Over 2023, inflation continued its slow creep downward from its awful peak of 11+ per cent towards the end of last year. But for so many households, it was cold comfort. Living costs, already sky high, remained unaffordable. Nobody was feeling particularly grateful that they were now rising at a *slightly slower* rate.

Here at Clean Slate and Quids in! we knew these costs fall hardest on the people who can least afford it; the people we work with. The challenges this year were tough, but there were opportunities for partnership working, innovative thinking and good old-fashioned hard work to allow small slivers of light through.

Here’s a breakdown of what we’ve been up to, month by month.

January

We kicked 2023 off with a bang, getting all (or most) of our staff together in the room for the first time in almost a year. We met in beautiful Bath (main image) over a couple of days to celebrate our successes (founder and MD Jeff Mitchell brought along our newly acquired New Statesman Award for Positive Impact in Finance so everyone could see it in real life). It was also a chance to share the emotional challenges of our line of work and discuss ways to grow our offering and raise our profile.

In publishing news, we also updated and relaunched the Quids in! New Tenants Guide.

February

After helping to launch the digital inclusion campaign Nobody In The Dark, Quids in! took over the initiative to lead it into its next chapter. The campaign had been launched as a response to the rapid move to digital the world saw as a result of the Covid pandemic. It was a joint venture between Mastercard, Good Things Foundation, Lloyds Bank and Clean Slate/Quids in! But by February, it was time for Quids in! to become the face of the campaign to get more people online. Digital inclusion is a key part of our in-person service, as well as a core pillar of Quids in! content.

We also worked with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to promote social tariffs for broadband. Government figures show that only around five in 100 eligible households have one even though they can work out about £180 a year cheaper. The Quids in! Budget Planner also had a refresh, and we digested the results of our winter 2022/23 Reader Survey.

March

To mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, Clean Slate hosted a webinar addressing the specific issues for women in poverty. The event, called A New Lens on Poverty, allowed a network of professionals to dig into the barriers and biases that can keep women in poverty and out of work. Guest speaker Katie Donovan-Adekanmbi shared her experiences as an inclusion and cohesion specialist to highlight the many biases employers and people in positions of power may not even realise they hold.

April

April marked the first anniversary of the Quids in! Promise. The pledge to the people we work with – We See You, We Hear You, We Are You was articulated at our first post-Covid all-staff meeting back in 2022 and encapsulates the unique ethos of our organisation. Throughout 2023, we have continued to recruit from the communities we serve – seeing the issues that people on low incomes often face and sharing information in clear and jargon-free language.

We also received funding from Health Education England to support places in the Elements programme, including training in mental health.

May

Quids in! caught up with a rising star of the horticulture world to be the cover star of our summer issue. Jason Williams, aka the Cloud Gardener, first set foot in a garden centre as recently as 2020 (it was one of the few places he could go to due to Covid restrictions). But thanks to patience, tenacity and natural skill, he has now raised a leafy haven on the balcony of his 18th floor flat in Manchester. True story: He was invited to the Chelsea Flower Show last year, when his Cirrus Garden caught the eye of the late Queen, who asked to speak to Jason to find out more. Plants have been a powerful symbol for us in the past – clients who had previously spoken of feelings of despair have told us how getting on top of their finances sparked a renewed belief in their future that made things like gardening suddenly worthwhile. Caring for a plant or tending a garden isn’t just therapy; it’s a vote of confidence in a better tomorrow.

And we were back running workshops in the room in London with a 7 Signs workshop in Tower Hamlets.

June

We tapped into our business nous in June to remind landlords of the economic case for money guidance. Helping tenants to manage their money and debts isn’t just compassionate, it saves landlords and councils from the eyewatering costs of evictions as well as the chaos and personal tragedy they cause. The findings of a survey of Quids in! readers showed very low levels of financial resilience, exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis, and we used this data to produce a Landlords’ Pack. The pack set out a strong business case for earlier intervention with money guidance, explaining the knowledge and skills tenants told us that they wished they had.

And with funding from Longleigh Foundation, we supported 228 Stonewater tenants, who made average financial gains of £1,187 per person.

July

For the third year running, Clean Slate was named in the SE100 list of the UK’s top social enterprises. The list, compiled by NatWest bank and news network Pioneers Post, praised the organisations doing business differently and “using every ounce of their energy” to find creative solutions to social problems. Despite the relentlessly grim news cycle we’re living through, judges said the social enterprises on the list painted a rosy view of the future. Businesses were judged on their financial performance as well as their positive impact on equality and diversity.

August

Towards the end of summer we were on the lookout for our newest recruits. Our 12-week Elements programme recruits people with lived experience of poverty and hardship for work and training opportunities. Elements – short for ‘Experts with Lived Experience supported by Mentorship’ – was offering places funded by Health Education England (HEE), and included eight days of free HEE mental health training. Recruits are known as peer workers, and many have gone on to climb the ranks within Clean Slate at the end of their Elements placement. Others have found placements and work within the care, support and catering sectors.

We also hosted our second 7 Signs workshop of the year, this time in Sydenham, London.

September

Although we’re not specifically a service for people who have been involved with the justice system, a lot of the support and guidance we offer is equally useful to anyone starting afresh after a spell in prison. So in autumn we signed up to the Corbett Network, after founder Val Corbett got in touch to say she admired the work we were doing. The network brings together experts from social enterprises, business and charities who are working to smooth the transition from custody to community. Money and employment guidance certainly has an important role to play in this mission to help people adapt to life after prison.

And Quids in! content formed the basis for a new weekly slot on the Life After Prison podcast from National Prison Radio. Money Mondays features our policy and impact lead Emma Kernahan discussing all things financial with podcast host Zak to help anyone who’s been through the prison system to get their money sorted. Zak and Emma are still recording episodes, but so far they’ve covered subjects like credit, current accounts and comparison sites – among many others.

October

Thanks to funding from the Household Support Fund we were able to relaunch drop-in services in Bristol – as well as open new ones. It also allowed us to continue our drop-in services in Stroud. As it stands, the Household Support Fund is due to wind up in spring 2024. But without it, these services may never have reached the people who need them, and it led us to report on the case for maintaining the fund beyond March next year.

November

It was all about the hot metal in November, as we published not one but four Quids in! products. Our winter issue will be hitting doorsteps now, featuring an interview with TV medic Dr Amir Khan. He shared his tips for staying fit and healthy when money is most definitely an issue, as well as lifting the lid on his own barriers to fitness (which he has now overcome). We also updated our Guide to Universal Credit to cover all the latest on managed migration and the move to UC and our energy special Heat, Light and Power, which focussed on damp and mould, as well as all the latest news on support packages and benefits. Finally, we continued our long–running partnership with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and produced a bespoke 20-page magazine for their 85,000 tenants.

December

As the year wraps up, Quids in! and Clean Slate are looking forward to broadening our reach in 2024 with increased partnership working. Expect to see us working in areas like health, retirement planning and furniture poverty.

As our DWP contract in Swansea draws to a close, we have secured a contract for North Wales, which will include our first face-to-face delivery in the region. Claimants across Denbighshire and Flintshire can be referred from their local Jobcentre or can come along and see us at the drop-in sessions in Rhyl and Holywell

We’ll start the year hosting a webinar for the Money Guiders Network Wales on housing costs (invite to follow!)

Thank you so much for following our work through 2023. Let’s continue to support each other in 2024.