of England has been working on
a project called Lifesavers, which came out of one of the
Archbishops’ Commissions. It has so far delivered financial
literacy training for 30,000 school pupils and trained 2,000
teaching staff. Given that only 5% of parents believe that their
children are leaving school with adequate financial literacy,
what assessment have His Majesty’s Government made of Lifesavers
and other similar school projects, such as GoHenry, and how can
they help these projects as we are seeking to roll them out and
increase financial literacy?
(Con)
The Government are very grateful to organisations such as
Lifesavers for the important work they do providing very useful
support to teachers and schools. According to the Money and
Pensions Service, about 6.3 million children between the ages of
five and 17 received some form of financial education across just
over 100 programmes, so there is a great variety on offer across
the country.
(Con)
My Lords, I draw attention to my registered interest as chair of
GambleAware. Research shows that 96% of 11 to 24 year-olds are
exposed to gambling marketing and advertising, and that exposure
to gambling marketing can influence their attitudes towards
gambling and the likelihood of them gambling in the future. In
the light of that, what specific measures are the Government
taking to ensure that schoolchildren are educated about the
financial as well as other risks associated with gambling?
(Con)
My noble friend makes a very important point. Risks relating to
gambling are part of the RSHE curriculum and there are two main
aspects of this. One is supporting pupils to manage risk and make
informed decisions in relation to their mental well-being and
their behaviour online. The second area relates to internet
safety and harms and addresses exactly my noble friend’s point:
pupils are taught about the risks relating to online gambling,
including how advertising and information is targeted at them,
the risks of accumulating debt and how to be a discerning
consumer of information online.
(Lab)
My Lords, I am glad that the Minister stressed the importance of
mathematics in this context. Will she take the opportunity to
inform the Prime Minister that it is facile to suggest improving
maths in our schoolchildren without paying mathematics teachers
enough money to encourage them to join and stay in the teaching
workforce?
(Con)
I have to say that I do not really have any intention of saying
to the Prime Minister that his plans are facile. More
importantly, I point the noble Lord to the pickup in recruitment
of maths teachers following our interventions over the last three
years.
(LD)
My Lords, those children and young people who are financially
literate are less likely to make poor financial decisions.
Unfortunately, we see many children, particularly those from
poorer backgrounds, who are not able to make those correct
financial decisions. It is not just about teaching maths; it is
actually about having practical opportunities and experiences.
Will the Minister reflect on how we might do that in a more
coherent way across all schools, particularly starting in primary
schools?
(Con)
The Government agree with the noble Lord that it is that
combination of the fundamental knowledge in relation to
mathematics and reading that support financial literacy and that
can be taught in schools, having really high quality materials
for schools to use. But, beyond that, they should have the
experiences that the noble Lord refers to. That is why we are
grateful to organisations such as Young Enterprise and the Money
and Pensions Service for the work they do outside schools to
complement what goes on inside.
(CB)
My Lords, the Fraud Act 2006 and Digital Fraud Committee heard a
lot of evidence that young people are particularly susceptible to
fraud and also to being conned into becoming money laundering
mules. Can the Minister assure us that the financial education
will include fraud to enable young people to protect themselves
from becoming either victims or unwitting criminals?
(Con)
Certainly, the aspects of the curriculum that relate to how to
operate safely online include fraud, which is a growing and
terrible problem, as the noble Lord points out.
(Lab)
My Lords, the United Kingdom strategy for financial well-being
sets a national goal to ensure that 2 million more children and
young people across the UK receive meaningful financial education
by 2030. I have not found any evidence yet that the Government
have dropped this goal, although I have yet to find any evidence
that the Government are on track to deliver it. But I would like
the Minister to wonder how that goal can be achieved, given that
research from the APPG on Financial Education for Young People
suggests that two in five teachers are completely unaware of the
legal requirement to teach financial education.
(Con)
I understand the direction of the noble Baroness’s question. I
would say that the data from the APPG report, which is extremely
valuable, is none the less from a very small sample. It was from,
I think, 401 teachers across the four nations. So, I think we
have to be careful about extrapolating from that. The Money and
Pension Service, which is responsible for delivering the
additional 2 million children receiving good financial education
has a wide range of programmes, including support for teacher
training, communication and support for parents as well.
(Con)
My Lords, I declare my financial services interests as set out in
the register. Would the Minister agree that, alongside financial
literacy, we should also revolutionise the curriculum with data
literacy, digital literacy and data privacy literary, to have a
curriculum fit for the future and fit for now? Further, would she
join with me in congratulating the right reverend Prelate the
? With the financial
literacy initiative from the Church of England, it is clear that
the bishop and his colleagues are rightly engaged in both
LifeSavers and afterlife savers.
(Con)
I am happy to congratulate the right reverend Prelate on his and
his colleagues’ contribution before, during and after life. In
relation to my noble friend’s question, data and digital literacy
already feature within compulsory national curriculum subjects.
Data literacy is covered within mathematics, science, computing
and geography and digital literacy within computing and RSHE.
They also feature within the subject content of GCSEs, which are
counted in the English baccalaureate.
(Lab)
The noble Baroness will be aware that children are particularly
susceptible to advertising, especially online advertising. Could
she say when the Government are going to do something about
gambling advertising and the effects it has on children?
(Con)
I think I already, in response to my noble friend’s question,
addressed, in part, the noble Lord’s question, namely in that we
already teach children about the risks relating to advertising,
and in particular the advertising of online gambling.
(DUP)
My Lords, the Minister has rightly identified that there are a
variety of good programmes out there, such as LifeSavers. But in
my experience in this field and other fields, sometimes within
schools there is not always the greatest awareness of what is
there. In light of one of the earlier questions which talked
about coherence in the system, what actions are the Government
taking to ensure that schools are made aware of best practice in
this field to ensure they get the best possible provision for
their young people?
(Con)
We are doing quite a lot to support schools in teaching financial
literacy. So, as I mentioned, we will be delivering webinars for
schools in the next academic year, which will help teachers
deliver the most practical and engaging content. The Money and
Pension Service has already published financial education
guidance for schools, and there is a quality mark accreditation
scheme. Also, the Oak National Academy will be producing
curriculum packages in this area.
