Music Education

Anna Sabine Excerpts

Thursday 3rd July 2025 Westminster Hall

[Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I warmly thank my friend the hon. Member for Southgate and Wood Green (Bambos Charalambous) for securing this debate and speaking so passionately on an issue that matters deeply to so many of us. I serve with him on the music education APPG, which I declare as an interest.

I want to speak not just in a political capacity, but from personal experience. For me, this issue is deeply rooted in my own story. I grew up in a single-parent household and attended my local state comprehensive school. My journey into music began in a somewhat unlikely way. My clarinet teacher, the wonderful David Leverton, rummaged through a school cupboard and unearthed an old plastic bassoon. David said I was good at music and had big hands and suggested that I started playing it. That was a genius move because bassoonists, as many here may know, are often in high demand. As a result, I was able to join ensembles and experienced opportunities that might not have been available to me as just another clarinettist.

The real turning point, and what changed my life, was joining my local youth orchestra. That was possible only because of a music scholarship from Hampshire county council, which supported me to pay to take the train from Eastleigh to Parkstone each week and to cover the cost of the lessons with the incredible Eric Butt, the former principal bassoonist of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, to whom I also pay tribute. At a difficult time in my school life, music offered me more than just education; it gave me new friends, a place to belong and unforgettable experiences. It taught me discipline, teamwork and performance skills. None of that would have been possible without that council scholarship.

Today, swathes of young people are being locked out of those kinds of opportunities. We are seeing the steady erosion of music education, with fewer scholarships, less local support and growing inequality in access. Many of us came into politics to lower the rope ladder for those behind us; but right now, it feels as though successive Governments, through policy choices and a broad indifference to the arts, are pulling that ladder up. The facts are stark. As the hon. Member for Southgate and Wood Green said, the Department for Education missed its recruitment target for music teachers in 11 of the last 12 years, and in the most recent initial teacher training census for 2024-25, just 49% of the target for music trainees was met. That is not just a statistic; it is a flashing warning light.

According to a 2021 report from the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, around 60% of people working in music, performing and the visual arts come from privileged backgrounds. As has been mentioned, we now see a vicious cycle. With less music education in schools, fewer young people are choosing to pursue it professionally, further deepening that divide. At the heart of our communities, music hubs remain vital engines of creativity, inclusion and opportunity. They give children the chance to pick up an instrument, find their voice, and discover joy, resilience and confidence through music. They spark lifelong passions and, in many cases, careers. But despite their enormous impact, many music hubs are hanging by a thread.

National funding for music hubs has been frozen in cash terms since 2015-16. In real terms, that has meant a significant cut, especially in the face of rising cost and inflation. That is compounded by deep uncertainty about future funding, new responsibilities under the national plan for music education, and a recent structural overhaul that imposed additional and often unbudgeted, costs. I have spoken to representatives of one south-west hub where the situation is particularly alarming. It has received a 100% cut in local authority support, as of March this year, which has left it facing a massive financial shortfall.

As a result, that hub has had to cancel a major children’s concert at a professional venue, creative projects with local artists have been scaled back, grants to vital community ensembles have been reduced, and schools—of which, locally, 100% subscribe to the hub—face a 20% price increase, while special projects and emergency support have been shelved altogether. If that trend continues into 2026-27, the consequences for that hub will be even more severe: staff redundancies, the dismantling of a highly successful model, and a dramatic reduction in services for schools and young people.

That is not an isolated case. Music hub leads across the country are sounding the alarm. They are doing everything they can, but are stretched to the limit. Without urgent investment, the entire ecosystem is at risk of collapse. If we are serious about nurturing the next generation of talent, and truly believe that every child should have access to the transformative power of music, we must act.

That is why I and the Lib Dems are calling for three things: first, proper funding for music education through an arts pupil premium so that access to music is not determined by postcode or privilege, but by potential and passion; secondly, a significant expansion in the number of teacher training places for specialist music educators, so that we can rebuild the pipeline of talent needed to inspire the next generation; and thirdly, we have to reverse the real-terms cuts to arts education and music hubs.

If we cannot sort the structural issues with music education, I worry that no number of new national centres for arts education will stop the steady decline in young people from all backgrounds being able to take part in a full music education.

Educational Opportunities in Semi-rural Areas

Anna Sabine Excerpts

Wednesday 7th May 2025 Westminster Hall

[Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. I thank the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean) for securing this important debate. I represent Frome and East Somerset, also a semi-rural constituency, and I recognise many of the challenges he talked about earlier, particularly around affordable housing and the mental health of our young people.

For far too long, young people in rural and semi-rural areas have faced persistent barriers to accessing education, whether due to poor transport links, limited youth services or a lack of training support. The Lib Dems have always believed that education is the cornerstone of a fair society, but we also recognise that not every child is given a fair shot. Geography should never determine opportunity. That is why we have been calling for a £2 billion rural services fund, which would enable the co-location of essential services, such as GP surgeries and schools, in local hubs that make the most of existing infrastructure, helping to revitalise and support local rural communities.

