Asked by: Baroness Keeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2023 to Question 4115 on Music: Education, for what reason her Department is undertaking an independent evaluation of the Music Hub programme after the restructuring of the programme.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Information on the planned independent evaluation of the Music Hubs programme will be released in due course, including on a timetable for relation to the commissioning and publication.
The department regularly commissions independent evaluation of funded programmes, to assess their effectiveness and to inform future delivery, and this includes the Music Hubs programme.
Asked by: Baroness Keeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2023 to Question 4115 on Music: Education, when her Department plans to (a) commission and (b) publish the independent evaluation of the Music Hub programme.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Information on the planned independent evaluation of the Music Hubs programme will be released in due course, including on a timetable for relation to the commissioning and publication.
The department regularly commissions independent evaluation of funded programmes, to assess their effectiveness and to inform future delivery, and this includes the Music Hubs programme.
Asked by: Baroness Keeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary school music teachers there were in (a) 2010, (b) 2015, (c) 2019 and (d) 2022.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The department does not collect information on subjects taught in primary schools.
Asked by: Baroness Keeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has (a) commissioned and (b) undertaken an outcomes-based evaluation of the effectiveness of music education hubs.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The existing Music Hubs programme is monitored by Arts Council England and they publish a Hub Data Dashboard that contains annual survey data from 2012/13 onwards. The Dashboard can be found at: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/MusicEducationHubs/music-education-hubs-survey-and-data#t-in-page-nav-3. As set out in June 2023, as part of the Music Hubs Investment Programme, the department plans to commission an independent evaluation to measure and assess the impact of the Music Hub programme against the key aims, to track how the programme meets the overall aims and objectives, as set out in the National Plan for Music Education published in June 2022. This will inform how to improve delivery over the life of the programme.
Asked by: Baroness Keeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many secondary school music teachers there were in (a) the UK, (b) London, (c) the South East, (d) the South West, (e) the Midlands, (f) the North East, (g) the North West in the 2022-23 school year.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Information on the school workforce in England, including the number of subject teachers in state-funded secondary schools, is collected each November as part of the annual school workforce census. Information is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
The national number of music teachers in a typical week in state-funded secondary schools for the 2022/23 academic year is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/af5fc952-2e6a-47e2-471d-08dbea66978c.
As of 2022/23, there were 7,184 music teachers (any teacher timetabled to teach music) in state-funded secondary schools in England.
Timetabled teaching is reported for a typical week in November, as determined by the school. It does not cover an entire year of teaching. If there are variations in timetabling across the year, this is not covered in the data available to the department.
Subject taught is only collected from secondary schools that use electronic timetabling software that can produce data in the format required. Data is then weighted to provide national totals.
Information on the number of music teachers at a regional level is not available.
Asked by: Baroness Keeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2023 to Question 1382 on Music: Education, what estimate her Department has made of the cost to Music Education Hubs of increased employer contributions to the teachers’ pension scheme.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The department will announce further details on the increased employer contributions to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS), including the approach for centrally employed teachers, and funding rates and allocations, in due course. In the meantime, the department can confirm that the existing TPS grant to non-local authority Hub Lead Organisations will continue to the end of August 2024.
Asked by: Baroness Keeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of state-funded secondary schools had their own music performance facilities in (a) 2010, (b) 2015, (c) 2019 and (d) 2022.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Arts Council England is leading the Music Hubs investment programme at the invitation of the department. As the programme is ongoing, information about the number of applications is commercially sensitive so cannot be published. The plan is for applicants to be informed of the outcome of the investment programme by April 2024, although they will be informed earlier if this is possible.
In relation to music performance facilities in secondary schools, the department does not collect this information. The National Plan for Music Education, published in June 2022, sets out the department’s strategy to 2030 and maintains the government’s commitment to high quality music education for all. Starting in September 2023, all state-funded schools are asked to teach music to 5- to 14-year-olds for at least an hour a week each term, supported by co-curricular learning and musical experiences. It is for schools to decide what facilities are required to meet this expectation, including the specific expectation in the Plan in relation to space for rehearsals and individual practice.
