The Isle of Wight Music Service (IWMS), run by the Isle of Wight Council, is currently the only comprehensive provider of music tuition on the Island. Following changes at a national level to the way music services are being organised, the council has made a successful bid to become the lead organisation of a music hub for the Isle of Wight.
However, the significant reduction in grant that the music hub will receive from the Arts Council, together with the on-going operating losses of the service, requires a radical restructure of the service in order to provide a longer-term, more sustainable model for music tuition on the Island.
Together with a working group of parents, staff and interested stakeholders, the council has outlined three models for how music tuition might be managed and delivered on the Island in the future.
This page explains more about the background to that decision, the alternative models and welcomes your thoughts and views about these to help inform our future decisions.
Schools are responsible for the delivery of the general music curriculum, but work in partnership with the music service for instrumental tuition. The council receives a music education grant to support a range of activities in music education, including:
In effect the grant acts as a subsidy for these services.
The IWMS is the only comprehensive provider on the Island, teaching 2,579 pupils across all maintained schools. This comprises small group music tuition on a continuing basis for 1,250 pupils.
Schools are recharged for these services, or parents are charged directly depending on the agreement made with schools (direct charging is now the preferred method for many schools - 24 out of 35 primary schools - but increases the service’s administrative costs).
For those families who are unable to meet the full costs there is some support available through the independent Brenda James Trust
In addition, all primary schools are offered whole class ‘wider opportunities’ (initial experiences of music education) classes for a Key Stage 2 year group (1,329 pupils). These are offered for a nominal charge to schools (legislation prevents families from being charged for this provision) and 39 of the 41 schools have taken this up this year.
The service also co-ordinates the Saturday Music Centre, which includes three orchestras, three wind bands, keyboard ensembles, recorder ensembles and a choir, attended by approaching 300 children, and is encouraging partnerships with community ensembles and organisations as part of the Music Education Hub.
The service has a number of world instruments (eg gamelan, samba, and tabla), which are available for hire by schools. Individual instruments are also available to hire by parents for pupils receiving tuition. Occasionally schools will contract with the service for general music teaching and this is charged to schools on a supply teacher basis. Currently this is provided to six primary schools.
The music service is led by a senior officer who manages a team of 22 peripatetic staff (13.43 full time equivalent). The staff are centrally employed on national teachers’ terms and conditions ranging from a few hours each week to a small number who are full-time.
In 2011, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned a review into music education. As a result a new National Plan for Music Education was launched on 27 November 2011 setting out arrangements for music education from April 2012 to 2015 (The Importance of Music – A National Plan for Music Education.).
The plan determines that the music education grant will be administered and distributed by the Arts Council through a bidding process to a number of music hubs (these are fewer in number than the current education service authorities). The Arts Council will manage and distribute the grant to these music hubs.
In May 2012, the IWMS was successful in its bid to be the lead organisation for the Isle of Wight Music Education Hub. The music hub is expected to draw together a range of cultural activity within an area, ie bringing together and building on the work of schools, music services, professional musicians and other arts organisations.
On the Island, the music hub will be expected to deliver a range of core activities by fostering partnerships with schools, out of school providers and associate organisations including Portsmouth and Southampton Music Services.
The four core activities are defined as: –
1. Initial experience, also known as ‘wider opportunities’ (where pupils get their first taste of music education and the use of instruments).
2. Continuing (small group) instrumental tuition.
3. Enrichment (which includes music centres, wind bands, orchestras, ensembles similar to the Saturday music centre).
4. Supporting a singing strategy (on the Island this is currently delivered via school staff as part of their professional development).
Funding for the hubs (the Music Education Grant (MEG) has been announced for the three years from 2012 to 2015, to bring a degree of stability and to enable forward planning; however this indicates a significant reduction in funding over this period.
2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
£360k £324k £259k £145k
In addition, the operating costs of the IWMS are currently £699,978 per annum. Additional income is currently generated through tuition fees and equipment hire, however in 2011/2012 there was an actual estimated operating loss of £157,000 due to a decline in pupil tuition numbers and while efforts have been made to improve this position, this loss is only expected to partially reduce this year.
