by Author Carrie Corfe

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Update on East Midlands Grant-holder Gathering

Thanks to all who contributed to the East Midlands Grant-holder Gathering on 19 May 2015 at the Phoenix in Leicester. We particularly enjoyed the musical energiser from Nick Cutts from Opus and hearing from Karen Birch, development manager for The Mighty Creatives, on their priorities and progression routes for young musicians.

Quality Framework

After talking about the legal and financial responsibilities of holding a Youth Music grant, we focused on the quality framework.  Attendees said the quality framework helped them set delivery standards within their organisation across the organisation particularly where numerous freelance staff are involved.   The broad criteria and some of the questions within the quality framework that project managers and leaders can consider together are:

• The session content - Are the activities engaging and inspiring? - Are the young musician’s views integral to the session? - Is there collective learning between the young musicians and the leaders?

• The environment - Are there enough music leaders and other project staff? - Is the physical space comfortable and appropriate for the participants? - Are there appropriate materials and equipment for each participant? - Is the timing right?

• Music leader practice - is the music leader an able facilitator as well as an inspirational role model? - do they understand the young musician’s starting point and needs? - do they know all the progression routes available for those young people?  

• To what extent are the music sessions young people centred - Are all participants experiencing the same amount of attention? - Is achievement measured in terms of their personal progress? - Is additional pastoral support required?

Evaluation Exploring quantitative and qualitative data, attendees grappled with some statistics in a case study to draw out meaning from some trends in development of musical skills.

Various evaluation models were then discussed with SoundLINCS having explored Picasso and a 356O stakeholder framework mentioned alongside Youth Music’s evaluation toolkit.

Discussion groups Groups in the afternoon considered the opportunities and challenges of sharing practice. 

Looked after children

Working with looked after children and young people can be particularly challenging and requires great sensitivity for many reasons.

  • Keeping in touch with the children and young people who have been moved around a lot can be difficult.
  • Looked after children can find unfamiliar settings very unsettling and are more likely to engage if the music making is provided directly in their home environment.
  • Private and public care homes vary enormously in the way they function and this can make it difficult to communicate and engage with the managers.
  • Involving the carers in foster homes is very important to helping the participant take part.

Call for Action

Baby People would like to make contact with other projects working with Looked After Children, so do get in touch with Julian Butts directly if you work in this field. 

Raising the profile of your project Top tips included: - Once funded, use the project to make links within your community and to other networks. - Write regular and inclusive newsletters - Share CPD and training beyond the project - Build resources for others to use - Make connections with research observatories for regional data - Press releases and blogs – all help to raise and maintain a profile

Meanwhile, Northampton Music and Performing Arts Trust, as the Music Education Hub lead, are open to conversations with emerging organisations as well as their established partners.

As the Grants and Learning Officer for the East Midlands, it was good to put faces to names over the day.  The presentation slides and notes of the day are attached and I look forward to working with you all over the coming months.

Carrie Corfe