Money Heroes

Money Heroes – our programme to date

Money Heroes is a free financial education programme from Young Money, supported by HSBC UK, set up in 2020 to transform financial education for primary age children, aged 3-11. Through the Money Heroes programme, crucial financial education skills are taught through a wide range of flexible, fun, and engaging high-quality resources designed for use in a variety of settings both at school and at home, to provide maximum learning opportunities for young people.

Over its first three years (end of 2022) Money Heroes has successfully engaged over 465,000 young people, over 2,500 schools/organisations, over 3,400 educators and over 10,700 parents; and the impact of this reach is evident. To read more about the programme’s impact, take a look at our recently published 2023 Impact Report which celebrates the programme’s achievements to date and highlights feedback from those involved in the programme and our CPD teacher training.

Young people reached through the programme have developed knowledge, skills and confidence they didn’t previously have: “I learnt how to use money. You don’t buy it if you want it, you buy it if you need it” (Year 2 pupil) Thanks to Money Heroes, over 96% of young people engaged in the programme now understand how money works, the important role money plays in our lives and that it is good to save up for things and plan for the future. The learning has been enjoyable for the children too; “It is really fun and taught us a lot about managing money” (Year 5 pupil)

 

Making Money Heroes accessible to all

2023 sees Money Heroes focus more than ever on the accessibility of the programme. As well as our mainstream resources, we are now very proud to offer a large range of SEND resources, and a complete range of Welsh language resources, both launched early 2023. These have increased the accessibility and reach of the programme, allowing more young people than ever to access crucial financial education. We are now an inclusive programme – accessible and adaptable to suit a wide range of children’s needs, to ensure that all children, no matter their background or circumstances, are given the opportunity to develop money management skills for the future and develop their financial capability.

Alongside our core programme, Money Heroes and HSBC have been working with BBC Children in Need to train and equip practitioners to deliver financial education in their settings; together, we are helping young people to thrive and overcome barriers and disadvantages they face. We have reached a wide range of children, including children with learning difficulties, children with disabilities, children in care, young carers and those affected by poverty. In 2022, we worked with 96 organisations supported by BBC CiN; more groups are being scheduled for 2023.

 

Thanks to this partnership, and support from other organisations such as RAD and RNIB, Money Heroes have developed a set of adapted activities suitable for children with special education needs or those not in a mainstream setting across the UK. To support these ability-led resources, we have also developed 5 new accessibly adapted formats of our storybooks (braille, BSL sign language videos, large-print big books, audiobooks and early-reader eBooks).

SEND-specific teacher training is also now available to support educators working in non-mainstream settings.

Our partnership has helped make financial education accessible and tangible, with real-life examples and engaging, practical activities to help bring previously abstract concepts to life and help protect vulnerable young people from money challenges.

Money Heroes