Healthier Wealthier Families in East London: evaluating and extending health, wellbeing and financial benefits of universal co-located money advice for parents of newborns (HWFinEL)

Research questions:

1: What is the impact of money advice services on parental financial wellbeing and mental health? 2: What are the long term multi-sector simulated effects of providing welfare and benefits advice services to parents of newborns living in areas of high deprivation? 3: What are the conditions by which marginalised mothers of newborns can take up money advice co-located or integrated with health services?

Background: Financial insecurity is a pressing problem in inner-city areas. In East London's Tower Hamlets and Newham over half of children live in poverty and financial insecurity levels are high. Take-up of financial support is incomplete; more than £15m in benefits is unclaimed each year in Tower Hamlets.

Take-up is hampered by difficulties of access. Children from more deprived backgrounds have poorer health, development and wellbeing than their less-deprived peers, preventing them reaching their fullest potential. Health inequalities can be reduced by improving the financial health of parents.

Pregnancy and early child rearing is a key period for financial strain in families, particularly among lone parents and parents with additional vulnerabilities.

Aims and objectives: To generate evidence about the effects of implementing easy to access money advice services in early-childhood health settings.

Objectives are to: 1. Run a trial that evaluates the impact of co-located money advice services with routine health care on parental financial wellbeing and mental health; 2. Model the long term implications of co-located money advice on the child health and wellbeing over the lifecourse; 3.

Develop a draft toolkit for co-located service delivery suited to the circumstances of very marginalised mothers; 4. Bring our findings to local, regional and national policy makers and other stakeholders for use in service planning.

Methods: 1. A randomised controlled trial of parental health and wellbeing, and financial situation to determine the effectiveness of the intervention via self-reported questionnaire at two time points; 2. Interviews with 45 survey participants from diverse backgrounds (gender, ethnicity, household structure) to assess the experience of the intervention and the impacts on children; 3.

Interviews with 20 council staff who host or deliver the intervention to assess process, contextual factors and sustainability of the intervention; 4. Researcher observations and fieldnotes during the set up and support phases of the intervention about what worked (or did not), for whom and in what circumstances to produce implementation themes; 5. Notes of meetings of oversight and coordination groups which document adaptations, feedback mechanisms, unintended consequences, and trajectories for the intervention; 6.

Immersive ethnography and co-design workshops in a charity working with marginalised mothers to document barriers and facilitators to co-located health and money advice.

Timelines. 36 month project: i) M 0-6 set up: intervention, ethics and governance, data collection tools, regional network, PPI group; ii) M 7-24 recruitment and data collection WPs 1 & 3, model development WP2, engagement activity; iii) M 25-36 analysis, knowledge exchange.

Impact and Dissemination. Two webinars, HWF international working group, regional network, webpage, newsletters, social media and council communication channels. Three policy maker and practitioner workshops; four evidence briefs and short videos; hybrid conference.