In my constituency, the lack of reliable public transport, as mentioned, is a daily challenge for many families. One constituent from Beckington, a village just outside Frome, has two children attending middle school in Frome. Although the school is under three miles away, the only walking route is along a narrow pavement beside a 60-mile-an-hour road. In 2019, the council deemed that route safe, yet almost every parent in Beckington drives their child to school because they quite rightly believe that it is not. If my constituent could not drive, they would be forced to pay £80 a month per child for school transport—an unaffordable cost for many families. That is not choice; it is necessity born out of neglect.

While we welcome the introduction of breakfast clubs under the Labour Government, we continue to believe that free school meals would be a more inclusive and effective alternative. In many rural and semi-rural areas, students simply cannot get to school early enough to benefit from breakfast clubs, due to sparse and inflexible bus timetables. There is currently no indication that those would be adjusted to support the policy.

Reliable broadband is another area where rural communities are being left behind. The Lib Dems have long championed the need for hyperfast fibre-optic broadband, with priority being given to rural areas. While we welcome the Project Gigabit roll-out across Devon and Somerset, I still await further detail on how it will benefit my constituency specifically.

The pandemic laid bare the digital divide. Too many households in semi-rural areas lack the reliable internet access needed for remote learning. In the 21st century, broadband is not a luxury; it is a basic educational need. Students who cannot log on cannot keep up, and we risk leaving them behind. As someone with a teenager who is about to start their GCSEs, I know it makes them very grumpy if they cannot log on.

Let us not forget about post-16 education. In rural areas, access to sixth forms, colleges and apprenticeships remains patchy, creating a postcode lottery for young people’s futures. Limited public transport and poor broadband only compound the problem. That is why the Lib Dems want to introduce a young people’s premium, extending the pupil premium funding to disadvantaged 16 to 18-year-olds. Every young person deserves equal access to education, training and opportunity, no matter where they live. When we invest in education, we invest in our economy, our communities and our shared future. Every child in every corner of the country deserves the chance to succeed.

Education, Health and Care Plans

Anna Sabine Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to contribute to this debate. With limited time, I would like to raise a very specific issue. My constituency of Frome and East Somerset falls under both Bath and North East Somerset council and Somerset council, and there have been instances in which children’s specific cases, claims or tribunals have fallen between two different systems.

One of my constituents wrote to me about their child, who is 14 and has central nervous system lupus, epilepsy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and visual and sensory processing disorder. All the child’s needs were documented by an educational psychologist, who recommended an EHCP. Despite the medical recognition of the need for an EHCP and despite the diagnoses, Bath and North East Somerset council and Somerset council went back and forth for over a year about which local authority should take responsibility for the EHCP, because the child’s parents were separated, with one living in each authority, and the child’s time was split evenly between the two. That cannot be an uncommon occurrence, yet there were delays and stress for the family while they waited for their case to come to tribunal. The child’s mother estimates that he has missed 1,100 lessons in the 15 months that it has taken to resolve this issue.

Many local authorities are, of course, under immense financial strain and I cannot see how this situation can be resolved until the Government relieve councils by providing extra funding and by making EHCP applications as simple and straightforward as possible. We are better than ever at diagnosing additional needs, but the system is woefully under-resourced to support children to thrive.

Kinship Carers

Anna Sabine Excerpts

Wednesday 13th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset) (LD)]

Will the Minister give way?

[Janet Daby]

I am afraid that I need to make some progress.

I am pleased to confirm that the Government are supporting the delivery of 140 peer support groups across England. That is a vital service, giving kinship carers the opportunity to come together. It will provide peer-to-peer support, as well as offering them the opportunity to socialise with and meet other kinship carers, which will be a huge benefit. Alongside that, we are delivering a package of training and support for all kinship carers across England. Both those services provide much-needed additional support and offer guidance for kinship carers, because we recognise the early-years trauma and the other experiences of the children that they care for. They need support to enable them to do their best by the children they care for and love.

We are focused on improving support for children in kinship care. The role of the virtual school heads has been expanded and now includes championing the education, attendance and attainment of children in kinship care, ensuring that more children in kinship care receive the help they need to thrive at school. The renaming of the adoption and special guardianship support fund will rightly ensure that families are aware of the support to which they are entitled. It will incentivise local authorities and regional adoption agencies to make applications on behalf of kinship carers in need of therapeutic support, to ensure that those who can access the fund do so.

Keeping children safe is a key priority of the Government. In addition to our £44 million investment to support children in kinship care and foster care, £1.3 billion of new grant funding was announced for local government to deliver core services, of which £600 million is for social care, including children’s social care. I mention that to highlight some of the other areas to which the Government are entirely committed.

I will talk briefly about national kinship pay and leave. Kinship carers will benefit from additional support and flexibility from their employers to help them to balance work with providing the best possible care to the children they love. The Department for Education has published guidance for employers that sets out the best practice for supporting kinship carers at work, including how they can adapt internal policies, signpost existing entitlements and create a culture of support to best meet the needs of kinship carers.

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin for raising this extremely important debate. I also thank those who have contributed, raising the profile of better support for kinship carers. That is a key priority for me and the Government. We want to continue to build on the great progress that we have begun and to do much more in this space.

Question put and agreed to.