Emma Bates is a specialist in financial inclusion. She can provide support and expertise in developing and implementing strategic and operational work to tackle financial exclusion and issues affecting low income communities.
She can help you with developing work in the following areas affecting financially excluded individuals and communities:
- Banking issues
- Affordable credit
- Tackling illegal money lending
- Access to debt advice
- Income maximisation
- Financial capability/ education (children or adults/ different vulnerable groups)
- Supporting saving in low income communities
- Links to food poverty and fuel poverty
- Linking with welfare reform impacts
Emma can assist you to develop and implement your financial inclusion strategy and action plan, and develop partnership approaches to achieve them.
Financial inclusion work might be developed across a large area (such as a local authority area), within neighbourhoods, or with particular vulnerable client groups.
Emma is linked in with various national bodies such as Transact, Centre for Responsible Credit, PFEG, Illegal Money Lending Team, Money Advice Service etc and so is update on the latest developments and can help to ensure you are linked in to these.
She can also provide training sessions on financial inclusion for a wide range of groups, such as staff groups from different services or sectors, community groups and elected members.
Emma is based in the East Midlands.
Biography
Prior to setting up freelance Emma worked for four years as the Financial Inclusion Derbyshire Partnership Manager, developing and leading a multi-sector partnership to deliver a comprehensive Financial Inclusion Strategy across the county. The Partnership became recognised in the field nationally. It had over fifty partners from statutory, private and voluntary sectors.
Emma has worked with the following partners and groups on financial inclusion: various local authority departments, advice services, credit unions/ affordable credit providers, probation services (financial inclusion and offenders), public health, community health services, elected members, housing providers, older people’s groups and organisations, children and young people’s services, care leaver services, local strategic partnerships and other strategic bodies, learning disability groups, mental health groups, Illegal Money Lending Team, adult education services, banks, Job Centre Plus, neighbourhood groups and many others.
The work was also cited as a good practice example in the All Party Parliamentary Working Group on Vulnerable Young People and financial education.
Emma is an Associate with the Centre for Responsible Credit, sits on the Member Reference Panel for Transact - (the national forum for financial inclusion) and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health.
Prior to working in financial inclusion Emma spent several year working in community development/ regeneration and also in public health and health promotion around health inequalities.
Relevant Qualifications:
- 'Money Advice - Solutions & Insolvency' attendance certificate - 1 day course, Derby City Council
- Award in Education and Training (QCF), Level 3 (12 credits)
- ‘Promoting Financial Inclusion in Low Income Communities’, CPD - Certificate at Masters level - Liverpool John Moores University, 2012
- ‘Teach Me Financial Capability’ certificate – E learning course, National - Skills Academy Financial Services, 2012
- ‘Public Health’ MSc degree - University of Manchester, 1998 Professional Bodies: • Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health