Care leavers in Sheffield created a project – ‘Reality Cheque’ – which challenged their corporate parents to live on a low income – they wanted people to experience what life was like and to start conversations about how to improve money management skills.
Why?
Bright Spots research shows that having a low income, or struggling financially, is associated with low well-being for care leavers. Sheffield’s Bright Spots findings revealed that their care leavers were 3 times more likely to be struggling financially compared to their peers in the general population.
What did they do?
Discussing this issue, Sheffield Care Leavers’ Union (SCLU), decided that it needed to be felt in order to be understood. They wanted to develop a way for others to connect on a personal level with this issue.
SCLU designed a challenge for their corporate parents, called ‘Reality Cheque’, which gave them the experience of life living on a low income. They created a challenge pack and set of rules. People had to live on £24 for 5 days. This is the average weekly budget that some young people who have recently left care have to spend on food, drink, fun and non-essential travel. Care leavers wanted to raise awareness of the financial struggle they often face, and challenge negative stereotypes like, “you just need the right skills to manage on a low income”.
Those taking part were given daily diary sheets to fill in to record all their expenditure, write down how they were feeling and record ideas for different ways to support care leavers (such as how local businesses could help more). People were encouraged to send in budget recipes to contribute to a cook book, which will be given to care leavers when they move into their first home after leaving care.
Impact
Over 90 people from across the council (including the DCS & Executive of the People ‘s Portfolio) took part in the campaign and subsequent activities like the recipe book. The project received local press attention. People feel it has raised the profile of care leavers’ concerns in relation to finance, and led to some brilliant conversations and ideas about what more can be done. Other local authorities have been in contact to ask if they can run the challenge in their area.