To Celebrate HM The Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, The Association of High Sheriffs of England and Wales launched 'DebtCred', a financial literacy project.

DebtCred is the High Sheriffs' financial literacy project. Its primary aim is to equip young people with basic money management skills in preparation for their lives after school.

DebtCred delivers financial capability skills for young people by raising their awareness of the need to proactively manage money responsibility; by teaching them how to budget (most pupils have the mathematical skill but need to understand budgeting techniques); by helping them to understand how credit works and how to tackle money problems. The last of these is important because research suggests that 60% of people in the UK will have money problems each year and prompt action can prevent a short-term problem becoming a long-term crisis.

DebtCred has produced groundbreaking new literature for schools.  This includes 'Serious Money', an attractive book for students, and 'Using Serious Money', a resource for teachers and youth leaders.  The books have the prestigious Quality Mark from the Personal Finance Education Group and 'Serious Money' has the Plain English Crystal Mark.

In October 2005 DebtCred launched KS4Finance, a CDRom free for each State secondary school in England & Wales. This is a flexible resource that fits into a school's routine with minimal preparation by teachers. The modules can be delivered during a single day or in a series of lessons. The activities are suitable for classrooms but can easily be adapted to larger venues. The Personal Financial Education Group (pfeg) review of the resource read: “An attractive, flexible resource designed to fit easily into a school's routine to equip young people with the skills they need to manage their money effectively. The material is designed primarily for Year 10 to help teachers deliver the financial capability strand of PSHE, citizenship, enterprise or other subject areas”.

The Association actively encourages all support and promote the DebtCred schemes that are already established in their Counties.  Any new High Sheriff who wishes to launch DebtCred should contact Andrew Davies

Visit the DebtCred website for more information and to view the literature.