Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:42 pm on 30 November 2021.
I call for a Welsh Government statement on music education in Wales. Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of visiting Denbighshire Music Co-operative, a not-for-profit organisation providing quality music tuition in the Denbighshire and Wrexham areas, and winner of the Tech for Good award in the Social Business Wales awards 2021. The co-operative is run by teachers for the benefit of pupils, managed by a Denbighshire-based head of service. They provide tuition on a wide range of instruments and voice, aiming to develop each pupil's music potential according to their individual needs and aspirations. Their successful and cost-effective model meeting the health and well-being needs of children and young people deserves to be supported to continue and to grow. They told me they're only music co-operative in Wales. They named local authorities either without a music service or looking to make all music teachers redundant, and stated that only two local authorities in Wales provide a service for free-school-meal pupils, including Wrexham. They also told me that they developed a model that works, but having established a good foundation over eight years, they need sustainable funding to become a north Wales or all-Wales model, where they provide an opportunity for better, more cost-efficient service delivery, led by the co-operative members who are themselves music professionals. However, they expressed concern that the national music service being developed by the Welsh Government should not take their service back in-house, and asked whether the new national music service would include a new co-operative model with funding for co-operatives. I call for a Welsh Government statement accordingly.