What Do We Actually Mean By “Inclusive”?

Jim Pinchen (Workforce Development Manager: Rhythmix and MusicLeader South East) considers how far we have come in understanding inclusivity within music education, how we measure it and how we make our projects truly inclusive.

When I first started to work for Rhythmix I had come recently from a different background so the history and ethos of community music meant nothing to me. I remember meeting some key partners at the time who proudly announced their policy on equality was based on the fact they let anyone come through their doors. Whilst there's nothing wrong with that per se, real inclusion means hard and robust consultation and research surrounding the barriers that face our young people accessing projects. It means working with about five organisations just to ensure access for one looked after child, arriving an hour early to attach cables and microphones to a wheel chair, measuring success by the fact one person out of five completed the programme or simply that for the first time they turned up to something.

So how do we measure inclusion? Is it by the ratio of kids attending from BME backgrounds? By how many young people are on local authority care orders or by how many young offenders attended? Is it actually more about genres? For example, will a diverse music offer attract a diverse range of young people? If that is true, then isn’t the ‘Urban Orchestra’ model a fantastic way of getting young people from different groups all in the same room for the first time making music together?

There are different sides to the ‘Urban Orchestra’ model debate and some criticise it as a model that allows young people to carry on segregating albeit in the same space. For example all the young people in Challenging Circumstance on one side of the room, and the mainstream young people on the other or MCs freestyling over a drummer and guitarist who are essentially ignoring each other. On the other had it can simply be a group of young people with a set of skills collaborating to produce something new.

Our concern is that young people have very different needs, confidence levels and interests and at first contact these should be catered for – not all young people in Challenging Circumstances have the same needs or barriers. For example; a mixed Looked-After Children and Youth Offending session can be inappropriate on many levels not least because of the high percentage of LACs entering the youth justice system.

In conclusion, inclusion and accessibility is about delivering projects that are open for all. In turn, “Open for all” means concentrating your (usually limited) time, money and efforts on working with, and advocating your project to, organisations who support those who face barriers to attend your project. Promoting social and educational cohesion is vital in the UK and young people from differing backgrounds absolutely should be able to collaborate positively in a healthy and safe environment, but it’s all in the timing. There is usually a time within a project where the focus turns to the music, and we feel that this is the key moment when young people should come together.