Jersey Music Service: introduction of ‘user pays’ charges (P.36/2013) – comments.

STATES OF JERSEY

JERSEY MUSIC SERVICE: INTRODUCTION OF USER PAYS' CHARGES (P.36/2013) – COMMENTS

Presented to the States on 29th April 2013

by the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel

STATES GREFFE

2013   Price code: C  P.36 Com.

COMMENTS

Introduction: a conundrum?

The proposal to charge for instrumental music lessons provided by the Jersey Music Service (JMS) raises a number of questions –

• Will students miss out on opportunities to participate in music due to their financial circumstances?
• Will  this  proposal  be  detrimental  to  musical  education  in  Jersey  for  a relatively small CSR saving (£200,000 per year)?
• Will this measure reinforce a perception that the Jersey Music Service caters for  a  wealthy  elite,  focussing  on  a  narrow  range  of  traditional  orchestral music?
• Is this the forerunner to potentially higher charges in the future or to further examples of user pays' charges in the education system?

These concerns were summed up eloquently in a submission received by the Scrutiny Panel –

"If music is no longer free, there won't be such an array of students involved with the JMS. Schools which don't accumulate wealthy children will most likely  suffer  a  depleted  music  department  whilst  JMS,  in  the  absence  of students who cannot afford to join, will increasingly consist of a JCG/Vic majority and lose some of its flavour.

I remember excitedly applying to play the trumpet and being tried on the trombone and tenor horn before settling on the French horn. Since then, I have played with JIS in Fort Regent, at the Bailiff 's inauguration ceremony in town, with the marines in the Opera House and now, with the university band, touring Belgium. I have made good friends and overcome many fears with JMS. There were times when I had no self-esteem and wanted to give up, but I persevered and for that I am proud of myself.

Had money been involved, I know I would probably never have considered learning, let alone made it this far, for a French horn costs at least £1,000 and if it costs £165 a year (and let's be honest, once a fee is in place it is going to rise) and takes 4 years to get to the standard when it's worth making that investment, that's enough to discourage anyone from beginning to learn a beautiful instrument

Please don't take this social initiative away by making it wealth dependent. It's part of a local culture that the Government should be supporting. There are other ways to raise money. I fear that one day, Government will look and see that it has finances and international recognition only to realise that in the process, the local culture was lost."

On the other hand, the Chairman of the Friends of Jersey Youth Music, a parent body which represents a quarter of the students involved in the JMS, enthusiastically endorsed the proposal. He said in a public hearing with the Panel –

"The introduction of these charges that I have been listening about today could not be better. I think it is a wonderful idea that we can spread right across the Island, to all schools, to allow all children to have music tuition. At £5 a week it really cannot be that much and as you will have read in my letter to Deputy Ryan[1], I think it is a fantastic idea, that this can allow other schools who do not take part with the Music Service to take part. Finances I know nothing about and it is not for me to comment about, but I think if 1,000 children now take part with the Music Service, perhaps 2,000 children will take part with the Music Service as the system grows More children will then play music, more children will become engaged with music and the social aspect of music and the singing of music, and the playing of music is just boundless when it comes to growing up and when it comes to real life.[2]"

Mr. Sunter said that it was disappointing that there was still exclusiveness in the current provision of instrumental music tuition –

There are some primary schools that do not receive music tuition[3]. As a parent and as a musician and as the Chairman of Friends of Jersey Youth Music, I want all children in all schools in the Island to have the chance to play music. Even if they are no good, it does not matter. I want them to have the chance to play music because they will realise how wonderful it is to make a noise on a trumpet or clarinet or just happily to sing. That is one of the great things that does not happen. If the States say yes to this charging, that is going to expand because everybody will have a go at it.[4]

The Head of Service underlined the point saying that vision behind the user pays' proposal was for an expansion of the current provision and a change of culture –

"The  world  I  want  to see  is  where  if  a  child  wants  to  learn to  play  an instrument, they get that opportunity, where we are not saying: "We will take you and we will not take you." So there may be a transition period where we have got to gear up to be able to do that, but yes, anybody that ticks the box would get a lesson once we get everything running properly, because anybody that wants a lesson would get a lesson, because it is not about selecting children out, it is about bringing children in.[5]"

