Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average wage of teachers in music education hubs was in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Music Hubs cover every area of England and are made up of partnerships that support, deliver and enable children and young people to access music education within a local area. These partnerships are co-ordinated by a Hub Lead Organisation (HLOs) which is responsible for the funding and governance of the Hub. As the fundholder and accountable body for the Hub programme, Arts Council England (ACE) oversees the management of Music Hubs including payments, monitoring the risk to investment and monitoring the performance of Hubs. The department provides the funding for the grant award to HLOs each year.
The terms and conditions of staff is the responsibility of either the HLO or any other music service or equivalent organisation working in partnership with the HLO and for whom they hold grant funding. HLOs also need to apply ACE standard grant terms and conditions, including in relation to the workforce.
ACE collects and publishes workforce information on an annual basis and this is published on the ACE Hub Data Dashboard which is available on their website here: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/MusicEducationHubs/music-education-hubs-survey-and-data#t-in-page-nav-2.
The workforce dashboard for 2021/22 shows that the number of permanent staff (full-time or part-time) across all areas of England is 6,588. The number of staff employed on a contractual basis is 1,665 and the number of self-employed or freelance staff is 3,104. ACE does not collect information on the type of contract or average wage or income of staff, including teachers.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers working in Music Education Hubs are on zero-hour contracts.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Music Hubs cover every area of England and are made up of partnerships that support, deliver and enable children and young people to access music education within a local area. These partnerships are co-ordinated by a Hub Lead Organisation (HLOs) which is responsible for the funding and governance of the Hub. As the fundholder and accountable body for the Hub programme, Arts Council England (ACE) oversees the management of Music Hubs including payments, monitoring the risk to investment and monitoring the performance of Hubs. The department provides the funding for the grant award to HLOs each year.
The terms and conditions of staff is the responsibility of either the HLO or any other music service or equivalent organisation working in partnership with the HLO and for whom they hold grant funding. HLOs also need to apply ACE standard grant terms and conditions, including in relation to the workforce.
ACE collects and publishes workforce information on an annual basis and this is published on the ACE Hub Data Dashboard which is available on their website here: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/MusicEducationHubs/music-education-hubs-survey-and-data#t-in-page-nav-2.
The workforce dashboard for 2021/22 shows that the number of permanent staff (full-time or part-time) across all areas of England is 6,588. The number of staff employed on a contractual basis is 1,665 and the number of self-employed or freelance staff is 3,104. ACE does not collect information on the type of contract or average wage or income of staff, including teachers.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people are employed in Music Education Hubs in England.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Music Hubs cover every area of England and are made up of partnerships that support, deliver and enable children and young people to access music education within a local area. These partnerships are co-ordinated by a Hub Lead Organisation (HLOs) which is responsible for the funding and governance of the Hub. As the fundholder and accountable body for the Hub programme, Arts Council England (ACE) oversees the management of Music Hubs including payments, monitoring the risk to investment and monitoring the performance of Hubs. The department provides the funding for the grant award to HLOs each year.
The terms and conditions of staff is the responsibility of either the HLO or any other music service or equivalent organisation working in partnership with the HLO and for whom they hold grant funding. HLOs also need to apply ACE standard grant terms and conditions, including in relation to the workforce.
ACE collects and publishes workforce information on an annual basis and this is published on the ACE Hub Data Dashboard which is available on their website here: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/MusicEducationHubs/music-education-hubs-survey-and-data#t-in-page-nav-2.
The workforce dashboard for 2021/22 shows that the number of permanent staff (full-time or part-time) across all areas of England is 6,588. The number of staff employed on a contractual basis is 1,665 and the number of self-employed or freelance staff is 3,104. ACE does not collect information on the type of contract or average wage or income of staff, including teachers.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the prevalence of difficulties in the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teachers in (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools in Birmingham, Hall Green constituency.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The most recent School workforce census shows that, as at November 2022, there are over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
Teacher numbers at a school level are published in the additional supporting files. This can be found in the School workforce census 2022 publication, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england#dataBlock-d32da738-358d-4c1f-955b-6c6f83552d65-tables. The department also produces national targets for postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) for each subject based on estimates from the Teacher Workforce Model to ensure focus on the right subjects each year. These are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/postgraduate-initial-teacher-training-targets.
