Issue - items at meetings - Witnesses

Councillor Vanessa Brown, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, and Councillor David Smith, Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Tourism, B&HCC.

Karen McCallum, Head Teacher of Patcham Junior School and member of the Music Trust Board.

Catherine Orbach, Director, Creative Partnerships Sussex and Surrey.

Jo Bates, Arts Lead, Youth Offending Service, and Nigel Andain, Head of Youth Offending Service, B&HCC.

Councillor Vanessa Brown, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People and Councillor David Smith, Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Tourism, Brighton & Hove City Council (B&HCC).

Cllr Brown gave an overview of what was happening in the schools across the city. It was not possible to give a report on what was happening in each school without contacting them directly.  All schools had bands and music lessons.  For example, in Balfour School there was an orchestra and a salsa band. There was the opportunity to learn lots of instruments. BHMAS was outstanding and there were lots of concerts in schools (recent concerts included Oliver and Bugsy Malone in primary schools and Grease and Chekhov in secondary schools). Blatchington Mill was a performance college. Dorothy Stringer School was the sports leader. Falmer School had a team from Strictly Come Dancing visit, and there were often travelling performances that covered a range of issues, for example a theatre production had focused on drink driving.  Artists visited schools on special projects and the Sealife Centre had sponsored an arts competition.

BHMAS had recently undergone a second Department for Children, Families and Schools (DCFS) moderation and was judged outstanding. Soundmakers was judged as high quality and the effective partnerships were praised. The provision for looked after children was also judged outstanding, as was the song writing project for young carers.  100% of KS2 participated in Soundmakers, around 2,700 children.

Other examples of activities in the city included Night Crew, an opera at Glynbourne with young people in the chorus. Sounds from the City was a festival in March when 200 young bands and soloists were given the chance to perform.  The Brighton Youth Orchestra had performed at the Albert Hall in London.

The ‘Express’ Strategy had introduced the Arts Mark and 50% of schools had been awarded it – this was higher than the national average. The Children’s Festival was also part of the ‘Express’ Strategy and was funded by the Council and the Arts Commission. It was in its fourth year now. The Youth Arts Festival was aimed at 11-19yr olds and was to take place from April 17 to May 3 this year.

The Brighton Dome and Festival worked with young people and had recently appointed an extra person to the education team. Schools were often invited to open rehearsals. The Children and Arts Foundation supported free tickets for 700 children and young people last year.

Councillor Smith tabled a paper giving detailed answers to key questions. He went on to give an overview of what was happening in the city. The city does very well nationally and there were many events. The one negative aspect was that it could be difficult to find out what was going on. Communication could be better and the information on what was happening, and when, could be improved. Events in the city included baby boogie, homework clubs, events at museums, Alice in Wonderland and hip hop dancing for boys at Lighthouse.  The main venues were working well but the other venues did struggle to get family audiences.

Other examples included a 6 year project funded by the Victoria and Albert as part of a national strategy. This project worked with secondary schools and with Action for Children. For the last two years this project had been called Design for Life and culminated in a fashion show in partnership with the universities. There was also a range of children’s activities as part of Black History month, a project called Off by Hear, working with the BBC and local schools promoting a national poetry competition, and the Children’s Parade.

There was a sports strategy looking forward to 2012. The Take Part campaign was an example of sports and art combining.  There was also the Big Dance 2012.  There was room for improvement but they were looking forward.

In response to a question, Cllr Smith commented that they worked a lot in partnership. They worked with both Sussex Cricket Club and Brighton & Hove Albion. It was important to appeal to what children wish to do and then develop that.  For example the exhibition of hip hop dancing in Churchill Square was very successful.

Cllr Brown noted that the Council had got much better at connecting with hard to reach children and young people.  The Dome worked well at reaching out into the more deprived areas, including offering free tickets.  Overall, they were reaching a lot of children, and not missing many.

Following a question on funding, Cllr Smith told the Panel that a 2 seas Interreg bid would be submitted this year which was a collaboration between Brighton & Hove, Rotterdam, Amien, and Ghent.  A Children’s Festival bid for funding for an international festival was also well advanced. The Brighton & Hove Children’s Festival was part of a national network (led by Brighton & Hove) and part of this was looking at what was happening and where the gaps were.  The issue of resources was a key one: targeted events were very resource-intensive.  Funding bids can take 18 months to come to fruition and Brighton had lost some events due to a lack of funding.