The Minister for Education, Sport and Culture said that there was more to this proposal than saving £200,000 per annum for his Department's Comprehensive Spending Review target –

The initial motivation to examine in great depth what the Jersey Instrumental Music Service does was driven by C.S.R. but it became clear to me pretty rapidly when I started to look at it that there were opportunities through a charging system to both make a C.S.R. saving, but also – and importantly – to enhance  the  system,  to  broaden  its  operation  and  to  develop  it  in  an entrepreneurial  manner.  I  think  we  need  to  say  "in  an  entrepreneurial manner". I think that is important to understand.6"

In this brief review the Scrutiny Panel has examined the conundrum whereby, during a time of recession with parents at both fee-paying and non-fee-paying schools with limited money in their pocket, the Minister hopes that by charging students £55 per term for extra-curricular music lessons more people were going to take up the service.

Current limitations in provision by Jersey Music Service

The Head of Service told the Panel that there were currently 4 key restrictions in the provision of instrumental music tuition due to limited resources available to the JMS –

1. The current system is not available to everyone: Dr. Cox told the Panel that the JMS was heavily oversubscribed. It was not unusual, as the service was offered to new children, to turn away as many as 50% of the people who wanted to take up an instrument.
2. The range of instruments is restricted: The JMS offers tuition in traditional orchestral instruments; however, many young people were interested in many other types of instruments. The States-funded core grant was not sufficient to allow the JMS to broaden its offering.
3. Non-fee-paying  schools  are  currently  under-represented:  The Department provided  the  Panel  with  detailed  figures  for  2011/12  showing  where instrumental teaching occurred in both primary and secondary phases. These indicated that –

• States  funded  prep  schools  (JCG  and  Victoria  College)  received 22.8% of teaching provision, though they represented only 8.33% of primary phase schools in the Island.
• At  the  secondary  phase,  the  States-funded  Colleges  (JCG  and Victoria)  received  54.24%  of  teaching  provision,  thought  they represented just 28.57% of schools. The private schools (De La Salle, Beaulieu, St. Michael's, St. George's, Helvetia and St. Christopher's) were excluded from the service.
• Overall, States primary and secondary schools received 59.45% of all teaching, although they represented 87.1% of all schools.
• All  schools  received  some  tuition  from  the  service.  However, provision varied considerably.

6 Public hearing dated 19.04.13

• The smallest amount of teaching provided to a single primary phase school was to Springfield with 75 minutes weekly; the largest amount of teaching provided to a single primary school was to JCG Prep with 600 minutes weekly.
• The smallest amount of teaching provided to a single secondary phase school was to Grainville with 285 minutes weekly; the largest amount of teaching provided to a single secondary phase school was to JCG with 2,095 minutes weekly.

4. Limited support available to schools: Dr. Cox said that the JMS faced pressure from schools, which wanted to develop their music within the schools and were obviously reliant on a service like the JMS to produce young instrumentalists. He said that the JMS had to be very selective about their offering to schools –

"All of our structures are geared up to ensure that we do not have too many people trying to access the service. We select where we do demonstrations, because we know we have only got enough resource to go into particular schools. We are very careful in our negotiations with schools what sort of expectations we raise in them, because we know we cannot deliver the resource. I think when you move into this sort of environment, you move into an environment where you have got to think very carefully about how do we ensure that every child can make an informed choice? I think currently it is not necessarily an informed choice. I think it is a choice that is often led by the school or the parent, the type of parent that has come through music education themselves or learnt an instrument and they attend a school where that sort of thing is a very positive thing to be doing. We do not actively do anything other than work to those expectations, because we do not have the resource to step outside that . We target the recruitment concerts very much in terms of the resource that we have got available, so if we know we have, let us say, for example, a string teacher that will have X amount of time available next year, we will target a number of schools that may be able to fill that time up.[6]"

The Panel notes that the current funding basis for the Jersey Music Service does not allow for any expansion to meet current interest from children, parents and schools who want to participate in various forms of music.

Removal of financial constraints

The current States-provided budget for the JMS amounts to £726,100. The proposed introduction of charges will remove £200,000 (27.5%) of the budget by the third year of the scheme, leaving £526,100 (62.5%) of funding which will still be provided by the States. This will be used to cover fixed costs and will also continue to subsidise instrumental teaching.

The new user pays' charges, if approved, will be introduced in 2 phases –

• in September 2013 charges will be made for any enhancements and service developments which will be introduced to test the market and to reach more children;
• charges for existing services to be introduced in September 2014.

The income from these charges will be used to pay teachers' salaries and will enable the JMS –

• to respond more flexibly to the level of demand from parents, children and schools; and
• to provide increased choice and opportunities for young people to learn new instruments (e.g. guitar, piano, drums).

The JMS anticipate income of between £10,000 and £15,000 per annum from new services. In addition, efficiency savings of approximately £20,000 had been identified through restructuring or simplifying the way they operated, which currently was about controlling access because of the limitations in financial resources.

The Minister told the Panel –

"At the moment, there is a financial constraint on the resources and how much music tuition can be offered by the service. There is a financial constraint at the moment, driven by its budget of £725,000-ish a year. When you reduce to £500,000-ish, in excess of £500,000, your overheads, your fixed costs are still covered,  so  to  a  great  extent,  pretty  much  completely  your  financial constraints of expanding the service disappear because you are not going to increase  your  core  overheads  and  things  like  that.  It  is  only  then  really constrained by 2 things. It is constrained by the availability of the number of qualified  teachers  that  you  can  find  locally  to  deliver  lessons  and  it  is constrained by the market itself at the other side, in other words, how many families and children want to take part. That is why you have seen in the U.K. sometimes where the music service has doubled in size when you go through this process.8

Fixed  costs  for  the  JMS  include:  buildings  (maintenance,  etc.),  management, administration,  staff  support  (QA,  training,  performance  management,  staff development,  professional  support),  curriculum  support  (curriculum  meetings, materials, training, advice, etc.).

The costs for these functions will not increase as the JMS expands, as any additional teaching will be in schools or in premises already occupied by the service. Functions such as QA and staff development, etc. will be absorbed into current arrangements.

The current core' team of teachers will be retained. They will provide instrumental teaching (the cost of which will be subsidised from core funding') and the additional curriculum support, specialist support and advice to schools, ensemble leadership, QA, mentoring roles outlined in the fixed costs'.

8 Public hearing dated 19.04.13

New/additional teaching will be delivered by tutors employed on hourly paid flexible contracts.  The  income  generated  will  cover  their  salary  costs.  The  Department provided the following details of costs for one hour of teaching (x10 weeks a term assuming 2 x 30 minute lessons with 3 in each group) –

6 x pupils per hour @ £55.00 per term  £330 Staff fees and costs @ £27.50 per hour  £275

Minimum numbers required 5 an hour

The Panel notes that the above calculations are based on an assumption of 3 students per half-hour shared lesson. It also notes that P.36/2013 indicates that the JMS intends to make the same charge of £55 per term, whether or not lessons are on a group or individual basis. The Panel appreciates that there may be circumstances where an individual lesson is appropriate or even required, as for example when a talented student has reached an advanced stage. This will be a particularly good deal for those parents with children receiving individual lessons. Nevertheless, other parents may legitimately enquire why they are paying the same rate for a child in a group lesson as for a child in an individual lesson. The Panel suggests that the Jersey Music service should clarify how the costs for individual lessons are subsidised.

Another point of clarification about the size of group lessons ought to be made. It is conceivable that additional numbers, above the assumption of 3 students, could be added to group lessons which would make them more economical to operate, but might be to the detriment of the learning experience.  The Jersey Music Service should consider defining an upper limit for the size of teaching groups.

The Head of Service said that in his experience, in previous authorities where he had been responsible on 3 occasions for introducing user pays' charges for instrumental music tuition, there had generally been a short-term reduction of 3–5% in applications in the initial year of scheme, followed by an increase in numbers in the medium term. He  suggested  that  this  decrease  in  interest  from  parents  and  children  would  not necessarily happen in Jersey as any reduction in existing pupils would be compensated by the existing unmet demand.

The Chairman, Friends of Jersey Youth Music, pointed to the nearby example of the Dorset Music Service for evidence of the potential successful expansion of musical interest linked to payments charges –

"They have a system where parents subscribe to teaching of children and they have 9 different sorts of groups of music ranging from the orchestra down to really the pop group. The service here does not provide that. The best the service can do here is to provide a wind band and an orchestra and a small dance band. When it comes to pop groups or when it comes to barbershop quartets or choirs, that is more restricted other than the songsters, which is a very small group of children who do take part in the Music Service. Dorset has profit from charging. Their charges are greater. They do instrument hire, but what they do is provide a thing called a hub where children go to that hub either through school, after school or in holidays and they learn how to play music and they do music.

I happened to be in Poole and went to one of their concerts. There were thousands of children there doing all sorts of things and if you read their website9, of course you will see how they have managed to progress by being part of the national system, but also the system they have in place works. Teachers are motivated to teach. Parents are motivated to get their children to go and learn music and they pay.10"

Music hubs are a feature of many local authorities in the UK. They provide ensemble opportunities for beginning musicians in host schools across the county. This is a chance for pupils to come together with other musicians in between their weekly lessons. There is no need to book and all pupils are welcome to attend. Cost £1 per session.

The  Guernsey  Music  Centre  also  currently  offers  broader  music  opportunities compared to Jersey, with 4 primary groups for beginner pupils, 6 orchestras, 5 wind bands, 2 jazz orchestras, 6 choirs, various chamber groups, e.g. string quartets and saxophone ensemble, aural and theory lessons.

A  further  example  of  interest  in  instrumental  exists  locally.  The  JCG  Music Department has responded to the number of their students who find that they have been unable to access the JMS by developing Polyphony. This includes tuition on a range of instruments and voice.

They offer tuition on instruments not currently available through the JMS, such as drum-kit, piano, voice and rhythm guitar, as well as popular woodwind and strings – flute, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, violin and cello. Charges are higher than those proposed by JMS: £18 per individual lesson of 30 minutes, £27 per individual lesson of  45 minutes  and  £9  per  half-hour  session  shared  between  2 students.  The  JCG Governors' Report, September 2011 – August 2012 commented:

"Polyphony, our in-house music school, which began with the naïve belief that we would have 40 students receiving instrumental and vocal lessons per week has  grown  immeasurably  to  over  170 students.  This  growth  reflects  the enjoyment and passion the students have for music."

The Panel notes that, if the Jersey Music Service plans to attract more children are successful, the introduction of charges for instrumental music tuition will enable  them  to  respond  more  flexibly  to  the  level  of  demand  from  parents, children and schools and also to provide increased choice and opportunities for young people to learn new instruments (e.g. guitar, piano, drums).

How will the Jersey Music Service be made more inclusive?

They key issue for the Scrutiny Panel is how the JMS intend to achieve their aspiration to change the culture of the service and broaden its operation.

1. Remission  schemes:  In  the  first  place,  a  financial  support  (or  remission) scheme will be put in place in order to establish the principle that no child should experience a barrier to taking up a musical instrument on financial grounds. The Head of Service emphasized that they did not want a system

9 http://www.dorsetforyou.com/music  10 Public hearing dated 19.04.13

which barred any child because of the difference between the charges and the current free service. The remission scheme would take 3 forms –

1. Access to Music: Available automatically to any household in receipt of  Income  Support.  A  new  application  form  will  be  created  that requests  the  parent/guardian's  signature  to  confirm  that  they  are already receiving or will be applying for Income Support and agreeing that ESC can pass their details on to Social Security to confirm this information. A similar scheme already operates for additional hours in States school nursery classes.
2. Sibling discounts: Available to any household with more than one child learning an instrument with the Jersey Music Service.
3. Bursary  Scheme:  Bursaries  will  be  available  to  support  up  to 100 young  people  who  are  committed  and  have  potential  but  are unable to afford the fees. It is currently anticipated that these will be targeted towards children from families with a household income of less than £47,500. Children from families in this income bracket who receive a bursary will be provided with free tuition.