The department knows that some schools face challenges with recruitment and retention, particularly in some secondary subjects, and action is being taken to increase teacher recruitment and retention.
The department is offering a financial incentives package worth up to £196 million for those starting ITT in the 2024/25 academic year, including bursaries worth up to £28,000 and scholarships worth up to £30,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing. The department is also offering a £25,000 tax-free bursary for biology, design and technology, geography and languages (including ancient languages), and a £10,000 tax-free bursary for English, art and design, music and RE.
The department is providing a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools nationally, including within education investment areas (EIAs). For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department will be investing approximately £100 million each year to double the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax. This builds on knowledge gained from similar pilots and will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.
There are 97 schools in the Birmingham local authority area eligible for the Levelling Up Premium, including nine schools in the Birmingham, Hall Green constituency. The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.
Earlier this year the department accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and leaders. This means that teachers and leaders in maintained schools will receive a pay award of 6.5%. This is the highest pay award for teachers in over thirty years and delivers the manifesto commitment of a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers across England.
To support teacher retention across all school phases, the department has published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the workload reduction toolkit and the education staff wellbeing charter. More than 3,000 schools have signed up to the wellbeing charter so far. The wellbeing charter can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter. The workload reduction toolkit is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit. As part of the pay announcement for 2023/24, the department also convened a workload reduction taskforce to explore how to further support trusts and school leaders to minimise workload.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department holds data on the number of music rehearsal spaces there were in England in (a) 2003, (b) 2010, (c) 2013, (d) 2019 and (e) 2023.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Department does not hold data on the numbers of music rehearsal spaces or on community choirs in England.
Estimates of the numbers of community choirs in England may be available from Arts Council England’s Investment Principles Support Organisation Making Music, which represents voluntary and leisure-time music organisations in the UK – although its membership will likely not represent the total number of community choirs in England.
Through Arts Council England’s 2023–26 Investment Programme, more money is going to more music organisations in more parts of the country than ever before, supporting 139 organisations classed as ‘music’ by investing c.£65 million of public funding per annum.
Separately, HM Government funds a diverse portfolio of music and arts education programmes which are designed to improve participation in the arts for all children. The National Plan for Music Education and the upcoming Cultural Education Plan will encourage more young people to take up music lessons, attend local cultural events, and consider careers in the music sector.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many times she met with the Disability and Access Ambassador for Arts and Culture in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.
Answered by John Whittingdale
David Stanley BEM was appointed as the Disability and Access Ambassador for Arts and Culture on 8 June 2021 for a term of three years. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) regularly engages with him on opportunities to support the Government’s work to widen access to culture for people with disabilities. This has included supporting Mr Stanley when he was appointed as one of the panel of experts who helped to devise the joint Department for Education and DCMS National Plan for Music Education.
On 8 February 2022, Mr Stanley met the then DCMS Ministerial Disability Champion, the Minister for Sport, Tourism, Heritage and Civil Society, as part of a meeting with the other DCMS Disability and Access Ambassadors.
On 17 October 2023, the current DCMS Ministerial Disability Champion, The Rt. Hon. Stuart Andrew MP, held a roundtable discussion with all the DCMS Ambassadors to discuss young disabled people’s access and participation in DCMS sectors. The Arts and Culture Ambassador was part of this discussion.
Mr Stanley also regularly engages with the Department for Work & Pensions to discuss his work in the arts and culture sectors. For example, on 16 May 2022, Mr Stanley met the then Minister for Disabled People to provide an update on his work as Disability and Access Ambassador and to discuss his wider work as CEO of The Music Man Project. In June 2022 a video of Mr Stanley and his work was included within a presentation from the Minister at the United Nations’ 15th Conference of states parties to the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (COSP15) in New York.
On 5 June 2023, Mr Stanley met the previous Minister for Disabled People, to provide an update on his work as Disability and Access Ambassador and discuss The Music Man Project. The Rt. Hon. Penny Mordaunt MP and Anna Firth MP were also in attendance at this meeting in their roles as patrons of The Music Man Project.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department holds data on the number of community choirs there were in England in (a) 2003, (b) 2010, (c) 2013, (d) 2019 and (e) 2023.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Department does not hold data on the numbers of music rehearsal spaces or on community choirs in England.
