The recommendations on the future of music in schools are realistic, positive, and bold. But what happens next is key
It's finally here. Darren Henley's report on music education in England. Have a read of it, and the government's responses to Henley's 36 recommendations, here. There'll be more to say it about it soon, but some headlines for now: the government has committed to extending the ringfenced money for music education at the same level as the last few years (£82.5m, a genuine surprise, and some genuinely good news), has given £500,000 to the In Harmony projects for another year, and agrees with Henley's enlightened recommendations on getting more of the best musicians at our conservatoires into the teaching profession, creating new professional qualifications for music teaching, and makes positive noises about the idea of music education hubs in each local authority area.
But there are big questions about what happens after next year. The government's response, despite the Plato quote at the top of their document, that "music gives a soul to the universe", throws up another hurdle that the music education sector will have to negotiate: a national plan for music education, based on the Henley report, that will be published later in the year. That plan will have to address a future settlement for music education, and there are further questions in particular about In Harmony and music's place on the national curriculum. In Harmony is going to be farmed out to the Arts Council of England, Youth Music, and the private sector, despite the government saying the schemes had a "transformational effect on children".
Henley is categorical in his insistence that music has to remain one of the statutory subjects on the curriculum otherwise, "the subject might well wither away in many schools – and in the worst-case scenario, could all but disappear in others", but the government says that evidence will have to be sent to the national curriculum review consultation: "We will not … pre-empt the outcome of that review."
It's not just the government, though: Henley throws the gauntlet down to the whole sector as well: "The music education world is fragmented and uncoordinated. There are too many organisations that have overlapping areas of interest. These organisations need to join together to create one single body." He's right, too: sometimes distinguishing between the plethora of partners and projects can seem like working out the difference between the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea. Henley's report is realistic, positive, and bold: providing that is, that all, or most of, its recommendations actually translate into practice. What happens next is the key.