As you’ll be aware, the future of the Isle of Wight Music Service is up for discussion with a lot of the teachers have already been told they could lose their jobs.
Most unusually the council has just issued a press release (below) in advance of tonight’s scrutiny panel.
We can’t remember the last time they did that specifically for a scrutiny panel.
70+ comments In their words … – Ed
Tonight the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel meeting is being held at 5pm, looking in to the details. The public are welcome.
We wonder if it could be linked to the 70+ comments from VB readers in the seven articles we’ve published on it, since breaking the story of the potential compulsory redundancies in the service a little over a week ago.
Music service changes to be discussed
Isle of Wight Council scrutiny panel members will tonight discuss ways of supporting the Island’s music service in the light of major national changes to the way it is funded.
When the Government switches the responsibility for the music education grant from local authorities to the Arts Council in April 2012, there will be a significant drop in funding to support this activity.
Nationally, funding will drop from £75 million in 2012/13 to £58 million in 2014/15, however the Island is further disadvantaged as the reduction in grant on the Island over the three years is 60% compared with a national reduction of 23%.
This money will be awarded via a bidding process to a music hub on the Island and the council has submitted its bid to run the Island music hub, led and coordinated by the music service as the only comprehensive provider on the Island.
Scrutiny panel tonight
The Isle of Wight Council’s children and young people scrutiny panel will tonight (14 March) discuss how the wide range of musical activities linked to musical tuition can best be maintained here in the light of these national changes.
One option proposed is that the current service would become a ‘commissioner’ of tuition rather than a direct employer of tuition staff. This would reduce the operating costs of the service and potentially make it more sustainable but at the same time enable the specialist tuition staff to be potentially engaged in providing the service directly, according to the demand from schools.
“Greatly valued by the community”
Isle of Wight chief executive Steve Beynon said: “When these national changes are brought into force there will be no legal duty for the council to provide a music service. However, we recognise that music tuition, and the wider activity provided by the music service on the Island, is greatly valued by the community hence our decision to bid to run the music hub.”
“Of course at this stage there is no guarantee that our bid will be successful, but we must in the meantime continue to address the challenge to find a model that maintains a comprehensive service, including the talents of our dedicated network of tutors and the wide range of activities and resources, in a way that is sustainable – given the Government’s significant reduction in funding.”
The views of the scrutiny committee, particularly the option of creating a local commissioning model, are being sought with a view to then holding a wider consultation on the issue involving both the public and those who work in and use the service.
Image: entirelysubjective under a CC BY 2.0 license
