Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage all schools, regardless of management or funding, to maintain their commitment to music education (1) through the COVID-19 recovery and catch-up period, and (2) in the long term.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The arts form a vital part of children and young people’s education, and access to these important areas should not just be the preserve of the elite. Music is compulsory in all maintained schools from the age of 5 to 14, and academies are also required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, which Ofsted consider in their inspections.
The department has invested nearly £500 million of funding from 2016-20 in a diverse portfolio of music and arts education programmes, and in January, we announced a further £80 million investment in Music Education Hubs for 2020-21 to ensure all children, whatever their background, have access to a high-quality music education.
The department is committed to the continuation of high-quality education for all pupils during this difficult time and it is supporting schools and parents through a number of initiatives. On 2 July 2020, the department published detailed guidance to support the full opening of schools from the beginning of the autumn term. The guidance made it clear we expect all schools to teach an ambitious and broad curriculum in all subjects from the start of the autumn term – including art and music. Furthermore, detailed guidance on music provision will be published shortly.
Resources may also be found through subject associations and professional bodies, such as BESA’s LendEd website and the EdTech Impact website for example, which include varied resources that teachers already use and rate within the websites. These resources have not been verified by the department’s educational experts, but we are signposting to them because they also cover other areas of the curriculum that are not covered in our list.
The department has announced £4.34 million of funding for the Oak National Academy for the 2020-21 academic year to provide online video lessons covering a variety of subjects, including music. The purpose of this funding is to enable Oak to provide support to schools in developing the ability to switch from classroom teaching to remote provision immediately in case of local lockdowns or self-isolation.
To help children to access education, including music, at home, we have provided laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in Year 10, and to those receiving support from a social worker, including pre-school children, and care leavers. As of 30 June, over 200,000 laptops and tablets and over 47,000 4G wireless routers had been delivered or dispatched to local authorities and academy trusts.
Where care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and children in Year 10, do not have internet connections, we have provided 4G wireless routers to them so that they can learn at home. In partnership with BT, the department has also launched a service to provide children and young people free access to BT Wi-Fi hotspots. 10,000 families are initially able to access the scheme. This offer is currently being piloted and will be rolled out across England in the coming months. We are currently working with BT to expand this offer to allow more children to access the internet through their network of BT Wi-Fi hotspots.
We are also working with the major telecommunications companies to improve internet connectivity for disadvantaged and vulnerable families. For families who rely on a mobile internet connection, mobile network operators are working to provide temporary access to free additional data offering them more flexibility to access the resources that they need the most.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to further update the list of online education resources for home learning published on 7 April to include arts subjects, such as art and design and music.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The arts form a vital part of children and young people’s education, and access to these important areas should not just be the preserve of the elite. Music is compulsory in all maintained schools from the age of 5 to 14, and academies are also required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, which Ofsted consider in their inspections.
The department has invested nearly £500 million of funding from 2016-20 in a diverse portfolio of music and arts education programmes, and in January, we announced a further £80 million investment in Music Education Hubs for 2020-21 to ensure all children, whatever their background, have access to a high-quality music education.
The department is committed to the continuation of high-quality education for all pupils during this difficult time and it is supporting schools and parents through a number of initiatives. On 2 July 2020, the department published detailed guidance to support the full opening of schools from the beginning of the autumn term. The guidance made it clear we expect all schools to teach an ambitious and broad curriculum in all subjects from the start of the autumn term – including art and music. Furthermore, detailed guidance on music provision will be published shortly.
Resources may also be found through subject associations and professional bodies, such as BESA’s LendEd website and the EdTech Impact website for example, which include varied resources that teachers already use and rate within the websites. These resources have not been verified by the department’s educational experts, but we are signposting to them because they also cover other areas of the curriculum that are not covered in our list.
The department has announced £4.34 million of funding for the Oak National Academy for the 2020-21 academic year to provide online video lessons covering a variety of subjects, including music. The purpose of this funding is to enable Oak to provide support to schools in developing the ability to switch from classroom teaching to remote provision immediately in case of local lockdowns or self-isolation.
To help children to access education, including music, at home, we have provided laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in Year 10, and to those receiving support from a social worker, including pre-school children, and care leavers. As of 30 June, over 200,000 laptops and tablets and over 47,000 4G wireless routers had been delivered or dispatched to local authorities and academy trusts.
Where care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and children in Year 10, do not have internet connections, we have provided 4G wireless routers to them so that they can learn at home. In partnership with BT, the department has also launched a service to provide children and young people free access to BT Wi-Fi hotspots. 10,000 families are initially able to access the scheme. This offer is currently being piloted and will be rolled out across England in the coming months. We are currently working with BT to expand this offer to allow more children to access the internet through their network of BT Wi-Fi hotspots.
We are also working with the major telecommunications companies to improve internet connectivity for disadvantaged and vulnerable families. For families who rely on a mobile internet connection, mobile network operators are working to provide temporary access to free additional data offering them more flexibility to access the resources that they need the most.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to Answer of 24 January 2020 to 7627, what plans he has to ring-fence funding in the National Plan for Music Education to provide support for talented young musicians from low-income families.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government recognises that music is an important subject and that all pupils should receive a high-quality music education. The subject is compulsory in the national curriculum up to age 14.
To support schools to deliver high quality music education for all their pupils, the Government has provided funding of over £300 million for music education hubs across England between 2016 and 2020. We have already announced funding of £85 million for music and arts education in 2020-21. This includes a further year of the music education hub programme, to help thousands more children learn to play musical instruments, and further funding for initiatives, including In Harmony, that support pupils from a range of backgrounds to learn about different styles of music.
The Government has confirmed that an arts premium will be provided to secondary schools to fund enriching activities for all pupils. Work is underway to develop the arts premium and we will be making further statements on this in due course.
The Department recently held a Call for Evidence on music education to inform our refresh of the National Plan for Music Education. We will be undertaking further work on this ahead of publication of the Plan in the autumn.
Funding beyond 2021 will be subject to the 2020 Spending Review.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2020 Question 7627, what plans he has to increase funding for the In Harmony music programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government recognises that music is an important subject and that all pupils should receive a high-quality music education. The subject is compulsory in the national curriculum up to age 14.
To support schools to deliver high quality music education for all their pupils, the Government has provided funding of over £300 million for music education hubs across England between 2016 and 2020. We have already announced funding of £85 million for music and arts education in 2020-21. This includes a further year of the music education hub programme, to help thousands more children learn to play musical instruments, and further funding for initiatives, including In Harmony, that support pupils from a range of backgrounds to learn about different styles of music.
The Government has confirmed that an arts premium will be provided to secondary schools to fund enriching activities for all pupils. Work is underway to develop the arts premium and we will be making further statements on this in due course.
The Department recently held a Call for Evidence on music education to inform our refresh of the National Plan for Music Education. We will be undertaking further work on this ahead of publication of the Plan in the autumn.
Funding beyond 2021 will be subject to the 2020 Spending Review.
Asked by: Paul Bristow (Conservative - Peterborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to allocate addition and (a) funding and (b) resources to the provision of music teaching in schools in (i) England and (ii) in Peterborough constituency.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department believes that music is an important subject and that all pupils should receive a high-quality music education. The subject is compulsory in the national curriculum up to age 14.
To support schools to deliver high quality music education for all their pupils, the Government has provided funding of over £300 million for music education hubs across England between 2016 and 2020, including £76 million in 2019-20, and further funding to support hubs with the additional costs under the teachers’ pension scheme. This is a significant increase over the £58 million we gave hubs in 2014.
The Government recently announced a further year’s funding for music hubs, to help thousands more children learn to play musical instruments, as well as continued support for a range of smaller music and arts programmes, totalling £85 million. We will also be offering an ‘arts premium’ of £90 million each year for secondary schools in England from 2021 to fund enriching activities for all pupils.
Peterborough is served by the Peterborough Music Education Hub. In 2020-21, we will be providing the hub with over £360,000 of funding to continue to support the city’s schools to deliver high-quality music education. In 2016-17, the last year data for which data is available, the hub provided individual lessons to over 2,500 pupils, small group lessons for over 1,000 pupils and whole class ensemble teaching to over 3,300 pupils. The hub also supported or delivered 215 ensembles. The Government trusts that with this announced funding, this important work will continue, both in Peterborough and across England.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to allocate additional (a) funding and (b) resources to the provision of music teaching in schools in (i) the North West, (ii) Merseyside, (iii) Wirral and (iv) Wallasey.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes that music is an important subject and that all pupils should receive a high-quality music education. The subject is compulsory in the national curriculum up to age 14.
To support schools to deliver high quality music education for all their pupils, the Government has provided funding of over £300 million for music education hubs across England between 2016 and 2020, including £76 million in 2019-20, and further funding to support hubs with the additional costs under the teachers’ pension scheme. This is a significant increase over the £58 million we gave hubs in 2014.
The Government recently announced a further year’s funding for music hubs, to help thousands more children learn to play musical instruments, as well as continued support for a range of smaller music and arts programmes, totalling £85 million. We will also be offering an ‘arts premium’ of £90 million each year for secondary schools in England from 2021 to fund enriching activities for all pupils.
The North West region is served by ten individual music education hubs, which in the coming year will receive between them over £9.6 million in funding.
Merseyside is served by the Merseyside Music Education Hub Alliance, a conglomerate of music hubs based in Warrington and Halton, Sefton and Knowsley, Liverpool and St Helens. In the 2020-21, we will be providing these hubs with over £2 million of funding to continue to support the region’s schools to deliver high-quality music education. In 2016-17, the last year data for which data is available, these hubs provided individual lessons to over 2,400 pupils, small group lessons for over 5,800 pupils and whole class ensemble teaching to over 26,000 pupils. The hubs also supported or delivered 125 ensembles.
Wirral is served by the Musical Routes Music Education Hub. In 2020-21, the Government will be providing the hub with over £470,000 of funding. In 2016-17, the hub provided individual lessons to 850 pupils, small group lessons for over 1,200 pupils and whole class ensemble teaching to over 6,000 pupils. The hub also supported or delivered 25 ensembles.
The Government trusts that with the announced funding, the music education hubs in the North West will be able to continue their important work in supporting the schools in the region to deliver a high-quality music education for all their pupils.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of funding for music in schools between 2014 and 2019.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department believes that music is an important subject and that all pupils should receive a high-quality music education. That is why the subject is compulsory in the National Curriculum up to age 14.
Music education is primarily the responsibility of schools. To support schools to offer a broad and balanced curriculum, the Department announced an increase in investment for schools across England of £14 billion over the next three years at the 2019 Spending Round, with increases of £2.6 billion to core schools funding in 2020-21, and further increases of £4.8 billion and £7.1 billion in 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively. On top of this we are providing £1.5 billion for the additional pension costs for teachers, bringing the total core schools budget to £52.2 billion by 2022-23.
To support schools deliver high-quality music education for all their pupils, the Department has provided funding of over £300 million for music education hubs between 2016 and 2020, including £76 million in 2019-20. This is a significant increase from the £58 million hubs received in 2014.
In early January, we announced further funding of £85 million for music and arts in 2020-21; £80 million for music hubs coupled with further investment in film, dance, theatre and design. The Department has also confirmed that an arts premium will be provided to secondary schools to fund enriching activities for all pupils. Work is underway to develop the arts premium and we will be making further statements on this in due course.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve (a) access to and (b) funding for creative subjects.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department wants all pupils to have access to high-quality creative education. Music, art and design, dance and drama, and design and technology are all statutory subjects in the National Curriculum.
Between 2016-20 the Department is investing nearly £500 million of funding for a diverse portfolio of music and creative arts education programmes including Music Education Hubs, the Music and Dance Scheme and the Dance and Drama awards. In early January, we also announced funding of £85 million for music and arts in 2020-21; £80 million for music hubs coupled with further investment in film, dance, theatre and design.
The Department believes that the arts help young people to learn creative skills and widen their horizons, so our Manifesto committed to offer an ‘arts premium’, worth over £100 million, to secondary schools to fund enriching activities for all pupils.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to support the South Yorkshire music industry.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The music industry is a vital part of the UK’s creative economy, contributing £5.2bn in 2018. We have taken a number of steps to support the industry UK-wide including reforming licensing; bolstering copyright protections; funding music education initiatives and addressing issues in secondary ticketing.
Arts Council England (ACE) are investing in a number of music focused programmes across South Yorkshire, including Higher Rhythm in Doncaster and Sheffield’s Abbeydale Picture House which is benefitting from the Supporting Grassroots Live Music funding. ACE also supports four music hubs across the region providing opportunities for children and young people to access music education.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to roll out the Music in Secondary School Trust initiative throughout state schools in England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes that music is an important subject and that all pupils should receive a high-quality music education. The subject is compulsory in the national curriculum up to age 14 and the Government is providing funding of over £300 million for music education hubs between 2016 and 2020. We recently announced a further year’s funding for music hubs, to help thousands more children learn to play musical instruments, as well as continued support for a range of smaller music and arts programmes, totalling £85 million.
Music education hubs have done excellent work to ensure there is more equitable access to music education. We are aware of the work of the Music in Secondary Schools Trust and thank them for their commitment to music education. My officials and I would welcome a meeting with officials from the Trust to discuss their work further.