Evaluation of the financial education programme Change the Game
The EDIT team at the Policy Institute is conducting an independent evaluation of the financial education intervention Change the Game, delivered and commissioned by the charity RedSTART. The programme delivers financial education to primary-aged children, including through workshops, school-based activities and a bank app, aiming to address low financial literacy amongst school leavers. Our evaluation is designed as a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to assess the impact on financial knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and educational attainment among pupils. We plan to publish annual evaluation reports, as the pupils progress through primary school.
The first report (full report and summary report) details the first year of our research. This report assesses the impact among more than 3,500 students, in Year 2 and 3, across 45 schools. It finds that Change the Game had a statistically significant small-to-medium sized positive effect on children’s financial knowledge, after one year of implementation. It also identified statistically significant positive impacts on financial ability, mindset and connection.
The second report (full report and summary report) details the second year of our research. It assesses the impact of Change the Game among more than 1,600 students, in Year 4, across 45 schools. It finds that the positive impacts on financial knowledge, ability, mindset and connection, identified after one year, has been sustained after two years of implementation. Later in the year, we will provide an updated report using further attainment and demographic data from the National Pupil Database, similar to the year 1 report.
The second report also explains how a new cohort of over 2,100 students were onboarded into the research. This cohort, who were in Reception in 2023/24, completed baseline surveys and will be tracked over the next six years as they progress through primary school. Alongside the original cohort, we will track this cohort throughout their entire primary school years to measure the impact of Change the Game activities.