What is it?

“A Load of Dosh” is a film in DVD format of about 35 minutes in length that is designed to be used by adult financial learning practitioners – primarily in family learning situations. It is made up of short clips, usually spoken to camera, by parents and children about:

• their attitudes to money
• their attitudes to savings
• children talking about the importance that they think money will have when they are older
• parents talking about how they treat the subject of money within the family
• the Child Trust Fund

The film was the result of collaboration between the Family Learning and Financial Learning teams at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE www.niace.org.uk ) and Media Education ( www.mediaeducation.co.uk ).

Many thanks to the parents, children, schoolteachers and SureStart Managers in Leicester and Gainsborough.

What is it for?

NIACE was aware that the introduction of the Child Trust Fund was going to place the issues of family money and savings fairly and squarely in front of all families, many of whom had not addressed these subjects before. Evidence from practitioners suggested that many parents were uneasy or even reluctant to bring family finance into the learning arena due to attitudes about privacy that were often tied up with lack of knowledge and guilt.

We decided that we should make a film that family learning practitioners could show to groups of learners to act as an icebreaker to tackle questions around personal finance. The parents and their children who appear in this film speak very candidly, often straight from the heart and the views they express have not been “censored” in any way. The result is a range of comments that should enable most viewers to find out that they are not alone in whatever they perceive as their state of knowledge or capability about personal finance.

As well as helping to give permission to learning groups about discussing personal finance, the film also raises important issues about how families handle their money – what is the right amount of pocket money; what is the right age for children to have control of their money; what do children learn from the way parents handle their finances; what are the ways that you can use the Child Trust Fund?

Some of these will give rise to discussion on their own while some will highlight the need for further resources and we shall be signposting some of these on the web site and also on www.spondoolies.org.uk  – the forum and resource centre for adult financial learning practitioners.

How do I get a copy?

The film is available free of charge for educational use only to all those in the public or voluntary sectors in the UK who are involved in delivering financial learning or family learning to adults. In order to receive your free copy, you should:

• go to www.spondoolies.org.uk  and register on that website. When registering, you should include as much detail as possible about yourself and your professional or volunteering role, including a work postal address. (Please feel free to explore and use this website as much as possible).
• When you have done that, send an e-mail to suzi.challenger@niace.org.uk requesting a copy of the DVD.

Content of the film

Click here to download a full transcript to the film. Practitioners may find this helpful as an extended “index” to help locate particular sections of the film. Alternatively, it may be useful to hand out portions of this to learners to help with follow up to viewing the film.