National Music Service For All Schools In England Proposed

A National Music Education Service has been recommended to the government, in a report that asks the current system be reformed in England. The report came from The Musicians’ Union in collaboration with the Fabian Society, and detailed to Labour in Westminster the detrimental effect that making consistent cuts to music education has created under the current leadership’s reign.

The report

Chris Walters, MU National Organiser for Education described how the report aligns with several key issues of concern for the MU and how he looks forward to further discussing them:

“The MU is delighted to have worked with the Fabian Society to offer a different vision for music education in this new report. While we welcomed many aspects of the Government’s updated National Plan for Music Education, we also expressed our concerns that the plan is non-statutory and under-funded, and that it ignores the poor terms and conditions faced by many visiting teachers. This report offers a better alternative in these areas and others.

We are pleased that the report aligns with several key issues of concern for the MU: fair and equitable conditions for the workforce, how we can fix the current postcode lottery of provision, and how we can ensure that underrepresented groups are better served and represented in music education. A series of practical policy recommendations address these points, which we fully support.

The report was written in consultation with a range of voices from the music education sector, and I would like thank the Fabian Society and author Ben Cooper for the work that they have put into it. We look forward to discussing the report’s ideas with MU members and policy makers.”

Making the case for a new National Music Education Service

The report, published by the Fabian Society with contributions from the MU, sets out how:

Music education matters. It supports educational outcomes, improves health and wellbeing, and creates opportunities in growing sectors of the economy.

But many young people in England are being denied access to good music education: in schools, there is reduced access to statutory provision, and it is now often taught in rotation with other arts subjects. Unbelievably in the last ten years, lesson plans in schools have often had to justify that every music lesson could demonstrate how the teacher incorporated English and Maths learning outcomes – regardless of what the musical objectives were, and despite declining pass rates in literacy and numeracy on a national level, with no regard to however unrelated English and Maths tasks may have been to a music lesson. Budget cuts aside, the input of knowledgeable musicians has been sorely needed for some considerable time in the UK education system.

The new report makes the case for government to introduce a National Music Education Service. It also puts forward a number of recommendations for government to restore high-quality music education as a core learning entitlement which every child can access. This had previously been available throughout the UK, and has been chipped away with every passing year, with the greatest decrease noted in schools over the last 12 years.

You can download and read the full report on the Fabian Society website.

The Fabian Society is an independent left-leaning think tank and a democratic membership society, dedicated to new public policy and political ideas.

The Musicians’ Union is the UK trade union for all musicians representing over 32,000 musicians across the UK working in all sectors of the music business. As well as negotiating on behalf of members with all the major employers in the industry, they offer a range of support services for musicians.

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