The Federation of Music Services laments Bedfordshire council's decision to cut music services ahead of a government funding review. And quite right too
There has been much media speculation surrounding the proposed cuts by Bedfordshire County Council to its music provision from 2012. Similar issues are arising in other areas but this trend is not universal.
The Federation of Music Services (FMS), of which Bedfordshire Music Service is a member, wishes to point on record its profound dismay at this proposal. The FMS believes this is a premature move by the council as it comes ahead of the government's review of music education in England that is currently being conducted by Darren Henley, managing director of Classic FM.
The government has clearly indicated that music education is an important part of the school offering and Ed Vaizey, the minister for culture, communications and creative industries, has said on record that he believes that funds for music education should be ring-fenced. The FMS is working with other music and arts providers and consultants from Ernst and Young to develop new operating models to ensure a robust future for schools, children and music education as a whole.
The FMS strongly believes that instrumental learning and singing should be part of the national curriculum and by working closer with schools and other arts providers the delivery of music can be enhanced at a local level. Inevitably this will mean structural changes that take into account the constrained financial situation that both local authorities and central government are under. However, making spending decisions now for 2012 and before the Henley Review has reported is hasty and very unsettling for pupils, schools, employees, ensembles and choirs.
On average 51.9% of funding for music services comes from paid fees and fundraising, the rest from the Department for Education's Standard Fund or Music Grant (37.6%) and local authorities (10.5%). The FMS is currently conducting its own review with its members to establish the levels of local authority cuts. It will report its findings in the next few weeks.
Here's the Federation of Music Services' response to the cuts in Bedfordshire, which I wrote about the other day. As the body that represents the interests of the 157 music services in England and Wales, I hope they're right when they say "this trend is not universal", and that dozens of other councils will not follow Central Bedfordshire's lead. However, I've heard of at least one other area, Warwickshire, that plans to withdraw its music service funding even earlier – from April next year.
The FMS is right to lament any council's decision to cut music services' money before Darren Henley's review of the funding and delivery of music education has been finished; it's right, too, to suggest that any such decision goes against the government's stated commitments on music provision for children. One statistic worth noting is that on average, just over 10% of music service cash comes from local government. But that varies hugely, from about a third in Warwickshire – for the next few months, at least – to nothing, in a handful of areas.
That means that the future of the music services is in the hands of whatever reduced pot of money is ring-fenced for them, post-Henley. The decisions that local authorities take in the next few months are absolutely crucial: echoing the FMS, surely the government should call a moratorium on councils making any cuts to their music services until we've heard what Henley's review has to say. If not, the danger is that the whole landscape of music education will be decimated, and the work of decades will be undone in a matter of weeks. This is the most serious situation the music services have faced since the late 80s. They must be fought for and supported, if yet another generation of children aren't to go through life without access to the life-enhancing power of music.