Ms Karen McCallum, Head Teacher, Patcham Junior School

Ms McCallum told the Panel that within the local authority and the Dome, there had been a large increase in the number of events available.  Ms McCallum had been in Brighton since 1981 and seen this continually increase.  The Brighton Festival was fantastic. All schools take part and it was brilliantly organised. The ‘Lets Dance’ programme was across the whole authority and had grown over the years. There were a wide spectrum of community events and they tried to include as many children as possible.  The liaison with schools and the community had been fantastic. The Dome had a creative steering group that created a network from the Dome to focus on schools in areas of deprivation.  In sport, Brighton & Hove Albion were very successful in working with underachieving boys to motivate them. Soundmakers had been in Patcham Junior School for four years and was fantastic. The Sing Up training offered had been excellent. 

Ms McCallum mentioned one small example of a lack of communication but emphasised that this was a very minor incident. She had only become aware of a relevant event at the Jubilee Library due to her role on the BHMAS Trust Board.

Following a question on take-up and if this differed at secondary level, Ms McCallum replied that at her school there were excellent links with the secondary school and children performed in each others school.

Overall, there was a lot of networking across the authority, for example, schools who didn’t have the Arts Award came to Patcham to learn about it. There was a festival of learning in June where all schools were open and those schools that were not as well developed in the area of cultural activities could learn from other schools. It was a city-wide initiative.  Following a question about networking, Ms McCallum explained that the Heads meeting recently had discussed if there was a need for a formal network. There were smaller groups – for example ‘Hand in Hand’ which was a network of schools that wished to develop creativity. Overall, the networks were more about teaching and learning rather than subject specific.  If a school wanted to improve its arts programme, then links would be made to facilitate this.

Jo Bates, Youth Arts Worker, Youth Offending Team, and Nigel Andain, Head of Youth Offending Team, B&HCC

Ms Bates explained that she was a Social Worker in the Youth Offending Team (YOT) and worked with children and young people aged between 10 and 18yrs old who were socially excluded. They were mostly not in school, were NEET, may be homeless and have problems with drugs and alcohol. They did not access the mainstream provision of services of any sort and often had no family support. They were excluded from all provision in the city.

Her post of Arts Project Worker had been created in order to be more targeted toward young offenders and re-offenders. They offered a wide range of projects including film, fashion, creative writing, exhibitions, music, singing lessons with Rhythmix, or BHMAS. They worked with local artists wherever possible. These projects were excellent for raising self-esteem and for providing a free space for young people to say what they want.

There was no core funding and whilst Ms Bates wrote many funding bids, they were often unsuccessful and the projects were run on a shoestring. The biggest issue was resources.

There are around 200 young people at YOT but they don’t all participate in these activities. Around 50/60 children a year do, either in small groups or in one-to-one sessions.  There was a music studio currently being built which would be a good resource. She often worked closely with the Youth Arts Festival and they had recently produced a multi-media exhibition together.

Projects were not sustainable under the current funding and this was not acceptable. This can have a negative effect on the young people who had achieved under the project and then there was nothing when the project ended.

Ms Bates emphasised the importance and positive benefits of the use of the arts in working with young people. Often the young people have difficult relationships with adults and using the arts was a very useful tool.  The use of the arts in social work was not taken seriously enough or given enough credibility which led to not enough sustainable funding.

Following a question on what Ms Box would do first with more funding, she replied it would be to embed the arts work throughout the whole team and to create sustainable projects that could run over a year. For example, run a weekly art club or multi-media work or a radio station – something long term. Peer to peer education would also be very powerful when young people are trained to run workshops for their peers.

On the subject of what could encourage more young people to be involved in the arts projects, Ms Bates told the Panel that there were always young people who were very difficult to reach or who may be in a very chaotic time in their lives. The projects must focus on the child or young person.  Ms Bates agreed to provide some examples of the work with young people and the benefits that could be used as a case study in the Panel’s report.

On venues, Ms Bates told the Panel that they had a basement space in YOT and used the Friends’ Meeting House. They also worked with Youth Clubs such as the Crew Club.  Geographic location can be an issue – YOT are based centrally but there were areas of the city where residents would not go (for example those from Whitehawk may not want to go to Moulsecoomb).

Mr Andain told the Panel that this targeted work was very resource intensive. It can be difficult to justify arts work in the current economic climate, especially in terms of hard data on re-offending levels, but they do know that this work does mean a lot, particularly in terms of self-esteem.  There was not an arts strategy for the service so there was a lack of continuity and no funding to mainstream it in the whole team.