To qualify for a bursary, applicants will be required to –

• Supply a financial statement certified by the tax office
• Provide  a letter explaining  the  circumstance  and  reasons  for their application
• Have an assessment of their child's musical potential/ability/progress. This will be carried out by an appropriate member of staff from the Jersey Music Service.

There will be an appeals process similar to the system already used for States school nursery places and the bursaries awarded will be reviewed annually.

The  Minister  acknowledged  that  plans  for  the  bursary  scheme  were  still  in development.  His  Department  was  examining  a  variety  of  bursary  schemes,  in particular the scheme for instrumental music currently in existence at Jersey College for Girls, which appeared to be a suitable model.

The Panel has noted that some local authorities include within their bursary policies support for children designated gifted and talented'. Cambridgeshire County Council includes the following policy –

"The service considers that all students reaching a level of ability on an instrument equivalent to national grade 5 (ABRSM/ Trinity -Guildhall) to be gifted and talented. For these students the service will provide an individual music lesson in school of 30 minutes at the 20 minute cost rate effectively subsidising the less by 1/3. This is on the understanding that such students will be regular members of their local area and county ensembles.

For students at a lower level considered to be progressing exceptionally due to their talent, a case may be made by the Cambridgeshire Music teacher and school for the same support at an earlier stage. Such cases will be considered by the Head of Cambridgeshire Music with senior colleagues on a case by case basis (as a guide progression would normally be expected to be at twice the anticipated rate for that instrument and age of child).11"

The Panel suggests that the Minister consider a similar extension to the Bursary scheme  in  Jersey  for  gifted  and  talented  students.  The  Panel  notes  that  the Minister intends to establish an upper limit to the bursary scheme (household income of £47,500 suggested). This may preclude his ability to offer financial assistance  to  some  gifted  and  talented  students,  and  it  is  suggested  that  the Minister broaden the criteria accordingly.

In addition, there is the issue of the provision and availability of musical instruments to young people, which is often dependent on access to an instrument; and could mean that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are excluded from these opportunities due to the costs of buying and leasing a suitable instrument. Reference is made in the submission  included  in  the  introduction  to  this  comment  to  the  high  cost  of instruments (French horn at £1,000).

The  Panel  asks  the  Minister  to  consider  whether  a  scheme  to  subsidise  the purchase of instruments might be appropriate.

The Panel asked whether a form of means-testing might be introduced. This would enable, in theory, the Minister to charge the full costs of instrumental music tuition to families  who  could  afford  to  pay,  say  those  with  a  household  income  of  over £100,000.

The Minister said that he did not believe means testing was appropriate in this case and provided the following statement –

"ESC has considerable experience in means-testing because it is used for the allocation of higher education (university) grants. It is onerous – both for the States  Department  and  the  parents –  and  we  concluded  that  it  was  not appropriate in this case for the following reasons:

It would involve extra cost in administration, and that means extra staff. The cost of means testing would start to cancel out the saving – unless we put the lesson price up considerably. We have worked hard to keep the cost as low as possible so that it's not a deterrent to parents.

Means testing is not appropriate for amounts that are relatively small. It is out of proportion. Every applicant would have to be means-tested. This form- filling and red tape could put off many parents – It's not usual to have such heavy-handed administration for any other kind of extra-curricular activity or hobby (sports clubs, drama groups, dancing lessons).

There is a danger that while trying to be fair by using means-testing you actually end up alienating the people you are trying to attract and make the service cumbersome and unwieldy.

11 http://www.cambridgeshiremusic.org/information/bursary-policies.html   We are conscious of the financial pressure on parents now. That's why we have built in a safety net that has three options to help families if necessary – and these combined will achieve the same effect of helping less-well-off families but at far less cost to us and inconvenience to parents."

2. Maintaining a low level of charges: Secondly, the Minister maintained that the proposed cost of tuition compared very favourably to charges elsewhere in the UK. At £55 per term, the proposed level of charge in Jersey was much lower than all local authorities where charges were in place.

