Partners

Why we work with organisations

We work with organisations that help us connect with people across the UK.

This supports the work we do with our Youth Forum, Community forums, Citizens’ Forum and education programme.

Working in partnership in this way means we can reach more people and improve our understanding. So we can make better decisions and create more useful resources.

Partners benefit from working with us too. We help them:

to achieve our common goals
generate and share resources
give a platform for views to be heard
to support their initiatives with our expertise, resources and networks

If you would like to know more about how we can work together, please email: outreach@bankofengland.co.uk.

Our partners

We work with everyone from large national charities to small, grassroots community groups.

Our partners represent people with a diverse range of interests and needs. Below are some examples of partnerships we have formed.

British Youth Council for our Youth Forum

We started a partnership with the British Youth Council in July 2019 to launch and establish its first-ever Youth Forum.

Its purpose is to provide a way for us to engage with young adults, who we have struggled to reach through other means in the past. By creating a community of young people who we work with on an ongoing basis, we can gain insight on a range of issues, from policy matters, to helping us to better understand how to communicate with young people.

It’s not just a one-way relationship. By getting involved these young people:

gain skills including writing, research, analytics and presentation
work with other motivated young people from across the UK to improve youth voice
work closely with us to help us improve our communications and educational resources for young people

Youth Forum members have launched surveys, held focus groups and delved into topics such as financial education, the labour market and the impact of Covid. Their work is invaluable to us.

‘The British Youth Council is delighted to be partnering with the Bank of England for this initiative. It is vital that all young people have an understanding of the economy and I think it is important that an institution like the Bank is engaging with and involving young people in their decision making processes to ensure a better future for all’.

Jo Hobbs, Chief Executive of the British Youth Council

UK Community Foundations and our Community forums

As the UK’s central bank, it’s our job to set policies that work for people all over the United Kingdom. To help us do that, it’s important we understand how the economy is working. Statistics such as the rate of unemployment or inflation only tell us a part of the story. But talking to people directly can tell us more.

We have a particular interest in engaging with underrepresented and lesser-heard groups from all communities across the UK. We find the best way to engage with these groups is through our Community forums.

We partner with charities and other community organisations to hold our Community forums events.

UK Community Foundations is a network organisation for 47 local Community Foundation charities across the UK. Several of these local Community Foundations have helped us to deliver our programme of Community forums.

In turn, they have been able to:

talk to our senior policy makers
share the experiences of the people who use their services and highlight the financial health of the third sector
build an ongoing relationship with us and our local Agents.

“At UK Community Foundations we believe that change needs to come from within communities, driven by people who understand the local situation. We are proud to partner with the Bank of England to deliver their Community Forum programme. This is an important way for our members to amplify the voices of local people and organisations and help shape economic policies which will enable communities to thrive."

Rosemary McDonald, Chief Executive of Community Foundations UK

Economy and our Citizens’ Forum

We worked with the charity Economy to launch ‘The Economy Hub’. This online platform aims to engage with members of the public who are involved with our Citizens’ Forum.

The hub is a platform where people can learn about, and share their opinions and experiences on, economic issues affecting the UK.

We are working with Economy because they are expert at explaining economic issues in an easy, engaging and more relatable way. They are helping us provide meaningful and engaging content for our members, on economic topics that matter to them.

"Economy’s partnership with the Bank - to develop its online platform The Economy Hub - has been an excellent collaboration towards a shared goal of involving people in economic decision-making. We have built a really strong working relationship with the staff team from the Bank where we’ve established a lot of trust to experiment and try new things, which has really helped the platform develop towards its goals of engaging a diverse cross-section of the UK population."

Juliet Michaelson, Deputy CEO, Economy

Beano and TES and our education programmes

We have worked in partnership with education experts at Beano and TES to produce a resource for primary school. Money and Me is a free, 12-lesson teaching resource that introduces young people to how money and the economy works. It explores a range of topics from the history of money to how contactless payments work.

It features Beano characters (Dennis, Gnasher and Minnie) in real-life situations that involve making decisions about money.

‘Money and Me’ links to the English, Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh curricula, including:

PSHE
maths and numeracy
skills for life
learning and work
social studies

It supports the Financial Education Planning Framework and has been accredited by Young Money.

“Beano and the Bank of England is a surprising partnership! At Beano we really know about engaging kids. So, it’s a natural fit when there’s an important topic that we know we can make fun. Working with the Bank of England we’ve created high quality, entertaining lessons.”

Fiona Hickley Executive Director Brand Marketing & Strategic Partnerships – Beano Studios

A big thank you to our partners

We couldn’t do any of this without the support of the organisations we have worked, and continue to work, in partnership with. Here are just some of them: