On 5 November, the Department for Education agreed to fund music education hubs in England for another year, with a slight increase on the current year's settlement (see news). This was welcomed across the sector, although criticisms were voiced by the Incorporated Society of Musicians and the Musicians’ Union, who highlighted that funding for hubs will not halt the current decline and closure of school music departments, caused by the government's restrictive EBacc performance measure.
The funding announcement means that hubs will now operate into 2021, after the end of the period covered by the government's National Plan for Music Education (2012-2020). There has been no official news on the renewal of the National Plan, but this latest funding injection may suggest an expectation for it to continue into 2021 and beyond. Hubs are not necessarily reliant on the National Plan for their existence, but they came about because of it, and their funding and evaluation, managed by Arts Council England, is central to the National Plan's aims. It's hard to imagine returning to the pre-National Plan landscape, where local authority music services were often funded (at least in part) by council budgets that are now stripped to the bone.
Hubs exist only in England, but equivalent services are under pressure across the UK. In recent years, Scotland's local councils have funded instrumental and vocal teaching in schools as standard, but Dumfries and Galloway Council has just announced its intention to axe tuition completely to save on costs. Earlier this year, Midlothian Council put forward similar proposals, only to U-turn when a large group of young musicians protested noisily outside council headquarters.
It's important to acknowledge that the hub funding announcement is a victory of sorts amid the chaos. Sector advocacy (from Music Mark, the ISM, Arts Council England and others) has ensured the continuation – for the time being – of at least some ringfenced subsidy for music learning in England. Now it's time to keep up the push on preserving classroom music in the face of the EBacc, and to future-proof musical tuition in all four nations of the UK.
