by Author Carrie Corfe

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Recap on the East of England Grant-holder Gathering

Attendees at the Grant-holder Gathering on 21 May enthusiastically embraced the financial and legal requirements of holding a Youth Music grant before turning their attention to the Quality Framework and evaluation reporting later in the morning and the discussion groups in the afternoon.

Attendees at the Grant-holder Gathering on 21 May enthusiastically embraced the financial and legal requirements of holding a Youth Music grant before turning their attention to the Quality Framework and evaluation reporting later in the morning and the discussion groups in the afternoon. Delegates also appreciated hearing from Lisa Elmer, Relationship Manager for Children and Young People at Arts Council England and Stephanie Hoffer from Norfolk and Norwich Festival Bridge who talked through their priorities for the region.

Feedback shows that opportunities to meet and share experiences with similarly minded practitioners were one of the most useful aspects of the day. 

Many thanks are due to The Garage for hosting the day and to Marcus Patterson from Norwich and Norfolk Community Arts for the fun ‘patta cake’ musical energiser.

Quality Framework

Managers are sharing the Quality Framework’s criteria across their organisation to develop standards with their music leaders and trainees. The four criteria within it are:

  • Session content
  • The environment
  • Young people centred
  • Music leader practice

Some music leaders are taking particular points from each criteria and just focusing on that one in a session; using them as a kind of quality ‘yoga stretch’.   See http://www.youthmusic.org.uk/what-we-do/our-research/quality.html for the full guidance.

Evaluation

Participants seemed to enjoy playing with project statistics during the evaluation reporting session which demonstrated the benefits of triangulating qualitative and quantitative data. Some organisations fed back that data collection and participant feedback can be difficult to obtain from transient young people as well as Early Years.  Organisations are using simple emoticons and triangulating evidence of carers/parents and support staff.  Different assessment methods and tools such as the Sounds of Intent framework from Sound Connections for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities were raised along with Youth Music’s Evaluation Builder and toolkit.  Sound Connections are also adapting their framework for Early Years.  One organisation has commissioned a music therapist as an evaluator who has developed a bespoke coded checklist which makes it easier to collect, collate and analyse the data. There was agreement to share other quality frameworks used within the group.

Discussion Groups

In the afternoon, project challenges and opportunities were discussed with following points flagged up in the summary. 

  • Working with schools has become challenging for some organisations with the structural changes in education going on. 
  • Others are finding schools have reduced their capacity and have limited resources to dedicate to non-formal music. 
  • Opportunities are arising through the academies, some of whom are strong on music education while others have a distinct gap. 
  • Enterprise culture is being encouraged in which music organisations can play a proactive role
  • Changes in Artsmark from September will mean that the arts section of a School Development Plan no longer needs to contain all art forms but can focus on one particular area.  This means that a music organisation can support a school achieve an Artsmark if they can help them write the music section of the plan.  A possible incentive? 
  • Each school is supposed to appoint a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) who can be a very useful ally for music organisations.
  • Poor transport links and geographic distance can limit options for young people and music leaders so projects can now include travel costs in their applications to Youth Music.

Next steps

Following positive feedback, Youth Music intends to bring grant-holders together again next year.  Offers of venues are very welcome and of course please continue talking between yourselves either directly or through this East of England discussion group.

Please add a message or link about any other quality frameworks or tools that you use to monitor and evaluate the impact of your work.  Others are keen to know!  Of course, please also use the East of England discussion group to ask questions or promote your events.

Meanwhile, all the best for the summer. Carrie