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Announced today, Arts Council England will invest £38.6 million of National Lottery funding into Youth Music between 2018-2022. Youth Music is a national charity investing in music-making projects for children and young people in challenging circumstances. Each year, the chairty funds around 350 musc-making projects nationwide, reaching more than 75,000 children and young people.

Youth Music’s work supports the musical, personal and social development of children and young people, as well as developing positive outcomes for the organisations it invests in and their workforce. Youth Music offers grants to diverse, creative and inclusive music-making projects wherever they’re needed most – from Positive Youth Foundation’s Changing Trax project in Coventry, where young people played a key part in the city’s successful bid to become the UK City of Culture 2021, to Tang Hall Smart CIC in York, where young people with learning disabilities are developing their composition and performance skills in rock and rap workshops.

An Arts Council review in partnership with Youth Music found that 76% of funding is awarded to projects in the 40% most deprived areas of the country – an important investment in inclusive music-making for young people facing barriers. Youth Music’s focus is on providing opportunities for children and young people who would otherwise miss out, and therefore project participants are more diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity and age than those who traditionally have access to music-making.

Last year 82% of Youth Music’s investment was in projects outside London. Youth Music will continue with their funding priorities of early years; children and young people who are not in education, employment or training; in the youth justice system; who are disabled; who have special educational needs; or who are in ‘coldspots’ (where, because of their location or circumstance, young people are currently unable to take part in the kind of music-making provision they want to access).

As part of the funding, Arts Council England will work with Youth Music to further develop progression routes for 18-25 year olds, and will build upon work in areas of low educational attainment, low social mobility and projects that support the Cultural Education Challenge. Future activity will include supporting all Music Education Hubs to develop their music-making practice to become more inclusive.

Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England: “The potential for creativity is everywhere and every child should have the opportunity to participate, progress and build a career in the arts. Thanks to National Lottery players, the lives of young musicians across England are being transformed through this major Arts Council investment in Youth Music. High quality music education has the capacity to change lives, especially for those children from tougher socio-economic backgrounds. We want to see them getting the same opportunities as those from more affluent families. It’s one of the many reasons that this work is so very important.”

Matt Griffiths, CEO of Youth Music, said: “This investment from Arts Council England and the National Lottery is vital in helping us to effect change nationwide. It means that we can continue to support projects to offer music-making in all its diversity of genres and on instruments that reflect young people’s interests and needs. We will continue to work in partnership to break down the barriers young people face, to support their progression whichever routes they choose, and to advocate for a new, inclusive model of music education.”

Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2015 and 2018, we will invest £1.1 billion of public money from government and an estimated £700 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk

Youth Music was founded in 1999. Since then, thanks to the support of National Lottery players across the country, Arts Council England has supported the charity to invest in music-making opportunities for around 2.8 million children and young people aged 0-25.

Youth Music is a national charity investing in music-making projects for children and young people experiencing challenging circumstances. Everyone should have the chance to make music. And those facing difficulties – economic problems, lifelong conditions, tough circumstances or behavioural issues – are often the ones who get the most out of music-making. Projects supported by Youth Music help young people develop musically, of course, but they have personal and social outcomes too.

The charity offers meaningful chances to young people in complicated situations. You can help Youth Music make a genuine difference to many more young lives. Find out more and read more stories from Youth Music participants at www.youthmusic.org.uk.

The Cultural Education Challenge is the Arts Council’s call for the art, culture and education sectors to work together in offering a consistent and high quality art and cultural education for all children and young people. The Cultural Education Challenge asks these bodies to come together to drive a joined-up art and cultural offer locally, to share resources and bring about a more coherent and visible delivery of cultural education through Cultural Education Partnerships.

The Arts Council aims to establish Cultural Education Partnerships across the country in places where there is most need, and a network of 10 Bridge Organisations located across the country will take forward these partnerships.