Decision ref
0024 2023/24
Decision date
01/09/2023
Portfolio
Children and Young People
Wards
All wards
Title
St Helens role in the creation of the Greater Merseyside Music Hub
Summary
To gain support for and involvement in the creation of an application by the Combined Authority for a single Music Hub for the Greater Merseyside area as detailed in the DfE proposals for geographical areas.
Purpose
To inform the Portfolio Holder and Senior Officers of the future changes to DfE Music Education funding and the implications of the DfE proposals for a single Greater Merseyside Music Hub for current funding and service delivery in St Helens.
To seek permission to take an active and leading role in the development of a single Liverpool City regionwide application to Arts Council England for the Greater Merseyside Music Hub. This would be submitted by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
Background
Currently, St Helens Council Music Service acts as the lead organisation (HLO) for St Helens Music Education Hub. As such, it has acted for the past eleven years on behalf of the Council as the accountable body for the DfE/ACE annual investment of Music Education Hubs (MEH). A MEH is a local partnership of strategic and delivery organisations and stakeholder groups such as schools and other education providers that come together within a locality to deliver the core and extension roles of the National Plan for Music Education.
The DfE/ACE proposals for the future development and direction of Music Hubs and Hub Lead Organisations in England, published on 25 June 2022, form part of the refreshed National Plan for Music Education (NPME 2): The Power of Music to Change Lives. The plan sets out the government’s priorities until 2030 for music education through the defining of fixed geographical areas, a reduction to forty-three Music Hubs that will provide strategic oversight and leadership of activity within these localities. As a result, the St Helens Music Education Hub (but not necessarily the service) will cease to exist along with the other current hubs in the region and will become part of a Greater Merseyside Music Hub.
The Plan states that strategic leadership of the new Hub will be the responsibility of the Hub Lead Organisation (HLO) who will be responsible for the finances, partnerships, reporting and governance. Whilst the intention of the DfE/ACE is that there will not be fewer music education deliverers within these new arrangements it will be the for the HLO to make the decisions as to how services will be provided and by whom. As a Council we need to decide what our role will be within this new wider partnership, how we should use our good standing and reputation to best influence the design and leadership of an application, and how we could safeguard the quality of our unique local offer.
The timeline for application is outlined below:
Preapplication: Monday 10 July to Friday 18 August: introductory conversations with ACE re: eligibility/suitability to apply
Applications via the Grantium portal: application portal open 18 July to12 October
Decision-making and announcement:
Early 2024: decisions to the Department for Education
April 2024: announcement of new Hub Lead Organisations
September 2024: new Music Hubs come into being
Conclusion
Taking an active role in support of the proposal for a Greater Merseyside Music Hub with the City Region as the Hub Lead Organisation provides the strongest option to ensure the continuation of a well-respected, effective and efficient service, that will be able to share best practice across the city region. The Music Service Team Manager can support and provide active leadership for such an application to Arts Council England. This will be alongside colleagues from the other Council run services working a small group of key partners. The new Hub arrangements will start delivery from September 2024. The application would be for circa £ 2,176,839 per year in grant funding, based on the current DfE national formula to support the delivery of the Music Hub for the Liverpool City Region. Plus a capital grant for musical instruments of £660,000
The Greater Merseyside Music Hub would be led by a new strategic leadership role of Director of Music Education based in the CA, fully funded by the grant; with the CA either advertising or seconding this role from existing leaders of the regions Hubs.
The Director of Music Education would be supported by a Strategic Music Education Advisory Group (comprising service leads from the current music service/hubs), which would oversee the Hub partnership working with colleagues across the education and culture teams in the CA and the LCR Music Board. This role would commission and oversee a diverse mix of delivery providers / partners across the City Region to deliver against the goals and outcomes for the Music Hub. Music Hub providers would be managed through appropriate Grant Funding Awards and related legal agreements and Service Level Agreements.
Aligned to LCR/CA strategies and the NPME, Local Music Services would develop a Local Plan for Music Education for each Local Authority area that is based on a deep understanding of local school need, community, and delivery organisations. As a condition of funding Music Services and partners would make sure that the offer is high-quality, diverse, inclusive, and representative.
The key strengths of this approach would include:
Improved access, outcomes and opportunities for children and young people across the City Region to access quality music education opportunities through taking an outcomes approach to our work moving to deliverable accountable outcomes for young people across the City Region through a co-created approach to our delivery.
Establish Liverpool City Region as a place in which every child has a chance to learn an instrument/sing across a diverse range of instruments from orchestral to electronic.
Using the grant to invest in and target music growth from individuals and communities in lower socio-economic areas and improve social mobility.
Create and deliver an equitable, integrated, and accessible offer across the City Region while also keeping local identity.
Economic sustainability and economies of scale by rationalisation of running costs across the current range of Music Services in the region and enabling the City Region based Music Hub to bid at scale for other sources of investment and grant funding building on our success around gaining Youth Music funding and the investment through SIF programme by the Combined Authority.
Risk Implications
Timescales for these changes are short for a successful transition to the new proposed Music Hub Lead structure. The Investment Programme’s guidance for applicants was only published in spring 2023 with the application window only being open between 18 July and 12 October.
Not being awarded grant funding by Arts Council England would leave a gap in music education provision and offer to young people across the City Region. This option would offer a degree of continuity and assurance that local services would continue to be funded, whilst a successful rival application could result in current provision being dramatically reduced, cease all together or key staff being transferred across to a new organisation.
Whoever becomes the Hub Lead Organisation (HLO) will expect to top slice a proportion of the total grant to fund the centralised costs and areawide activity. Dependent on how funding will be distributed by the LCR, St Helens could receive less funding than it currently gets. Based upon current funding levels we could lose £25k - £40k compared with what we currently get from Arts Council England. In mitigating this risk, it is therefore vital that we play a central and leading role in the development of the application and the designing of the resulting Hub.
Each Local Music Service or Provider would be accountable for use of their portion of the allocated grant and operate under their local policies and procedures. Furthermore, a Legal/Partnership Agreement would be in-place to ensure that risks to the LCR-AC are limited and to ensure responsibility and accountability at a local level. Whilst we recognise there would need to be some top slicing of the grant to both fund the salary of the director of music education role and allow for Hub wide projects as a key strategic partner in a CA bid, we would have the ability to influence the level of such a charge. This may not be the case if a rival bid were to be successful or if we chose not to actively engage with and support the formulation of such an application.
Measures to Redress Risk
Key measures to reduce risk include:
Planning for the initial conversation with ACE to provide an overview of the CA application, its proposed partners, governance and financial arrangements.
Taking on key feedback from ACE from the initial conversation and incorporating this into subsequent work.
Working on the creation of a strong application to ACE that demonstrates dynamic leadership and knowledge of the regional and the sector needs. This will demonstrate how the NPME will be delivered across all 6 LA areas.
Ensuring that financial arrangements enable the central CA team to lead effectively without limiting the ability of local services to be able to effectively manage and delivery music education.
Declarations Of Interest
None
Equality Impact Assessment
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More information
Please contact Jeremy Sleith on 01744 677531
