forwarded from Dr. Sarah Ruggins, St. James Place: (if you reach out to Sarah, please let me, Thomas Hills, know).

I’m reaching out on behalf of St. James’s Place – we are one of the UK’s largest wealth managers with a specialised Corporate Responsibility programme that delivers financial education workshops to over 7,000 young adults per year. In my role as Head of Impact Research, I am searching for an academic institution that is able to design & deliver a longitudinal study for us about the impact of financial education on spending and savings behaviours of marginalised youth. I have provided some background below.

I am currently leading an initiative to collate our social value activities under an impact framework that evidences non-financial value creation for our firm. One of our major initiatives is our Financial Education programme – we deliver financial education workshops to over 7,000 students a year across Primary, Year 9, and Sixth Form. This is a volunteer-led programme, where our 2,000 staff and 5,000 financial advisors deliver the programmes across the UK.

We would like to fund a longitudinal study to assess the impact that our financial education programme has on young people – does it change spending and savings behaviours in meaningful ways over time? We would like to use this study to begin an engagement process with local government. Specifically, we would like to petition for a more advanced financial education curriculum in schools by using an evidence-led narrative.

I’m curious to explore whether anyone at Warwick would be interested in engaging in a funded study for us. We would be delighted to discuss at your convenience if you feel this may be of interest to your researchers.

  • We have a healthy multi-year budget agreed by our Board for the project; I am happy to discuss this in due course if the project is deemed suitable/of interest to your researchers.
  • We have 5 years of historical data but it is quite patchy and doesn’t capture what we are now trying to evidence, which is changed behaviours/attitudes towards money, particularly for marginalised youth. We would therefore like to fund the project design, data collection, and analysis (in the form of a white paper if possible). Depending on costs and resources, I am happy to work in collaboration with the research team as I myself have a doctorate in sociology.
  • We can supply the schools and the financial education curriculum.

Dr. Sarah M. Ruggins

Head of Impact Research

St. James's Place Wealth Management
M: 0754 154 3776

Email: sarah.ruggins@sjp.co.uk