DfE confirms Music Hubs will be funded for another year

The DfE has confirmed it will continue to fund music hubs for another year.

Music education hubs are groups of organisations working together across local authority areas. They often involve schools and community groups, and seek to augment and support music education.

The network was introduced in 2012 as part of the National Plan for Music Education, and has since amassed 121 hubs. The government announced in January 2019 that it would refresh the document, with a new version to be published in 2020.

The funding announcement confirms £265,000 for 2019-20, and an allocation of just under £79 million for 2020-21. Exactly how much each music education hub will receive will be based on pupil numbers in each local authority area, and confirmed by Arts Council England.

The news comes just as Hubs were having to revise an already over-stretched budget ahead of the new year, in some cases putting jobs of teachers and hub staff at risk.

Bridget Whyte, CEO of Music Mark, said: “The delay in getting news of continued funding has been extremely stressful for the organisations who lead and are part of Music Education Hubs across the country. There have been some who were in the process of preparing redundancy consultation processes.”