Where is this approach happening

NACUW, Community Finance Solutions at the University of Salford and NEF are now working in a number of regions in England and Wales on this partnership approach towards financial inclusion. Extensive feasibility research has been completed in each of these areas which include:

• Mid-Wales

• Portsmouth and Southampton

• Devon

• East London

• Coventry

• North East England

• Merseyside.

Elsewhere other projects are also delivering new services and economies of scale through this joined-up approach such as in Sheffield through FISY, Blackpool, and Newcastle with FIN.

By winter 2005/6, up to eight ‘CBP pathfinders’ should be participating in a national pilot demonstration project. These will have received investment support from charitable foundations, banks and government bodies including DTI and DWP Financial inclusion Funds.

The goal that the National CBP Demonstration Project sets itself is to demonstrate how to tackle financial exclusion and provide affordable financial services to low-income households in a sustainable manner. Our five main objectives are to:

1. Develop robust delivery prototypes.

2. Develop a set of common core services that can be used anywhere in the country.

3. Build strong local Community Banking Partnerships to assist in marketing the financial inclusion services.

4. Support the progressive transition of the Community Banking Partnership pathfinders to sustainable sources of financing and long-term, operational sustainability.

5. Build upon the best practices that evolve both from the CBP pathfinders and other similar innovators in this.

During the course of the next three-year period the main areas of activity will be:

1. Scaling up – to strengthen the capacity of credit unions and other delivery partners so as to provide services on a larger scale.

2. Achieve operational sustainability through capacity building, technical support and product development.

3. Mobilising local, regional and national resources to support the pathfinder organisations.

4. Refine and adapt the delivery mechanism based on an experiential learning approach appraisal. This includes the reflections of the partners, alongside with the economic performance and social impact of the Pathfinders.

We believe that this approach will lead to stronger growth across community-based credit unions. It will increase access to affordable financial services by poorer households and provide a robust methodology for minimising the social injustices linked with financial exclusion.

We are really pleased that other sections of the credit union movement such as ABCUL are now following our lead in advocating partnership approaches.