Healthier Wealthier Families In East London: HWFinEL

NCT ID: NCT06871137

Last Updated: 2025-03-11

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 1153 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2025-04-30
• Study Completion Date: 2027-01-31

Brief Summary

The financial condition children live in when they are young can affect their health, not only in their childhood but also throughout their lives. The cost-of-living crisis means many families are 'going without' the basics. Many people do not claim all the benefits they are entitled to, or know how to solve money problems because they find it difficult to access advice. Parents with a new-born baby are especially likely to need financial support.

Research shows that after getting money advice services linked up with routine health services, family income can improve. The investigators don't yet know if linking up money advice with routine health appointments improves parents' health and wellbeing as well as their household income. The investigators don't know whether making these services easy to access through linking them up has long term implications for children's health and wellbeing. Finally, at the moment the investigators don't know how best health and money advice services can be organised to help mothers or fathers who are in difficulty such as those who are homeless or have recently arrived in England.

The goal of this trial is to improve low-income families' living conditions and ensure that all children have the best start in life. The investigators hypothesise a co-located approach will serve as a vital step toward a more integrated approach to health and social welfare, ultimately benefitting families in need. The investigators will be comparing one group of participants who will receive welfare benefits advice from a welfare benefits advisor (WBA) that is co-located with routine 6-8 week newborn health check appointments in a Children and Families Centre (CFC). The other group will receive standard care and be given information on where they can access welfare benefits advice.

Detailed Description

The trial is evaluating the impact of co-located welfare benefits advice with Health Visiting appointments and the investigators will triangulate findings from the following aspects:

• A randomised controlled trial assessing the impact of money advice services on parental mental health.
• A process evaluation to assess how the intervention is implemented and how it impacts on users.
• An economic evaluation to assess the cost-benefit of the intervention.

The overall project includes four integrated work packages (WP):

• WP1 will include a process evaluation, explore service uptake and qualitative experiences of the service.
• Findings from WP1 will be used in modelling to estimate the long-term multi-sector costs and benefits of the service (WP2).
• The investigators will use qualitative methods to co-design a draft toolkit based on the experiences and participation of a marginalised group of mothers to inform service development (WP3).
• Evidence arising from WPs1-3 will be actively disseminated locally, regionally and nationally, across a range of stakeholders, and via international networks, to maximise impact (WP4).

This is a randomised controlled trial whereby participants will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio to either the intervention group (welfare benefits advice (WBA) appointment) or the control group (existing service as usual).

The intervention will be WBA co-located with routine health appointments and delivered in Children and Families Centres (CFCs) in The London Borough (District) of Tower Hamlets. Over 98% of new babies are enrolled in the health visiting service. Co-located Welfare Benefits Advice with health appointments is an example of a Health Justice Partnership found to be an effective tool in addressing health equity.

The project will run over a period of 36 months. The target sample size is 1153 participants. The investigators will recruit over 16 months, with a 6 month internal pilot. Participants will be followed up for 6 months from the baseline time point (though could be in the trial for up to 9 months if they consent to take part in an interview (only a sub-group of participants)).

Conditions

Mental Health; Financial Wellbeing

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Arm 1. Intervention

Participants who are randomised to receive the intervention (Welfare Benefits Advice (WBA)) will be contacted by a UCL researcher and invited to attend a Welfare Benefits Advice appointment within 3 months of randomisation, to coincide with their new-born's 6-8 week health check.

Group Type: OTHER

Welfare Benefits Advice (WBA)

Intervention Type: OTHER

Appointment offered to receive financial advice from a Welfare Benefits Advisor (WBA) co-located with routine 6-8 week newborn health checks

Arm 2. Control

Participants who are randomised to the control group will be emailed or posted a card detailing the London Borough of Tower Hamlet's existing 'service as usual' Welfare Benefits Advice services, which reproduces what is available on their website.

Group Type: OTHER

Usual care

Intervention Type: OTHER

No intervention, existing London Borough of Tower Hamlets 'service as usual'

Interventions

Welfare Benefits Advice (WBA)

Appointment offered to receive financial advice from a Welfare Benefits Advisor (WBA) co-located with routine 6-8 week newborn health checks

Intervention Type: OTHER

Usual care

No intervention, existing London Borough of Tower Hamlets 'service as usual'

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Mothers or fathers aged 16 years or over.*
• Mothers or fathers with a live baby/babies less than three months old who are registered with the health visitor service in LBTH, at the point of consent, who respond Yes to a screening question asking if they wish to receive advice about money.**
• Able to provide informed consent.
• Able and willing to complete questionnaires.

Please note:

*Only one parent will be recruited. If one parent is under the age of 16, they will not be eligible.

**If the participant has multiple children, at least one child must be <3 months old.

Exclusion Criteria

Mothers or fathers with:

• Any known safeguarding concern.
• Maternal or paternal diagnosis of learning difficulty that affects the capacity to consent.
• A baby/babies who have significant medical complications (e.g., inpatient on a neonatal unit).

• Minimum Eligible Age: 16 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University College, London

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Central Contacts

Claire Cameron, D Phil - Social Intervention

Role: CONTACT

c.cameron@ucl.ac.uk

020 7612 6249

Jo Hornby, PhD

Role: CONTACT

hfwinel@ucl.ac.uk

020 7670 5718 ext. 05718

Other Identifiers

NIHR158551

Identifier Type: OTHER_GRANT

Identifier Source: secondary_id

CCTU/2023/464

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id