Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve financial education in secondary schools.

Financial education forms a compulsory part of the National Curriculum for mathematics (at Key Stages 1 to 4) and citizenship (at Key stages 3 and 4), which together cover important financial topics including personal budgeting, saving for the future, managing credit and debt, and calculating interest. The National Curriculum is compulsory for maintained schools but academies must teach a broad and balanced curriculum, including mathematics. The National Curriculum can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum.

The Prime Minister recently announced more investment in secondary mathematics, and that mathematics will be studied by all 16 to 18 year olds as part of the new Advanced British Standard qualification.

As with all aspects of the curriculum, schools have flexibility over how they deliver financial education, so they can develop an approach that is sensitive to the needs and background of their pupils.

There is a wide range of support for financial education. For example, the Money and Pensions Service has published guidance, setting out how schools can improve the financial education they deliver, and signposting to services and resources that can help. The guidance can be found here: https://maps.org.uk/en/publications/research/2021/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england.

The Department’s national network of 40 Maths Hubs also supports schools to improve their mathematics teaching, including financial content in the mathematics curriculum, based on best practice from East Asia.

The Oak National Academy, which became an independent Arm’s Length Body in September 2022, will provide adaptable, optional and free support for schools, reducing teacher workload and enabling pupils to access a high quality curriculum. New Oak curriculum materials, including for mathematics, will start be available from autumn 2023, with full curriculum packages available by summer 2024. Oak’s next phase of procurement of curriculum resources is expected to launch in late 2023 and will include citizenship.