Welcome to our journey towards Nottingham city being a place where its residents are financially resilient. Here's how we have grown and developed over the years:
Prior to the Partnership being formed, following discussions between a specialist in this field (Emma Bates) and Bestwood Advice Centre, the work began in the Bestwood ward with a ‘Sorting out Money’ stakeholder event in October 2014 aimed at identifying community needs and priorities while raising awareness of local services. This led to the establishment of the Bestwood Financial Resilience Group, which ran for a few years.
Building on this, as further funding became available, work was able to take place in several other wards. Similar events were held to the initial Bestwood one, approx. a year later, for St Ann’s and Sneinton area stakeholders, Clifton and the Meadows area stakeholders and Aspley stakeholders. And in 2017 an event was held for Bulwell. In some instances these also led to the formation of ongoing stakeholder groups to action identified priority issues, though ultimately unfortunately, there was not the capacity to continue any of these on a long term basis.
Recognising the need for a broader strategy, Emma Bates convened an invited city-wide ‘Financial Inclusion Planning for Nottingham’ meeting to assess interest in a city-wide approach. This meeting brought together key stakeholders to discuss and propose a comprehensive city-wide financial resilience plan and partnership. Agreement was secured from all.
To drive the mission forward and to secure funding for the next stage, a Financial Resilience Core Group was established, comprising: originally of:
- Emma Bates (Financial Inclusion Support)
- Debbie Webster (Advice Nottingham)
- Shaun French (University of Nottingham)
- Ella Ferris (Nottingham Credit Union)
- Michael Rowley (Nottingham City Council)
This core group began the work of planning for the formation of a city wide Partnership and a launch conference in April 2016, for which funding was secured. Emma Bates produced a plan/ strategy document on behalf of the group for the launch conference.
Also during 2015, Emma Bates undertook work to produce both financial capability (adults) and financial education (schools) scoping reports for the city, with follow up meetings for those involved in delivery.
A day conference ‘Improving People’s Financial Resilience in Nottingham’ was held in April 2016, organised by the Core Group. The draft Financial Resilience Plan for Nottingham was launched there. Over 100 representatives from the voluntary sector, the statutory sector and the financial services sector attended. The conference was opened by the Councillor Chapman, Deputy Leader NCC.
The inaugural meeting of Nottingham Financial Resilience Partnership group was held in September 2016 made up of senior representatives of key agencies across sectors, to facilitate implementation of a Financial Resilience Plan. The Partnership met regularly, overseen by the core group of the time.
In 2018 a formal Constitution was adopted and bank account opened.
All work so far had only been possible on an ad-hoc basis when occasional funding was available, significantly limiting what could be done. So in 2018 a five-year bid was submitted to the ‘National Lottery Community Fund for Partnerships’. The outcome of our successful bid was finally announced in Spring 2020 meaning the Partnership would have a consistent funded role, for the first time, from May 2020 on a part-time basis. This lead role then became full-time from December 2021, from additional funding sources.
Nottingham Financial Resilience Partnership gained its Charitable Incorporated Organisation (‘Association Model’) status in 2022 and a Trustee group established. However, it remains a multi-sector partnership.
During this 2016-2020 stage, we continued to work to build commitment to financial resilience work in the city across partners. Despite limited resourcing in this period, we nevertheless still undertook some significant pieces of work including, banking summits, community money hub project, a high profile visit resulting in national press, the publication of a qualitative community research. In 2020, we held a successful online conference ‘Tackling the impact on people’s financial well-being in Nottingham, of COVID 19’, with visiting speakers, workshops and around 80 participants.
Our journey has been to establish an effective, independent, multi-sector Nottingham Financial Resilience Partnership that listens to the issues of local people and is informed by information and data. See our ‘Key Principles’.
The long-entrenched level of need in the city means the need for partners to work together effectively is significant. We are committed to pursuing this goal and to continue to work toward a more financially secure future for all residents of Nottingham.
We hope you will join us in this.
