Managing Standstill Grants: An Unsustainable Expectation

A blog from Gary Griffiths, Music Mark’s Hub support consultant.

The English Music Hub 26/27 allocations are finally in and they are, in the polite language of advocacy, disappointing. Bridget wrote to other Bridget (Phillipson) when the DfE announced one further year at £76M, pointing out that the grant has lost about £24M in spending power since the uplift in 2019. In that time, the second National Plan for Music Education raised the expectations on Hubs, employment on-costs have risen above inflation (although partly offset for some by DfE grants) and most areas have had to absorb additional costs for the new Hub structure.

The actual allocations – rather than knowing the total amount government are offering the Hub network – are important as they shift each year based on the funding formular which is calculated using pupil data. The amount per ‘upper tier local authority area’ is therefore published for each hub partnership to know what funding they have to work with over the following year. The 2026/7 allocations, published on Tuesday 30th June will see Yorkshire & Humberside receive their seventh consecutive loss, totalling £116k since 2019/20. The same is true in London but their total loss will be £668k. Losses are due to pupil migration and of course there are those who will receive more, however this year, all four LA areas losing more than 2% are London boroughs (excluding outliers the Isles of Scilly (-6.4%) and City of London (-2.9%) with very small grants) and eight out of 13 losing more than 1% are in London. Only five areas in England have gained more than 1% and the most is 2%, so even for the biggest winners, their grants will not keep pace with inflation.

Music Mark argued for the revenue grant to move to academic years so that the sector did not have to wait until a matter of weeks before the end of the current funding period to hear about the next year’s allocation. At its worst, Bridget remembers a funding confirmation on 16th March but February was usual. A March or even April announcement would be fine for grants starting in September.

We know that a two-year settlement had been mooted for this year and it is possible that internal government negotiations delayed funding announcements. However, that still does not explain why area allocations have lagged the grant confirmation, when the pupil data that drives the funding formula have been known for months.

A few weeks ago, Bridget and I ran a survey to learn how colleagues in England are managing the standstill funding. The picture is not heartening. Unsurprisingly, many services have no choice but to raise charges above inflation (typically around 6% per annum), at the same time as tightening criteria for remissions schemes: one area reported that demand on their remissions scheme has increased by 28% this year alone.

We found that 79% of respondents are spending more time and resource on fundraising. Although many reported that funding is competitive, fragmented and largely restricted to short-term projects, making it difficult to sustain core provision, staffing, and long-term musical progression.

Many colleagues describe a shift in focus away from educational leadership and strategic development towards financial management, fundraising, and operational survival.

Before we descend into complete despair, let’s remember that this latest announcement means that the DfE have funded the Music Education Hub and Music Hub programmes to the tune of £1.11Bn (including next year’s funding but not including NIC/TPS grants or payments to ACE) between 2012 and 2027. Since they started ringfenced funding music education with the Standards Fund in 1999, the total is £1.99Bn.

And the Music Hub Partnerships provide great value for money to the DfE. The Hub grant this year is £1 in £880 of the DSG and £1 in £1,787 of the DfE’s whole budget. It is intended to impact the music education of nearly every state school pupil, approaching nine million of them. Indeed Hub networks deliver the entire Hub programme for funding that would barely buy 10 minutes of tuition a year for each pupil. In national funding terms, it’s peanuts.

The DfE appears for at least 14 years to have expected Hubs to do endlessly more with the same funding (in reality less). If we accept that no more money can be found, the ambitions for the Hub programme need to reigned in. Where can Hubs have most impact and what can Hubs realistically achieve with their reducing funding?

More than anything, DfE, Arts Council England, the new National Centre (when it is established) and organisations like Music Mark must heed the findings of our survey, that the main burden of the funding situation is falling on music service leaders – key Hub partners or Hub Leaders. Thirteen responses revealed significantly reduced capacity, restructures, frozen recruitment and unfilled senior roles. Colleagues talk about increased workloads, reduced wellbeing and burnout. This resonates with the Hub lead quoted in NatCen’s interim Hub evaluation report (February 2026): “very often the added value is […] just me doing more hours at work”.

Colleagues will, of course, be doing more hours at work for the next three weeks as they attend end-of-year performances. These additional hours will be celebratory and much-needed reminders of the worthwhile and impactful work that the sector does. I hope leaders, staff, pupils and parents/carers enjoy these moments, any holiday courses and tours and a richly deserved rest. Music Mark will continue its work representing the Hub network’s voice to Government and advocating on your behalf.

Explore the ongoing advocacy work Music Mark does on behalf of the UK Music Education sector on our Advocacy Timeline.