Estimates of the numbers of community choirs in England may be available from Arts Council England’s Investment Principles Support Organisation Making Music, which represents voluntary and leisure-time music organisations in the UK – although its membership will likely not represent the total number of community choirs in England.
Through Arts Council England’s 2023–26 Investment Programme, more money is going to more music organisations in more parts of the country than ever before, supporting 139 organisations classed as ‘music’ by investing c.£65 million of public funding per annum.
Separately, HM Government funds a diverse portfolio of music and arts education programmes which are designed to improve participation in the arts for all children. The National Plan for Music Education and the upcoming Cultural Education Plan will encourage more young people to take up music lessons, attend local cultural events, and consider careers in the music sector.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2023 to Question 2118 on Music: education, what the cost to the public purse was of (a) consultations and (b) legal advice on proposals to change the structure of music education hubs.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As set out in the Answer to Question 2118, as part of the refreshed National Plan for Music Education, published in June 2022, the government set out its intention to re-compete the hubs lead organisation (HLO) role and reduce the number of HLOs. Alongside these reforms, the Department also committed significant funding for the Music Hubs programme, with £79 million per annum revenue funding to academic year 2024/25 and an additional £25 million capital for instruments and musical equipment.
Music Hubs are partnerships co-ordinated by a 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. When launched in 2012, there were 123 Music Hubs covering the 152 upper-tier local authority (LA) areas in England. Following various transfers and restructures over the last ten years, there are now 118 HLOs: 98 covering single LA areas and 20 covering multi-LA areas. These changes reflect the approach which other similar initiatives and infrastructure that are relevant to the lives of children and young people have taken, including Teaching School Hubs, English and Maths Hubs, Multi Academy Trusts, Local Enterprise Partnerships and Sport England’s Active Partnerships.
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 more strategic, building stronger partnerships with schools, academy trusts, local authorities and others, resulting in high quality support in every local area and to ensure there are no local ‘cold spots’ where access to provision is limited. 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:
The current Music Hubs investment programme led by Arts Council England (ACE) is due to conclude next year, with newly competed HLOs commencing from September 2024. In relation to costs competition and legal costs to date, the department has provided funding to ACE to deliver the investment programme and, as part of this programme, ACE has spent a total of £21,000 on consultation and legal advice. The department has also sought specialist legal advice in relation to aspects of the competition, and has spent a total of £29,000.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to promote English baroque musical tradition in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency.
Answered by John Whittingdale
England is home to some of the world’s most respected performers of baroque music, from the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. At this time of year in particular, performances of extracts from Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio will be heard and enjoyed around the country.
Performance of baroque music in England, along with other individual musical genres, receives support from a wide variety of sources, including public funding via Arts Council England. There are a number of National Portfolio Organisations and other Arts Council-funded organisations which deliver activity in England relating to baroque music. For example, Britten Pears Arts (which receives over £1.4 million per annum through Arts Council England) operates a baroque orchestra training scheme for younger players and provides residencies and performance platforms for small ensembles including those specialising in period instrument performance.
Many National Portfolio Organisations regularly perform or engage with baroque music in England. This includes specialist organisations such as the National Centre for Early Music in York (which receives over £275,000 per annum), and organisations which perform a broader range of music, such as the Royal Opera House (which receives more than £22 million per annum), which has recently staged Handel’s oratorio Jeptha.
Arts Council England’s open programmes (such as National Lottery Project Grants, and Develop Your Creative Practice) have also supported individuals and organisations delivering baroque music. This support is open to organisations and individuals across the country, including to those in Romford.
Many performances of baroque music in England will be by orchestras, which may be eligible for the Orchestras Tax Relief. At the Spring Budget this year, HM Government announced a two-year extension to the higher rates of Theatre and Orchestra Tax Relief.
Romford and Havering are home to an amateur choir, as well as an orchestra, and the Havering Singers’ past concerts have included a performance of Handel’s Messiah.
Asked by: Baroness Quin (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to reply to the letter dated 24 July from Baroness Quin to the Minister of State at the Department for Education regarding the inclusion of traditional music in music teaching in schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I can confirm that a response to the correspondence dated 24 July 2023 from the Noble Lady was sent on 21 August 2023.