The Head of Service provided the Panel with additional examples charges made by authorities throughout England. The basic model was a per term charge for half-hour or 45 minute shared lessons to groups of children, sometimes up to 6 children.

The picture was complicated by the fact that, broadly speaking, there were 3 different systems in operation: (a) generally in the south of England authorities made a direct charge to parents, as was proposed for Jersey; (b) in the Midlands authorities tended to charge the schools for the service provided; the schools could choose then whether to pass on the charge to parents, seek sponsorship to cover the costs or make a small mark-up to invest in their own music department; (c) in the north of England a number of authorities simply maintained a register of qualified teachers to provide to parents interested in taking up tuition.

In the examples provided by the Department the level of per term charges to parents ranged between £71 and £126.

The Panel also noted a survey conducted by the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) Music Teachers' Network. This organisation was established to protect and develop instrumental (including voice) music teaching in Scotland. The Institute initiated a Freedom of Information request to all Scott ish Councils in order to obtain a detailed picture of the situation across Scotland. They found, from a response from 32 Councils that 8 had no charges for instrumental music; out of the 24 who charged for tuition, the individual annual charge ranged from £95 to £340. This information was provided by EIS in a written submission of evidence to the Education and Culture Committee of the Scott ish Parliament.[7]

The Panel notes that the introduction of user pays' charges will not be a full cost recovery and that States will continue to pay a significant proportion of the costs of the service. The charges will be at a comparatively low level, to be maintained for 3 years, apart from inflation increases. The budget also enables the JMS to plan for additional investment in the service which will enable the replacement of worn instruments for example.

Potential future controversy over charges

The Panel has noted that the introduction of charges elsewhere has not been without controversy. For example, significant concerns were expressed recently in Scotland about local authorities charging for instrumental music tuition in some circumstances

and in different ways, including for tuition which was related to SQA examinations. Councils were accused of profiting from charges for instrumental music tuition.13

In response to this, the Scott ish Government has established a short-term working group  to  examine  issues around the  charges  applied  by  most  local  authorities  in Scotland for instrumental music tuition. This group is still at the investigation stage.14

The EIS has voiced its concerns that music education across Scotland is under threat due to budget cutbacks and a fall in the number of specialist instrumental music teachers employed in some local authority areas. In their Charter for Instrumental Music they say –

"Not  only  will  this  lead to  significant job losses,  but it  will  also  have  a devastating impact on instrumental music teaching in schools and damage the educational experience for pupils who wish to learn how to play a musical instrument .The educational experience for pupils must always come before financial concerns, and those Councils looking to save fairly small sums of money  by  cutting  back  on  music  teaching  are  being  short-sighted  in  the extreme. The benefits to pupils of quality music teaching far outweigh the relatively small cost to Councils of maintaining an adequate music instruction service.15"

The Panel is concerned that the service might, as it were, become a victim of its own success if it expands in the way that is envisaged. There may be a temptation for a future Minister to hold down or further reduce the budget contribution to the JMS thereby increasing the contribution from parents.

The  issue  of  charges  for  instrumental  music  in  Jersey  would  become  more controversial at some point in the future if charges were to rise significantly above the current proposed low level.

3. Encouraging new interest in music: Thirdly, the JMS believes eliminating the current selection process and the offering of new broader range of musical instruments  will  stimulate  interest  in  music  in  areas  where  the  current provision of teaching by the service is comparatively meagre.

The  Head  of  Service  recognised  that  a  change  of  culture  would  require  a  new, structured approach to recruitment –

"I think there is a whole thing about the work that is done before you ask a child to make the decision and there are lots of very good examples of work going on in the U.K. and in other countries about you give young people the experience of playing an instrument before they have to opt to play one, how you can give them the experience of playing different types of instrument. I do not mean we just sit them in a room and have a go on everything, I mean a properly structured course where they know they want to play a woodwind

13 http://news.stv.tv/scotland/189297-councils-make-nearly-3m-by-charging-shocking-fees- for-music-tuition/

14

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Schools/curriculum/ACE/InstrumentalMusicGro up  

