Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the implications for her policies of the finding in the Centre for Financial Capacity’s report entitled 1 Year On July 2021 – July 2022, published in July 2022, that one-fifth of children have access to financial education at primary school.

The Government wants all young people to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed.

The Department works closely with the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) and HM Treasury to consider the wide range of evidence for financial education, including reports from the Centre for Financial Capability, and to explore the opportunities to improve access for all pupils to high quality financial education.

MaPS has a statutory duty to develop and co-ordinate a national strategy to improve people’s financial capabilities and their ten-year strategy, published in 2020, set out their national goal that two million more children and young people will receive a meaningful financial education by 2030. The strategy is supported by Delivery Plans for each nation of the UK, which are available here: https://www.maps.org.uk/uk-strategy-for-financial-wellbeing/.

The Department has introduced a rigorous mathematics curriculum which provides young people with the arithmetic that pupils should be taught to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic that pupils should be taught. This is vital, as a strong grasp of mathematics will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content on financial education, such as calculations with money. Primary schools can also choose to teach financial education content within their citizenship curriculum, using the non-statutory citizenship curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/citizenship-programmes-of-study-for-key-stages-1-and-2.

MaPS published guidance for primary and secondary schools in England, to support headteachers to enhance the financial education currently delivered in their schools. The guidance can be found here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.

The Department and MaPS will deliver a series of joint financial education webinars this academic year, aimed at promoting the importance of financial education for all pupils and improving teacher confidence and knowledge, as well as providing a launchpad for further engagement with training and resources to support continuous improvement.