Since 2010, DebtCred has been run as a large project within the national money education charity Credit Action.  DebtCred was originally launched in 2002 to provide materials and support for secondary school teachers in the delivery of personal financial education across the UK and has grown steadily in the past few years.

In April 2009 DebtCred launched Your Money and Your Life, a flexible, web-based resource offering teachers lesson planning ideas and clearly setting out where materials have relevance to the Economic Wellbeing and Financial Capability Programme of Study, requirements and outcomes. 

Your Money and Your Life, which can be found in the Materials and Resources section of this website, provides students with engaging, relevant and appropriate materials to stimulate and encourage learning and is Quality Marked by the Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg).

The Office of High Sheriff
The Office of High Sheriff is at least 1,000 years old having its roots in Saxon times before the Norman Conquest. It is the oldest continuous secular Office under the Crown.

Originally the Office held many of the powers now vested in Lord Lieutenants, High Court Judges, Magistrates, Local Authorities, Coroners and even the Inland Revenue.

The Office of High Sheriff remained first in precedence in the Counties until the reign of Edward VII when an Order in Council in 1908 gave the Lord Lieutenant the prime Office under the Crown as the Sovereign's personal representative. Lord Lieutenants were created in 1547 for military duties in the Shires. The High Sheriff remains the Sovereign's representative in the County for all matters relating to the Judiciary and the maintenance of law and order.

Modern Precedence
Modern precedence is defined by a Royal Warrant of 1904, as amplified by a Home Office Memorandum of 1928 whereby the High Sheriff takes precedence in the County immediately after the Lord Lieutenant except when precedence is deferred to a Lord Mayor, Mayor or Chairman of the Local Authority when they are undertaking municipal business in their own district.

Functions of the Office
High Sheriffs are responsible in the Counties of England and Wales for duties conferred by the Crown through Warrant from the Privy Council including:

• Attendance at Royal visits to the County.
• The well being and protection of Her Majesty's High Court Judges when on Circuit in the County and attending them in Court during the legal terms.
• The annual appointment of an Under Sheriff.
• Acting as the Returning Officer for Parliamentary Elections in County constituencies. Responsibility for the proclamation of the accession of a new Sovereign.
• The maintenance of the loyalty of subjects to the Crown.
  

The Warrant of Appointment as High Sheriff remains valid even on the death of the Sovereign. In practice some of these responsibilities are delegated to the professional services, for example the protection of the Judges and the maintenance of law and order are in the hands of the Chief Constable of Police.

The High Sheriff takes up appointment upon making a sworn declaration in terms dictated by the Sheriff's Act 1887. The appointment is for one year only except in the event of something untoward happening to the High Sheriff's expected successor when a High Sheriff must remain in Office until the appointment of a successor is executed.

High Sheriffs are now encouraged by the The High Sheriffs' Association of England and Wales to undertake duties to improve and sustain the morale of personnel of voluntary and statutory bodies, particularly those engaged in the maintenance and extension of law and order and the entire criminal system.

It is an independent non political Office which enables the holder to bring together a wide variety of individuals and Office holders for the good of the community a High Sheriff serves. The High Sheriff receives no remuneration and no part of the expense of his year of Office falls on the public purse.

Click for more information on the Office and Role of the High Sheriff

Credit Action Patrons
The Archbishop of Canterbury
Tracy Edwards MBE
Prue Leith CBE

Credit Action Trustees
Chairman: Chris Pond
Trustee: Jeremy Burton
Trustee: Kamala Panday
Trustee: Greg Stevens