Mr Andain informed the Panel about ‘Artscape’ where young people carrying out reparation work could do work on murals around the city (for example, one had been done in the Youth Court).   There was an issue around getting the general public to understand why arts work was important.  One key point was that these young people are often not included in main stream provision. They worked with around 500 children and young people and 40% of these had not been engaged with schools at all.  It was suggested by the Panel that a recommendation could be that art programmes were offered to the YOS team as well as to schools. Mr Andain welcomed the idea and commented on the issue of contamination: high risk repeat offenders all together can have their sense of themselves as young offenders reinforced and more done to integrate these young people or find places on arts programmes for them would be excellent.  As Ms Bates was a full time arts worker, this meant that case workers had a heavier case load but it was a very important post.

The Family Therapy Project was funded by the National Academy of Parenting Practitioners. A control group was not receiving as much therapy as the other group. This had helped fund the studio.  Following a question on funding, Mr Andain explained they were entirely funded by B&HCC and the Youth Justice Board. It was difficult to raise funding which is target driven. However, the re-offending rates had dropped since Ms Bates had been a full time arts worker.

Catherine Orbach, Director, Creative Partnerships Sussex and Surrey

Ms Orbach gave an overview of the Creative Partnerships in Sussex and Surrey. They were set up in April 2008 as a national project. It started as a pilot in areas of deprivation. Partners were taken to work in schools. The arts were a great tool for engaging young people. It was not an arts programme per se but set out how people can work and think creatively.  A national report by Ken Robinson recognised the need to develop creative skills to help children in the future.  The report had noted that imaginative, flexible children who could problem solve were needed for the future, and an education system delivering these skills was crucial. The Creative Partnerships were set up to link the two worlds of the creative sector and schools.

Ms Orbach explained the two main projects in Brighton & Hove. The Change Programme offered schools up to 3 years funding looking at how creative a school was, what they could do differently. This was led by senior management and was between £10,000 and £20,000 with the school providing 25%.

The Enquiry Schools Programme was a one year project lead by a teacher. This was around £4,000 with 25% from the school. Most of the funding went to bringing a professional into the school. There were creative agents who brokered relationships between schools and other creative partners.  This was led by schools who determined what they wanted – they devised a question to be answered, for example, how can we make this space more creative; how can dance develop maths skills?  It also gave teachers space to develop their skills. Involvement in the Change Schools programme was limited to ‘Aimhigher schools’ in the city and involved Longhill and Varndean Schools. The first phase of the Enquiry project had finished and the second was ongoing.

Ms Orbach gave the example of St Andrew’s Primary School that had used a film-making project and the skills and confidence that had come from that project had stayed in the school and was animating the way language was used.  In Longhill, children had a voice on what a courtyard space looked like. In Blatchington Mill they had made a film about the history of the school working with older members of the community.

The projects can also feed into home life – if children were very enthusiastic about a project, parents were more confident in being involved.  The projects were all about partnership and matching educational expertise with creative expertise. It was about creative processes rather than creative products.

Ms Orbach told the Panel they were currently looking at how to facilitate better connections between young people and those working in creative industries in the city.  They are in discussion with networks such as Wired Sussex and Creative Brighton..  In response to a question, Ms Orbach said that they sent information out to all schools. The challenge was how to position it for schools and to make the argument that engagement with the arts was worthwhile.  Following a question on barriers, Ms Orbach noted that there was no real resistance but the 25% financial input from schools may have been an issue for some schools. Once schools are on board, they understood the value of the programmes.

Creative Partnerships were only funded until July 2011 and were looking at how to refresh their offer and reach new partners..  The Panel asked for further information on projects to possibly form the basis of a case study in the report. A further question asked about how the learning from a project was shared across a school. Creative Partnerships encourage schools to plan for this. Many different solutions have been found from creative practitioners attending staff meetings to ensure the whole school knew what was happening to more formal staff training..

The suggestion was made that in Change Schools, governors could be involved in the process. Work with governors may help promote the projects  since governors were budget-holders. There was a governors’ network.

The Chair thanked all the witnesses for attending the meeting and for their very helpful contributions to the Panel’s inquiry.

6.                  Minutes from the previous meeting

Draft minutes were circulated.

7.                  Dates of future meetings

The future meetings were 19 May at 11am in the Jubilee Library and 30 June at 4pm (round table, venue to be confirmed).

8.                  Any other business

There was no further business.

