Under construction: National Music Service for Wales

When the Welsh general election took place in May 2021, the Labour manifesto promised the establishment of a new National Music Service for Wales. Pre-election, the party boldly said that the proposed service should close the yawning gap between Welsh and English service provision and would ensure that ‘a lack of money is no barrier to young people learning to play an instrument’.

While electors might have had many other things on their mind at the time – not least the progress of the pandemic which was threatening to crush the Welsh economy, an underperforming health service and poor economic performance compared to much of the rest of the UK – how high on electors’ agendas was a music service? Maybe not as high as might be expected, as voters fell short of giving Labour the green light in the Senedd as the party was denied an overall majority, although remaining in power as the largest party.

What, then, for the much-anticipated new music service?

Planning is very much in progress with concrete proposals expected to be tabled this year. But, as Cynon Valley-based music consultant Dinah Pye explains, expectations are running high: ‘Six months’ work has already gone in to planning and we are now trying to get funding,’ she says. ‘I have been assured by the Education and Welsh Language minister [Jeremy Miles] that this will go ahead. We've been negotiating for five years, so now we need to see some action.’

‘Incredible snapshot of how bad things were’

Pye's concerns stem from music provision post-austerity in Wales. She devoted considerable effort to keeping music alive in the Welsh valleys after funding was cut back or removed altogether. She pointed to the 2018 report by the Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee of the National Assembly (as the Senedd was then known). Entitled Hitting the right note, it was a document which showed considerable optimism for the future against a background of worry and disappointment in the present.

‘That report was an incredible snapshot of how bad things were in Wales. This was the only one of the nations without a music plan,’ Pye says. ‘In England, £74m was ploughed into music education while in Wales the figure was £1.4m, and even that was threatened with further cuts. So, I started a petition and, eventually, the plan for the new service got into the Labour manifesto.’

In that report, conductor and founder of the Welsh Proms, Owain Arwel Hughes, said that cuts to music services in Wales were creating a crisis in music education. His comment was seen, at the time, as something startling, although many in music education already knew that to be the case. A public poll undertaken for the report found that people were most concerned about funding for and access to music education. Speaking at the time, the then chair of the Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee, assembly member Bethan Sayed said: ‘The time has come to not simply paper over the cracks but to give sufficient resource and clear direction to the sector. Music services must be protected, nurtured and accessible to all.’

Inconsistency across Wales

As Labour did not find itself with a majority at the election last May, plans for the new Music Service could be voted down in the Senedd by a combined opposition, meaning they still might not definitely go ahead.

That does seem unlikely, however, as the findings of the 2020 Music Services Feasibility Study suggested that a national service should be set up to challenge the lack of consistency and coherence in the provision of music education across the country. Of particular concern was the complexity of detail relating to the deployment of music tutors, instruments, curricular support, and a wide range of other issues. Additional problems were identified regarding the design and delivery of specific outcomes such as equity of access, wellbeing and progression for particularly talented individuals, as well as strained political relationships and, it goes without saying, finance.

Throughout Wales, there has been an increasingly incoherent approach to music provision, and, in most cases, it has been shrinking as some headteachers see music as an optional and expensive extra. Sustainability of the music tutor workforce is another major cause for concern as many regard their terms and conditions of service unacceptable. Powys, for instance, closed its music service in the 1990s and devolved all decisions regarding music tuition to individual schools. The not-for-profit Denbighshire Music Co-operative delivers a portfolio of services broadly similar to those of present local authority Music Education Service provision. Flintshire, which was faced with substantial budget cuts, transferred music provision to staff at Theatr Clwyd in Mold.

While the 2020 feasibility study recommended a national approach, that is pricey for the Welsh government and unpopular among some music education and professional organisations. Another report, entitled Turn up the volume (2020) looked into the live music industry in Wales and, perhaps rather surprisingly, or dauntingly, recommended 31 steps which governments (both Welsh and UK), local authorities, education establishments and others should undertake to secure the future of Welsh music.

Creative Learning Through the Arts

Steps in the right direction are being taken, however. Creative Learning Through the Arts (CLTA) was a scheme which ran between 2015 and 2020, although the Education and Welsh Language minister Jeremy Miles recently announced a £6.82m funding package to extend it for a further three years. This is widely seen as underlining the government's commitment to setting up the full National Music Service as learners across Wales will have improved opportunities to play and learn with musical instruments. Instruments will be distributed, in the first instance, to learners who are less likely to already have access to them, such as those eligible for free school meals.

The Arts Council of Wales has been central to the development of the CLTA scheme, noting that the project has attracted recognition at an international level. In all, 1,240 schools – 83 per cent of the Welsh total – engaged with the programme, providing 134,000 opportunities for learners to take part and 4,600 opportunities for teachers to support their professional learning. Through the scheme, schools have access to creative professionals, their skills and resources, in order to improve teaching and learning. They, in turn, support subjects as varied as maths, science, numeracy and citizenship. A bespoke programme of learning is designed for each school involved and to address specific challenges in schools’ respective development plans. There is also an aim to nurture the creativity of learners and to raise attainment levels aligned to the priorities of the Welsh government and to support whole school change in preparation for the introduction of the Curriculum for Wales this year.

According to Phil George, chair of the Arts Council of Wales, extending the CLTA programme is testament to its success, saying that it ‘taps into a young learner's natural inquisitiveness and imagination to solve problems and release their own potential.’ He added: ‘This will further embed creative approaches in the practice of more and more schools as they respond to the exciting opportunities in the new curriculum.’

The All-Wales Arts and Education Offer, at the ‘sharp end’ of CLTA, is split into two strands. The Regional Arts and Education Networks bring schools and arts organisations together to share best practice and find partnerships, while the Experiencing the Arts Fund administers grants to enable children and young people to explore a wide range of cultural experiences.

No going back now

The picture in Wales, though, remains confusing. Music provision differs radically between all 22 Welsh local authorities and the musical postcode lottery is very real. The challenging geography of the country adds to difficulties of provision, as does the very real north-south and east-west divide where very real suspicions exist about spending decisions. Eons of time have been spent in committees examining music provision and forests have been felled to provide the paper for what feels like report after report, all of which make various suggestions.

A national music service – maybe regionalised, rather than centralised – will come. It would create another political scandal if nothing happened after all the hype around its imminent creation. Failure to set this new service up is not something Dinah Pye will contemplate. ‘If not implemented by April, we will lose music services altogether,’ she warns. ‘I really hope that there will be a development plan rather than everything happening at once. But if nothing happens, they will have me to answer to.’

That, surely, is enough to get wheels turning. Rapidly.

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