County Music Service - Warwickshire

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cam
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Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:57 pm

County Music Service - Warwickshire

Post by cam »

Does anyone have details of the proposed CMS budget cut, rumoured to be a massive 42%? I've tried googling various combinations of words but haven't found anything. This could have a huge impact on our children and I'd like to know who to write to....Well it can't do any harm.
Thanks.
Ed's mum
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Location: Warwickshire.

Post by Ed's mum »

Had not heard that. Oh dear...
tony
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Location: Warwickshire

Re: County Music Service - Warwickshire

Post by tony »

cam wrote:Does anyone have details of the proposed CMS budget cut, rumoured to be a massive 42%? Thanks.
Warwickshire County Council has a cabinet meeting tomorrow afternoon 11 December. They will be considering a budget report from the strategic leadership direcors team. The agenda is at http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/corporat ... enDocument , and the report at http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/corporat ... 3KB%5D.pdf

An extract quoted in the Stratford Herald Midweek edition says "The budget report before cabinet today represents a significant change from recent budgets that have invested in services to one where the predominant message is one of reprioritisation, focusing on core services and delivering savings." According to Midweek, the chief executive says that the whole ball game has changed as a result of the global financial crisis; and more than £10 million of cuts are being considered, in order to keep the council tax increase to 3.26%. Among the ideas are cuts from the children's music service (£417,000).

Details:
Savings project: Reduce or end subsidy to the Music Service.
This savings would require a reconfiguration and probably a reduction to the service. Changes would need to be made from September 2009.
Savings in 2009/10: £417,000 [this is presumably the saving from September to March only].
Risk level: High.
Impact on service delivery: In 2007/08 8,884 children received tuition in at least one instrument. Reducing the subsidy will see a significant decline in these numbers as schools and parents are unlikely to pick up the costs (particularly in socially deprived areas).
Longer term implications: If the subsidy ends this would save an additional £0.5m , but would lead to the closure of Area Music Centres;
County Performance Groups; Music Therapy; Contemporary & Modern Music teams.

Apologies for taking space on a topic not directly related to 11+, but readers of this forum might like to reinforce the council officers' own assessment of the damage that would be done by reducing the subsidy.
The cabinet has not yet made any decisions on this. I think the cabinet member responsible for Children, Young People and Families is Izzi Seccombe.
Charlotte67
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Post by Charlotte67 »

Thank you Cam for bringing this to our attention and Tony for filling us in.

Inevitable, I guess, given the current economic climate - but very disappointing.

The CMS do a wonderful job & enrich the lives of many, many youngsters (and their parents!)

We would struggle to pay much more than we do now for our DCs' lessons... (and would be even more cross when they have to miss lessons due to school trips, etc). I suppose they could charge for ensembles & orchestra but then this could well prevent children from joining.

Shame.
cam
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Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:57 pm

Post by cam »

solimum
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Location: Solihull, West Midlands

Post by solimum »

Solihull suffered a similar budget cut for the music service a couple of years ago, despite howls of protest (they claimed that it wasn't a 50% cut in the total budget but only in the part added by the council, as there is also a direct grant from central govt direct to music services) - the lessons rose by 50% (roughly £150 a term for an individual 30 min lesson, less for shared/ shorter lessons) which is still slightly cheaper than many private lessons so we had to grin and bear it especially as my DD likes her teacher - I'm not sure if there are any figures available about whether/ how much take-up of lessons, ensembles etc fell after the changes...
Charlotte67
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Post by Charlotte67 »

Any news from the meeting?


:?:
cam
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Post by cam »

Apparently the decision has been defered until February.
Tony do you have details?
So more time to convince the Councillors that such an action would be foolish - for email adresses please see earlier post.
tony
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Location: Warwickshire

Post by tony »

cam wrote:Apparently the decision has been defered until February.
Tony do you have details?
I don't know any more than what's publicly available. The draft minutes are published; it's probably easiest to find these and other relevant documents from http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/corporat ... .nsf/WPWCC , following the links under "Cabinet".

The final budget decisions have to be made by the full Council in February. Things can change before then. I see that Izzi Seccombe spoke up for the Music Service.
Charlotte67
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Post by Charlotte67 »

I have a letter from CMS and will post the contents later (when I have time to type it up!)
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