James Dougan, Assistant Director, Children and Young People’s Trust, B&HCC and Julia Box, Youth Arts Development Worker, B&HCC (Background papers attached)

Lucy Stone and Jo White, Rhythmix (Background paper attached)

Peter Chivers, Brighton & Hove Music Advisory Service, B&HCC

James Dougan, Assistant Director, Children & Young People’s Trust (CYPT), Julia Box, Youth Arts Development Worker, and Emma Fincham, Central Area Manager, CYPT.

Mr Dougan’s team were responsible for arts development in the Youth Service in CYPT. The team were within the governance arrangements for the Youth and Connexions service.  The area of cultural provision for children and young people was a very live issue but it made up a very small part of the whole service.

Ms Box outlined her work. She had been a Youth Arts Worker for 25 years and had delivered arts in youth clubs during this time. The Youth Arts Project grew when the unitary authority was created. Since 2003 there had been more staff, all of whom were part-time Youth Arts Workers. All of these people had a background in the arts but worked directly with young people. The team tried to reach as many young people as possible who would not normally access the arts. The Brighton Youth Theatre had been running for 22-23 years and for the last 8 years had satellite groups across the city. They ran a range of projects themselves and also delivered arts projects with other organisations that did not normally use the arts.  They encouraged the use of the arts as a way of building self esteem – it was an amazing tool for young people who could really benefit. They ran on-going (in house) workshops and also worked with a wide range of groups, some of whom they had approached, and others who came to them independently..For example, they had done a one-term project with The Foyer for young people who created an exhibition. They were also working with Rise Young Peoples Group (Domestic violence charity).

The Arts Award was a nationally accredited scheme that was five years old.  They worked with arts clubs and youth theatre in-house, but they would also offer this to outside organisations if they had identified a specific person to put together a portfolio with.  It was great for young people to gain a national accreditation for work done in their own time.  Ms Box also spent a lot of time networking nationally, regionally and locally.

Achievements  - the Youth Arts Festival had been going for 3 years and was very small when it started but now had many groups involved.  It was a big festival to celebrate young people in the arts. The new launch was in two weeks time and there would be a one day workshop offering taster sessions.  Most activities are primarily term time because of the funding but they do run a summer school to offer the Arts Award.

Strengths – expert and committed staff team who get excellent results with challenging young people.

Challenges – capacity. They had a waiting list. The theatre was free and issue-based and on issues relevant to the young people. It came from a young persons’ perspective but there was no capacity or budget to run anymore sessions. They had to take people from a wide age range because there the resources were not available to run two sessions.  It would be great to be able to buy into other networks (eg English National Youth Arts Network) and also to be able to bring great arts practioners into the city.

In response to a question, Ms Box explained that the funding has stayed the same over the past few years but other things cost more money.  The ‘Positive Futures’ funding was £9,000 for 2 workers for 6 hours a week. This would be reduced next year although it was unknown by how much.  If there was more money, they would increase people’s hours (most are on 6 hours) or bring in experts.  They did not have funding for venue hire and it would be good to be able to get some venues for free. The only earned income was that groups paid £50 to register but if they know a group can not afford this, it was waived.

Following a question on age ranges and numbers, Ms Box explained that the range was 11 to 25 with the main target as 13-19 year olds. The majority of people were between 14 and 17 years old.

In Falmer, the group included children from year 7 up to year 11 in one group. This worked but more year 11s would attend if there were less year 7s.

There were five youth theatre groups with 80 to 90 people across the groups. There were 2 regular in-house arts groups, one in Hollingdean and one in Whitehawk and given the needs of the group, the maximum was 10.

On communication, Ms Box noted that this area had improved through the festival. They had links with those that worked with young people, for example, RUOK?, CAMHS, and MIND. They did have contacts with Blatchington Mill School,  Patcham and Falmer but not with other schools. It was difficult to get into a school and find the right people.  However, all the work they did was outside of schools and school time.

