Barking and Dagenham’s music education hub acts as a strategic broker, joining up council services and local providers to deliver opportunities for young people and schools.
The London Borough of Barking & Dagenham runs a Community Music Service (CMS) delivering a programme of music and concerts in schools and children’s centres. Instrument lessons are free of charge in schools and the service offers curriculum advice and support.
The Community Music Service has played an active role in developing the wider cultural education guarantee for children across the borough. For example, in 2015 the council held an Inspire Festival to mark its 50th anniversary. The CMS worked with the council’s arts team to involve numerous community groups, using the Barbican as a performance platform and offering activities in galleries, street cafes and heritage spaces. The festival is now an annual event celebrating the talents of local young people.
Governor training is another aspect of the cultural education guarantee, and the CMS has been working with A New Direction (an organisation funded in part by Arts Council England’s Bridge programme, which connects young people with arts and culture) and the wider arts team, supporting governors by taking them to the Barbican and showing them what young people are able to achieve.
The CMS is also a keen member of East London’s ‘Gateway to Music’ group. The scale of the group enables it to commission new compositions for collaborative performances, offer an ‘endangered species’ day for less popular instruments, and secure funding for an online band broadcast, giving more young people a chance to experience this related field of activity. Inter-borough working also gives young people opportunities to meet other like-minded peers.
Impact of the project
Barking and Dagenham’s local authority-led music education hub works as a strategic broker – not necessarily delivering all the work themselves, but able to join up a number of council service areas and other partners, demonstrating leadership and positive benefits for the local community.
The CMS sees the hub strategic broker role as being a ‘many tentacled starfish’ in that it can bring organisations together to improve access. For example, in music partnership work with the Royal Opera House, the team also strives to bring in arts/drama students to experience working with the scenery and costume departments. Partnership work allows pupils to perform in projects alongside high-calibre professional musicians. The outcomes are inspiring and motivating and encourage them to continue on their musical pathway.
Barking and Dagenham’s music education hub works with more than 4,000 children and young people, with numbers remaining stable compared to previous years. Partners include the London Symphony Orchestra, Barbican/Guildhall, Sound Connections, 360 degree music, Studio 3 Arts, Sound Connections, the Broadway Theatre and Creative Schools.
Looking to the future
Future plans for the CMS include working with adult services in care home settings to entertain and stimulate the residents and develop social awareness among young musicians. CMS sees working in partnership as a way to get better value for money and really make a difference, which is particularly important given that it works in an area of high deprivation and low social mobility.
Key learning points
- Developing a revised governance model with a governing body that represents schools, partners, the council and strategic music education organisations has been significant in extending and ensuring partnership working and robust accountability.
- Building on relationships with schools through close consultation has ensured that the hub continues to evolve and deliver music education services that closely match their needs by becoming increasingly customer focussed.
- Setting key objectives to ensure that the hub is reaching out to all children and young people by matching provision more closely to the borough’s diverse multicultural demographic.
For further information contact Graham Bland, Head – Community Music Service: [email protected]