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Introducing the ESOL (English as a Second or Other Language) toolkit

A comprehensive toolkit designed to assist local offices in providing financial capability support to non-English speakers. It offers tips, resources, and activities to help clients navigate financial services in the UK. The toolkit is a work-in-progress and will be regularly updated based on feedback and testing.

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Introducing the ESOL (English as a Second or Other Language) toolkit

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  1. Introducing the ESOL (English as a Second or Other Language) toolkit August, 2019

  2. Why use this toolkit? • This toolkit was developed specifically to help local offices provide financial capability to speakers of other languages. It is provided to support any local offices who wish to add this to their service offer. • Clients that do not speak English as their first language will face a series of complex hurdles when engaging with traditional support services. Although this does not prevent us from offering them support in developing their level of financial capability, traditional methods of delivering financial capability no longer apply: these resources have been developed to take this into account.

  3. Helping clients who don’t speak English as their first language Always remember: Citizens Advice is not an adult education provider, and does not have a role of offering sustained literacy or language support to clients. For some clients, it may just not be practical for us to offer help before referring them to an adult education provider locally who can offer support in improving their English. Why don’t we offer more? Although there are options like LanguageLine, Google translate, helpful relatives of the clients, and even the use of interpreters (where available), we need to be realistic; almost all our clients are going to need to navigate services, products and websites that exist in the UK, and therefore are in an english-speaking environment. Despite the support we can offer, we need to also consider the further specialist support that is needed that we cannot provide ourselves.

  4. The approach in the ESOL toolkit The toolkit covers some basic areas that we encounter more often with ESOL clients. • General tips on strengthening English skills • Pictorial glossary – this is a very simplistic picture-based resource intended to help clients identify key financial words with their meaning. • Halal banking – Those clients that are Muslim often show an interest in understanding this area of finance. • Proving identity – These tips are general guidance for getting the appropriate paperwork necessary to secure bank accounts, tenancies, employment and other common services. The toolkit is - like all these resources – considered to be a live work-in-progress. Please contact the Financial Capability and Consumer Education Team if you have any suggestions for improvements or alternatives.

  5. Tips to keep in mind Advisors are not expected to use this toolkit in isolation: it does not exist in an isolated project, and was never developed as part of a discrete pilot. The activities in this toolkit are ones that have been found to specifically complement clients with ESOL needs. However, advisers will find them most useful when combined with other existing activities from our broader, more generic financial capability suite of over 250 resources. Advisors are encouraged to use the activities in this toolkit to help tailor existing sessions – or inform new sessions – when working with ESOL clients. Many other useful resources that may be helpful when working with ESOL clients can be found in our Digital Money Coaching section: as always, the adviser will need to use their own discretion to judge which ones are most suitable for any particular client.

  6. Recording on Casebook • Each activity in the toolkit has some recommended AIC codes for them. • Advisers do not have to use these if they feel their particular intervention did not cover the recommended areas, but generally these codes will accurately reflect the intervention. • Further advice on Citizens Advice evaluation methods is also included in the toolkit. The recommended AIC code is here

  7. What happens next? For those local offices interested in new and innovative models, which are catered to address the differing channels and needs of our clients, they can see the various toolkits available in the Resource Toolkits tab of the financial capability section of the Citizen Advice website. Further toolkits will be added as they leave the testing stage of their respective projects. • The ESOL toolkit is designed for use with clients who do not speak English as a first language, and is designed by in-house specialists. • However, although the toolkit is provided for all local Citizens Advice and partner organisations to use, it is still very much a ‘work-in-progress’ and should be used as such. • New versions will be uploaded online at regular intervals, in response to continued feedback and practical testing.

  8. For any further information or feedback, contact us at Financial.Skills@citizensadvice.org.uk

  9. The Financial Capability and Consumer Education Team • Bas Diablos • Financial Capability Development Lead Dominic Mukwamba • Financial Capability Development Officer Mel McGinn Consumer Education Development Consultant • Abby Samuel • Financial Capability Development Officer

  10. Presented by: Date:

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