Finding a venue can be an issue.  They had to find (and pay for) young people-friendly places. The ambiance of a venue was important – for example a venue should have changing rooms and feel like a theatre. The comment was made that some children may not be put off by using schools as venues. Ms Box noted that it depended on the young person. Young people in youth theatres should have the opportunity to perform in the same venues as professional actors

Following a question on the difference between what the Arts Youth Workers team were offering and what was offered by schools, it was generally very different.  School productions were more likely to be musicals.  The visual arts may have some similarities, but they were working with young people for whom the provision of arts in schools was not successful.  The youth work was about empowerment and equality of opportunity but was not restricted by the formal curriculum.  Mr Dougan noted that in school-based activities, children were mindful of what they wanted to share and would learn to protect themselves from emotions. In Ms Box’s groups, the children were in the same space.  For some people in the youth arts projects, the Arts Award may be their only qualification. Of the 4 young people who recently passed their silver arts award ,(equivalent of grade a gcse) it was the only qualification gained by 2 of the young people (aged 16-18). It was a very positive achievement.

A question was asked about any barriers to access. Ms Box replied that all the projects were free so cost was not a barrier. Accessible venues was a barrier. There was no centrally based youth space in Brighton so young people needed to go to Whitehawk. Those not in education, employment or training (NEET) would go first with a key worker and then on their own. This was very positive because some of them would not have been to that youth club before.

Mr Dougan noted that some venues were prejudiced against young people and had a pre-conceived idea that they were a threat. Ms Stone commented that for the young people-only music events, it was also difficult because venues would not make any money on the bar.

The issue of commercial sponsorship was raised but this was very difficult as mainstream companies would find it difficult. Also young people were very brand sensitive so this approach would not work.

Lucy Stone, Project Director, Rhythmix.

Rhythmix started 12 years ago as an initiative by the Heads of the Music Services in Brighton & Hove, Surrey, East Sussex and Kent to think about young people who were not accessing programmes (perhaps because they were out of school or between schools) and to develop work in genres not covered at that time by Music Services. This was a very new idea then and within a year they were approached by Youth Music and they still got the largest pot of money to deliver the Youth Music Action Zone which they still deliver to this day.

Rhythmix had been an independent charity since 2008 with the Head of Services sitting on the Board. So they worked closely with BHMAS looking at holes in provision and making sure they were not overlapping. They also worked in partnership to deliver MusicLeader South East to provide training, information, advice and guidance and online resources for people who worked in the music education sector. They did not run any open access activities in Brighton & Hove and did not advertise in youth clubs in the city (although they did in Surrey and East Sussex).  In Brighton & Hove they worked with ACE (Primary, Queensdown and PRU), Youth Offending Team, Falmer High, and three Childrens’ Centres across the city. They delivered Soundmakers in the special schools (BHMAS delivered this in 98% of primary schools).

Rhythmix provided intense sessions with small numbers. It was focussed on self expression, it was about what was going on in young peoples lives and talking to an adult who was not part of the social services. Very powerful work was produced.

They worked closely with partners in Brighton & Hove and had identified key people as door openers and gatekeepers. Julia Box was brilliant as was the Youth Offending Team, Children’s Disability Service and Fostering Team.  If there was one person in every service who could open doors, that would be incredibly helpful.

All projects were free to young people.  Partners contributed time, venues and money. Often social workers needed to be present with a young person and it can be difficult for them to find the time.

Successful projects happened when there were strong partnerships. Also when young people said what they wanted to do.

The biggest challenge was finding partners.  Sometimes attendance was an issue. Of 4 young people who started a music mentoring project with Rhythmix and the Youth Offending with some sessions delivered at the Crew Club, one dropped out early, one was in prison (for an earlier un-related offence), 1 dropped out later and the remaining 1 young person was currently releasing an album.

The core funding from Youth Music enabled Rhythmix to lever in other funding. This was currently agreed until April 2011. This funding had been there every year for the last ten years but it was currently half the level it had been in year 1. Any subsequent drop would mean they were unable to deliver programmes. Youth Music were lobbying the Arts Council and the Government on the issue.  There was no European funding.

On the subject of communication, Rhythmix would benefit from more arts workers across the city in different services.  The ‘Express’ strategy needs reconsidering.  The idea of a database and central networking would ease communication and avoid duplication.  Duplication did still happen but it had improved over the past 3 years.  ‘Express’ was a great strategy but it needed more resources. A centralised person to go to would help and an ‘Express’ stamp on everything would be useful.

In response to a question on Soundmakers, Ms Stone explained that this was the Brighton & Hove response to the Government programme ‘Wider Opportunities’ for Key Stage 2  (KS2) children.  It started 4 years ago in partnership with Brighton & Hove Music Arts and Study Support.  Multiple instruments were supplied to children in KS2 so they were able play in ensembles in addition to individual instruments.

