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<p>Music Hubs are partnerships co-ordinated by a Hub Lead Organisation (HLO) and made
up of schools and academy trusts, local authorities, music and wider arts and education
organisations and charities, community or youth organisations and more. Having 43
HLOs working across a wider set of music education partnerships from September 2024
should bring significant benefits to children, young people and schools, as HLOs will
be able to be more strategic, building stronger partnerships with those they work
with, resulting in high-quality support in every local area and to ensure there are
no local ‘cold spots’ where access to provision is limited.</p><p>This should also
support a more consistent high-quality approach to music education for all children
regardless of where they live or go to school, by offering:</p><ul><li>Improved and
more equitable access to a diverse range of musical activities, opportunities, teachers,
instruments and equipment.</li><li>Greater consistency of provision and ability to
scale up effective programmes and ways of working for children and young people and
schools.</li><li>Greater access to more advanced ensembles and a wider range of progression
opportunities.</li><li>Greater access to the cultural capital centred around urban
centres, thus improving connections and reducing isolation for rural communities.</li><li>More
strategic leadership and governance, plus a wider range of employment opportunities
and progression routes for the music education workforce.</li><li>Access to greater
resources, capacity and capability to use government funding to leverage further investment.</li><li>An
increased profile with wider musical stakeholders and a stronger connection with the
music industry.</li></ul><p> </p><p>Schools alone cannot provide the range of services
needed for a good quality music education and Music Hubs provide many services that
contribute to schools delivering high-quality music provision. Furthermore, Music
Hubs will play a critical role in supporting schools who opt to implement the Model
Music Curriculum published in 2021 and for schools implementing their Music Development
Plans from September 2024. In time, Music Hubs will also support schools opting to
use music curriculum resources from Oak National Academy, who will publish their full
suite of key stage 3 and 4 resources in the summer and who recently announced a partner
to produce a suite of key stages 1 and 2 resources.</p><p> </p><p>The government has
a long-standing commitment to high-quality music education and this is reflected in
the government’s National Plan for Music Education published in June 2022. This sets
out the vision to enable all children and young people to learn to sing, play an instrument
and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests
and talents, including professionally by 2030. The department believes that Music
Hubs play a vital role in ensuring children and young people across the country can
access high-quality music education and this government values the many achievements
that the existing Music Hub network has made since 2012.</p><p> </p><p>The department
has invested around £380 million of funding into Music Hubs between 2016 and 2021.
As part of the National Plan for Music Education 2022, the department also announced
£79 million of funding per year for the Music Hub programme, up to and including the
2024/25 academic year, to provide assurance and stability in music education. The
department is also providing £25 million capital funding for musical instruments as
part of the programme. The department will consider future funding for the next spending
review in due course.</p><p> </p><p>On average, the grant funding has consistently
provided around 40% of a hub’s total income and hubs have historically used this to
leverage other income streams over the lifespan of the programme. This co-funding
approach will continue when the new programme is in place from September 2024. As
set out in the investment programme, the department also expects organisations to
have evidenced, as part of their applications to become one of the new HLOs, how at
least 50% of a hub’s total income will come from other sources other than the revenue
grant provided by the department by the end of the funding period.</p><p> </p><p>There
is no expectation on Music Hubs to provide free music tuition to all children. As
part of the Music Hubs Investment Programme, bidders were required to submit plans
detailing their strategic approach to ensure music education is inclusive of all children
and young people with a range of needs, including how the Music Hub would ensure inclusion
and widening opportunity will be embedded across all activity, plans and policies.
This includes specific support and resources, including access to musical instruments,
that will be made available for children and young people who are eligible for pupil
premium, including looked-after children and/or those who are care experienced and
those who have an identified special educational need or disability.</p>
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