News just in, and some potential revelations on the future for music education. In tomorrow's Music Matters, culture minister Ed Vaizey tells me that money for music education and music provision in England and Wales will still be ringfenced when the previous government's Music Standards Fund lapses next year. That settlement was £332m for local education authorities and their music services, and while there's isn't a snowball's chance in the fires of Mount Doom of the new settlement being as much as that, it's at least a concrete commitment to the survival of a discrete pot of money for music education, and means the coalition won't go down the route of allowing LEAs to have the choice over how much money they give to music in their area, as the Tories did with such disastrous consequences in 1984.
For more on the coalition's plans for music education, we'll have to wait until Classic FM's Darren Henley finishes his report on music in schools sometime in the new year. But there's some potentially painful news for the three In Harmony projects in England: having affirmed his commitment to keep funding them in a pre-election debate on Music Matters, Vaizey only says now that he'll "have to check the figures" and wait to see what Henley says on the subject. Fingers crossed he keeps to his word on this one for the schools and their pupils whose lives have been changed by In Harmony so far.