The overall budget within the Schools and Learning Service area has been used to cover this overspend to date, but it will not be available for these purposes in the future. The council also meets all the accommodation and infrastructure costs.
In summary, the Isle of Wight Music Service has made a successful bid to become the lead organisation of the music hub and is building on the developing collaborative and community work emerging from the move to the Downside Community Centre.
However, the significant reduction in grant and on-going operating losses of the IWMS requires a radical restructure of the service in order to provide a longer-term more sustainable model for music tuition on the Island.
A working group has been established to help consider a wide range of options for the future direction of music education on the Island taking into account the financial resources available. The working group includes parents, community representatives, teachers and other key stakeholders.
As a result of their discussions, the following models have been identified for consideration:
Model 1: Restructure and streamlining of the current council music service to include a proposal of teaching a reduced range of musical instruments (likely to include guitar, keyboard, drums and violin). This model would not support for example woodwind tuition and may have an impact on the range of instrumentalists available for the youth orchestras and bands. In addition the music service would retain a small core of staff that would provide a quality assurance role and offer advice and support to schools that may choose to commission other instrumental tuition.
Model 2: Music service to cease providing any direct instrumental tuition. Schools to provide the music service by buying in staff directly, with the local authority retaining core staff for quality assurance purposes (and to meet the requirements of the Music Education Grant) and to offer advice and support to schools who may choose to commission other instrumental tuition.
Model 3: Externalisation of the music service by partnership with another organisation (such as another music service) or be part of a new body (trust or community interest company), which might enable the council to secure Models 1 and 2 above or a variation on them.
It is essential that the new delivery model provides a long-term, financially sustainable model for the delivery of music services on the Island.
Our assessment of the risks and benefits of these so far are as follows:
This model enables the music service to retain some teaching capacity and a core group of staff who will provide a quality assurance function and provide advice and support to schools which choose to commission instrumental tuition from other sources. It will provide the capacity within the service to meet all four core activities. The council would continue to meet the accommodation and infrastructure costs from its main budget for education services. It will secure payment of the grant from the Arts Council. This model does, however, depend on the continuing willingness of schools to buy into the remaining tuition categories so the outcome of consultation with schools will be crucial to avoid any further risk of operating loss. This model does not support woodwind tuition, which is a strength of the current service (quality rather than popular demand). As a result of reducing the range of instrumental tuition there will be some redundancy costs associated with this model.
This model focuses on the quality assurance and advice/support role described in Model 1 (above), but without any direct instrumental tuition provision. It also provides some reassurance to those who have expressed concern about the risk of poorer quality of instrumental tuition if there is a wholly schools' based commissioned service. This model enables the music service to meet the core requirements of the grant, so securing payment from the Arts Council while reducing risk to the council through loss of sufficient income through the instrumental tuition element.
This model creates the most flexibility in the medium to long term (as it keeps both Models 1 and 2 or variation as a possible outcome), but is the most financially challenging in terms of risk to the council's budget and the payment of grant from the Arts Council, which wishes to see a clear plan for the way forward in the foreseeable future. Any externalisation from the council would also mean that the succeeding organisation would need to meet the accommodation and infrastructure costs currently being met by the council. However, a number of music and arts groups on the Island wish this to be a serious consideration and so we have included this in the consultation so as to provide time for discussions with those groups to take place and to enable wider feedback on this model.
We want to make sure that the future of music services on the Island is secure and sustainable and that it offers opportunities to young people to get involved in music tuition within the resources available.
We’d like to hear your views on the different models and the future of the service, whether you are currently involved with the service in some way as a member of staff, music professional or if you have a child receiving music tuition, or whether you are simply interested in sharing your views on how this service should be shaped in the future.
There are a number of ways in which you can tell us your thoughts and views:
You may also found the following background papers of interest to you
http://www.iwight.com/council/committees/cabinet/21-8-12/PAPER%20D%20-%20APPENDIX%201.pdf
We’ll be listening to your thoughts and views during September making a note of your feedback and comments. We will then summarise these into a report which we will take to a meeting of the council’s Cabinet in November 2012. Your feedback will help inform their final decision. We will then look to implement the new model for the service so that this is in place by April 2013.