PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Music: Education (8 July 2019)

The information requested is not held centrally regarding individual schools and how much they spend on music education, as this is delivered within every school's core funding. However, the Government is clear that music is an important subject and that all pupils should receive a high quality music education, at least up to age 14 as part of the national curriculum. In addition, the Government is providing funding of over £300 million for music education hubs between 2016 and 2020.

Music education hubs cover every local authority area, and focus on assessing and meeting local needs of children, drawing on a range of local, national and regional music and arts provision in each area. The core roles of the hubs are to ensure that every child aged 5-18 can learn a musical instrument through whole-class ensemble teaching programmes for ideally a year (but for a minimum of a term) of weekly tuition on the same instrument. Their role is also to provide opportunities to play in ensembles and to perform from an early stage, to ensure that clear progression routes are available and affordable to all young people, and to develop a singing strategy to ensure that every pupil sings regularly and that choirs and other vocal ensembles are available in the area.

Financial allocations to music education hubs by local authority area can be found at: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/music-education/music-education-hubs.

In order to ensure all pupils are able to enjoy a high quality music education, the Department is developing and publishing a non-statutory model music curriculum for Key Stages 1-3. This will expand on the statutory programmes of study and act as a benchmark for all schools.