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The Secretary of State for Education has responded to Darren Henley’s review into music in schools with a pledge to end the 'musical divide' between wealthier children with access to great musical education and children in disadvantaged areas. To ensure young people from every background have access to quality music education, Michael Gove has announced that £82.5m will be given to music services across England next year.

The money will be used to make opportunity more equal in music education and enhance the prestige and esteem of music teaching as a career route for professional musicians.

The Secretary of State will implement Darren Henley’s ideas on increasing access to music education, including

• getting more top music graduates and performers into teaching through Teach First
• producing a comprehensive national plan for music education that sets out how children of all ages and ability can receive the best possible music education
• moving to a national funding formula for allocating funding for music.

The Government will publish a national plan for music education later this year, taking forward Darren's work. This will set out the Government’s commitment to give all young people the best possible music education.

It will take forward the recommendations for schools to create more opportunities for live music and for pupils to be able to join in vocal and musical ensembles outside the classroom.

Michael Gove said:

Music has the power to touch the soul. It is a universal language understood by people of every culture and it gives us all the chance to be transported by beauty.

But access to the best musical education is not universal and the opportunity to benefit from great instrumental tuition is not shared equally. Many disadvantaged children are denied the music education they deserve. And that's why we need to bridge this musical divide.

All young people should have the chance to benefit from the opportunities that music can bring – not simply those pupils from wealthy backgrounds whose parents can afford to pay for lessons. So I am delighted to announce £82.5m funding for music education for next year – protected to ensure it goes to the front line.

We know that currently, in some areas of the country, music education is simply not up to scratch. That is why we asked Darren Henley to review the state of music provision. And he's done a superb job, not least in showing how great musicians can help us tackle the musical divide.

Teach First already does fantastic work attracting some of this country's most impressive graduates into teaching. So I am pleased that, in line with Darren’s recommendation, they have agreed to work with us to bring many of the exceptional musicians in our universities and conservatories into our schools.

Darren Henley, Managing Director of Classic FM, welcomed the Government’s commitment to music education. He said:

This is a real opportunity for everyone involved in working in music to help to ensure that we have a generation of children who are both musically literate and music lovers. We want to ensure that the music education that every child receives is excellent in every way. And we want to make it possible for every child to be able to progress through a music education system that enables them to achieve their full musical potential.

I hope that my review will provide a basis for the thousands of passionate and dedicated professionals who work in music education every day to work together in partnership to develop a vibrant future for music education in this country. I would like to thank the hundreds of individuals and organisations who have helped me to shape the 36 recommendations contained in my review. I’m also very grateful to Michael Gove and to Ed Vaizey for the strong commitment to music, which they have both personally shown in today’s announcement.

Darren Henley has made 36 recommendations for central and local government, and for the music sector itself.

To provide certainty to music services and to demonstrate the Government’s ongoing commitment to music education, the Secretary of State has confirmed funding for music education for 2011-12 will be £82.5m – the same amount as went to local authorities in 2010-11. The Department will then work with music services throughout the next year to manage future budget pressures.

In line with Darren Henley’s recommendations, the Government will also move towards a national formula for music education funding this year but will ensure no local authority loses more than ten per cent of its central funding in this first year.

The Government intends that the majority of funding will go to frontline delivery of music education. However, knowing that schools and teachers value the resources provided by Sing Up, the Department is providing some funding for 2011-12 to enable a sustainable future for Sing Up to be developed. The Government will also commit a further year’s funding of up to £500k in total for the current In Harmony projects so the lessons from this approach to community development can be better understood. The Government also urges individuals and organisations to pledge financial support to ensure the future of In Harmony.

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