3. Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: The National Music Service: Delivering the National Plan for Music Education

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:54 pm on 17 May 2022.

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Photo of Carolyn Thomas Carolyn Thomas Labour 2:54, 17 May 2022

This is music to my ears, this announcement. [Laughter.] I'd also like to pay tribute to Rhianon Passmore, who has been instrumental in championing this. I learned music through a recorder at school, and then stuck notes on my grandmother's piano so that I could learn on her piano as well. And people learned through the colliery brass bands, didn't they, at one time. My son learned through the Flintshire music service 10 years ago. Then, though, there were 2,500 young people taking part through one council's music service, because it was free, and it was a marvellous community. But it was austerity and cuts to public service funding that impacted over the years, as it could no longer be subsidised by the council, and charges started increasing, increasing, bit by bit each year. There was free transport then as well, which was amazing—it was a real community—but it was the cuts then that impacted so much that now there are only a few hundred that take part.