Following a question on targeting, in Brighton & Hove Rhythmix initially provided a lot of open access events with a big impact: go in and out again. It was now targeted and they worked with those in challenging circumstances (for example, asylum seekers, travellers, in early years settings)  In East Sussex and Surry it was different: the Police may come and ask for projects at certain youth clubs, but there were a lot more open access activities.

Around 70 workers across the region provide up to 14 workshops a week in Brighton & Hove. In terms of numbers of girls and boys, Ms Stone informed the Panel that it was probably half and half. More girls did singing but more boys did the DJ and Music Tech workshops whilst for Rock & Pop there was an even split. Ms Box said it was probably 65/35 girls to boys. There were more girls when they provided dance but they stopped doing dance sessions when Street Dance started sessions. More boys did graffiti classes and it was about 60/40 in theatre.  Traditionally more boys than girls attended youth clubs so it was a good way for young women to come into a venue often seen as a male venue.  Ms Stone went on to explain that in Falmer, all expect one of those doing a BTech in music were boys. At ACE the older units have far less girls.

Rhythmix were funded to work with 0-19yr olds and up to 25yrs for those with special needs. They were also about to launch MusicLeader South East to support and train adults who teach music.

There was a real issue with young people stepping into the music industry because lots of them had drug or alcohol issues so it could be very difficult. The young man who was producing an album was being supported.  There could be a gap here.

It was up to partners how the programmes were altered. Particularly in early years settings, practitioners could be trained to deliver their own sessions.

Following a question on number of children and young people attending sessions, it was noted that bigger groups would be too difficult as many of the young people had attention issues or may have special needs. For some projects, 4 was the maximum number that could be sustained.  Mr Dougan made the point that even if young people drop out, there was a successful outcome for all 4 as they had all engaged in different things. There were also low re-offending rates. Ms Box commented that even if young people do not make it to the end of a project, they had still got a huge amount out of experience.

Peter Chivers, Head of Brighton & Hove Music Advisory and Support Service (BHMAS).

Mr Chivers provided some background to BHMAS. At the time of the unification of Brighton and Hove into one local authority, it was realised that there was a need for a City music service. This had strategically developed over time to include the performing arts and now included study support. BHMAS was a part of the CYPT. The Brighton & Hove Music Trust operated it’s own annual work programme and also acted as an informal advisory body to BHMAS. BHMAS offered a wider range of quality and inclusive services to all children up to the age of 19yrs old, with over 5000 children accessing the service per week across the year

Soundmakers had been a great success. 2,500 children per year were involved and 100% of mainstream schools at KS2.  The project was free to the children and nationally funded. The retention figure was 57% (compared to the 2011 target of 50%).

A development officer worked 2 days a week on dance: this was a much smaller department within BHMAS due to funding. As well as providing dance activities we aimto reflect the needs of CYP and schools. For example over the last 10 years the provision of GCSE Dance had greatly developed with most secondary schools now offering GCSE dance. There was a gap in contemporary dance so they were running a Centre of Advanced Training  for gifted and talented dancers in partnership with The Place, the London Contemporary School of Dance

Partnership working was key. For example, they had been offered free of rooms in the Theatre Royal for Sing Up (which was nationally funded).

Mr Chivers suggested that the main challenge was a refresh of the ‘Express’ strategy.  It was still relevant but needed updating. For example, could the network meetings now be web-based? The strategy took a long time to develop and included various funding bids.  Some of these, such as the Find your Talent, were not successful.  A web-based portal for young people would be a good idea and help with signposting opportunities for CYP. Presently a new bid to the Arts Council is being developed.

Following a question on fees, parents were charged at around £70 a term for instrumental/vocal lessons and this equated to 46% of BHMAS’s income. There was a subsidised scheme were parents only paid 20%.  22% of people were receiving this subsidy compared with only 3% in other areas.  Individual lessons were twice as expensive.

Mr Dougan noted that there was a balance between fees and access which was very important in terms of sustainability. There was a fine balance between income and sustainability. There were other issues in the curriculum that were addressed in addition to music such as confidence and resilience in children.

On funding applications, Ms Stone confirmed that they do not tailor projects to a funding source but decided what they wanted to do and then find the funding.  Mr Dougan commented that there was an issue around national funding as often funding was aimed at ‘new’ projects therefore there was pressure to make existing projects become ‘new’. This made sustainability very difficult. There were currently 6 funding schemes underway.  Ms Stone noted that often funding now has to be delivered by young people.

The Chair, Councillor Melanie Davis thanked everyone for a most interesting and instructive session.