Drake Music’s Consultation into Disabling Barriers to Formal Music Education was quoted by Lord German during the recent debate on Music Education for Children with Physical Disabilities (30th July 2014).
The debate, instigated by Lord Lipsey, focussed on the current lack of opportunities for many disabled musicians to access high quality music provision and accessible instruments (you can read the whole debate transcript on Hansard).
Quoting Drake Music, Lord German said the findings of the consultation had “revealed that there are still a number of barriers to overcome with regard to effective music education for disabled children”
Echoing the consultation’s key findings he called for “improvements in the areas of organisation, training and equipment provision.”
Although there is growing awareness and consensus for the need to prioritise SEN/D music provision within the sector, it’s still an emerging picture.
Some Music Education Hubs appear to be developing programmes of work that are responsive to the local needs of special schools whilst others are struggling to recruit and train staff with relevant skills.
Classical musician James Rhodes recently commented that “because each hub is organised and run in a different way, provision is still not consistent”.
In 2013, Ofsted missed an opportunity to report on the progress of music hubs and SEN/D music provision by omitting to visit any special schools as part of its ‘Music in schools: what hubs must do’ report (Drake Music’s response can be read here).
Drake Music’s consultation, originally published is 2012, is still one of the few pieces of research into SEN/D and music provision in schools.
Drake Music received 100 individual responses from teachers, music educators and disabled young musicians and their parents with clear themes and messages emerging from their feedback.
These key findings of the consultation are still keenly relevant to the work of music hubs and Drake Music would urge music organisations to read them and relate them to their core roles and strategies for SEN/D provision.