In relation to the Cultural Education Plan, the department has been working closely with the Department for Media, Culture and Sport, and has conducted extensive engagement with external stakeholders across the education and cultural sectors and appointed an Expert Advisory Panel in July 2023. Both the Panel and the stakeholder engagement are helping to inform the development of the Plan and its emerging proposals. The department will publish the Cultural Education Plan in the coming months.
Asked by: Baroness Keeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department’s planned timescale for launching its Cultural Education Plan is.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Arts Council England is leading the Music Hubs investment programme at the invitation of the department. As the programme is ongoing, information about the number of applications is commercially sensitive so cannot be published. The plan is for applicants to be informed of the outcome of the investment programme by April 2024, although they will be informed earlier if this is possible.
In relation to music performance facilities in secondary schools, the department does not collect this information. The National Plan for Music Education, published in June 2022, sets out the department’s strategy to 2030 and maintains the government’s commitment to high quality music education for all. Starting in September 2023, all state-funded schools are asked to teach music to 5- to 14-year-olds for at least an hour a week each term, supported by co-curricular learning and musical experiences. It is for schools to decide what facilities are required to meet this expectation, including the specific expectation in the Plan in relation to space for rehearsals and individual practice.
In relation to the Cultural Education Plan, the department has been working closely with the Department for Media, Culture and Sport, and has conducted extensive engagement with external stakeholders across the education and cultural sectors and appointed an Expert Advisory Panel in July 2023. Both the Panel and the stakeholder engagement are helping to inform the development of the Plan and its emerging proposals. The department will publish the Cultural Education Plan in the coming months.
Asked by: Baroness Keeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications have been received for funding from the music hub investment programme (a) in total and (b) in each geographic area as of 22 November 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Arts Council England is leading the Music Hubs investment programme at the invitation of the department. As the programme is ongoing, information about the number of applications is commercially sensitive so cannot be published. The plan is for applicants to be informed of the outcome of the investment programme by April 2024, although they will be informed earlier if this is possible.
In relation to music performance facilities in secondary schools, the department does not collect this information. The National Plan for Music Education, published in June 2022, sets out the department’s strategy to 2030 and maintains the government’s commitment to high quality music education for all. Starting in September 2023, all state-funded schools are asked to teach music to 5- to 14-year-olds for at least an hour a week each term, supported by co-curricular learning and musical experiences. It is for schools to decide what facilities are required to meet this expectation, including the specific expectation in the Plan in relation to space for rehearsals and individual practice.
In relation to the Cultural Education Plan, the department has been working closely with the Department for Media, Culture and Sport, and has conducted extensive engagement with external stakeholders across the education and cultural sectors and appointed an Expert Advisory Panel in July 2023. Both the Panel and the stakeholder engagement are helping to inform the development of the Plan and its emerging proposals. The department will publish the Cultural Education Plan in the coming months.
Asked by: Baroness Keeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of contacting successful applicants to the Music Hub Investment Programme before April 2024.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Arts Council England is leading the Music Hubs investment programme at the invitation of the department. As the programme is ongoing, information about the number of applications is commercially sensitive so cannot be published. The plan is for applicants to be informed of the outcome of the investment programme by April 2024, although they will be informed earlier if this is possible.
In relation to music performance facilities in secondary schools, the department does not collect this information. The National Plan for Music Education, published in June 2022, sets out the department’s strategy to 2030 and maintains the government’s commitment to high quality music education for all. Starting in September 2023, all state-funded schools are asked to teach music to 5- to 14-year-olds for at least an hour a week each term, supported by co-curricular learning and musical experiences. It is for schools to decide what facilities are required to meet this expectation, including the specific expectation in the Plan in relation to space for rehearsals and individual practice.
In relation to the Cultural Education Plan, the department has been working closely with the Department for Media, Culture and Sport, and has conducted extensive engagement with external stakeholders across the education and cultural sectors and appointed an Expert Advisory Panel in July 2023. Both the Panel and the stakeholder engagement are helping to inform the development of the Plan and its emerging proposals. The department will publish the Cultural Education Plan in the coming months.