15 http://www.eis.org.uk/music_campaign/Charter_for_Instrumental_Music.htm instrument or they want to play a double wind instrument because they have had an experience that has told them that is what they want to do. I think if you are approaching it from that respect, rather than trying to hold back the flood, as it were, you address some of those issues, but I think it is something that if we move down this road, we have got to monitor very carefully and make sure we are putting the right things in place.[8]"

The success of the Minister's proposals will be judged by proof of greater flexibility in recruitment by the Jersey Music Service and a redress in the balance of representation between the States and fee-paying schools.  The Panel acknowledges that a change of culture and a broadening of the current offering by the Jersey Music Service will take a while to take effect. The Panel will be interested in following up early monitoring of developments.

What consultation has taken place?

Initial consultation took place on the Department's CSR proposals in 2010 with parents, schools and headteachers.

The Head of Service is an ex officio member of Friends of Jersey Youth Music, which meets approximately every 6 weeks. The charging system has been discussed at almost every meeting for the past 2 years and issues are fed back to parents.

Dr. Cox said that he had written directly to all parents in June 2012 and March 2013 regarding the charging and invited parents to get in touch. Only a handful of responses had been received, mostly verbally to Dr. Cox, and these related to the timing of a fee level rather than the principle of user pays'. Two indications had been given that children would be withdrawn, and Dr. Cox had asked to come back for further discussion.

Dr. Cox also consulted schools directly. During each visit, current provision and the future shape and provision of the music service (including charging) were discussed with headteachers and/or heads of music. Music service developments and provision (including charging) was a discussion item at a primary headteachers' meeting in May 2012 and at a secondary headteachers' meeting. In February 2013 the music service developments and provision (including charging) was a discussion item at the Cross-phase Curricular (Music) meeting.

Discussions have also been held with JMS staff. Whilst some concerns about the implications of change had naturally been expressed, staff had been kept informed of the proposals at all stages.

The Panel asked what assessment had been made of the availability of additional teachers on the Island to expand the current service provision. The Head of Service stated –

"As this has become closer and closer to a decision being made, we have started collecting information about private teachers that are on the Island and what is available. We have also started looking to some of the private music schools, schools like Jenco that teach guitar and drums and that sort of

thing, about whether we could go into partnership with them to deliver those particular types of teaching. We are slowly finding people on the Island that are qualified to teach, but there is no opportunity. They are doing other things. So we are slowly building up a picture. I think it is fair to say that if it expands in the way that we would like it to, we may struggle a bit, but that is probably a nice problem to have.17"

Inclusion of De La Salle and Beaulieu: The expansion of the service will also for the inclusion of De La Salle and Beaulieu. The Panel asked for clarification of how the service would cope with the additional demand, and whether this would increase the current imbalance of intake between Colleges and States schools. The Department relied as follows: It is envisaged that any take-up in Beaulieu and De La Salle will be gradual as the current provision in these schools will probably continue and therefore this will be new/additional teaching to that already available. Any teaching in these schools will be provided through capacity created by the new/additional teaching' model (attached, see point 3). Rather than this provision adding to the imbalance of provision between colleges and States schools it will create a third area of provision that will need to be monitored and accessed in relation to colleges and states schools.

Examples of user pays' for other extra-curricular activities: The Panel asked for examples  of  other  extracurricular  activities  where  parents  are  asked  to  pay.  The Department responded: Price s for extra-curricular music lessons with private tutors vary between £90 and £380 per term. Polyphony at JCG charges per term fees for instrumental  music  lessons  to  students  who  are  not  able  to  access  the  JMS  (the 2 services run in parallel). Charges are levied for school Activity Week visits, off- Island trips and other activities, and these vary. There is no central register for after- school activities as these are managed by the school and the staff concerned. They also vary from term to term and from school to school. Some clubs are free, while charges are made for others. There is a wide range of out-of-school activity organised privately for children, ranging from dance and ballet lessons, to horse-riding, sport, art, first-aid, sea and air cadets, drama clubs with the Jersey Arts Centre and other providers, etc.; all of which require some form of payment. The Jersey Youth Service charges a small entry fee for nearly all of its projects, although 2 are free of charge.

17 Public hearing dated 19.04.13