Youth Cymru is a national youth work charity with 81 years’ experience of working with young people and the youth work sector. Our mission is to support young people to reach their full potential and have a voice in all decisions affecting them, to promote positive images of young people, showcasing their achievements and ensuring the vital role of youth work within Wales is recognised by decision makers and wider society.

Youth Cymru believes that the inquiry would merit from expanding the draft terms of reference to consider how voluntary organisations, youth clubs and youth groups provide young people with access to music education. Often, these youth clubs and youth groups fill a gap in the provision of music education in non-formal settings, and reach young people from areas of high economic deprivation.

For instance, Youth Cymru is the national partner for the Big Lottery Fund’s ‘The Big Music Project’, and we support 17 hubs (youth clubs and youth groups) across Wales to run music projects in their local communities. We do this through training 170 Big Music Champions aged 16-19, who peer educate and mentor 850 other young people to learn instruments and run musical events. Through the project, young people can gain Youth Achievement Awards for taking part in the project, supporting both their musical skills but also their life skills and employability. In addition, young people can gain access to opportunities in the music industry through our corporate partner, Global Entertainment.

The Big Music Project is just one of many music projects supported by the voluntary sector in Wales which allows young people access to music education and the music industry. There are other, much smaller organisations across Wales which provide music education in non-formal settings, such as Making Music Changing Lives, which provides children up to 10 years old with classical music education in the Ely area of Cardiff.

We therefore hope that the Committee will consider expanding the terms of reference for the inquiry, and consider broadening its scope to consider music education provided by the voluntary sector and provided in non-formal settings. In doing so, the inquiry will be able to assess the quality and quantity of the education in these settings to ensure that all young people, regardless of background, have fair access to music education in Wales. Should the committee decide to retain the scope of the inquiry to statutory and formal settings, then Youth Cymru will be interested to support the committee in any future inquiries related to young people’s access to, and relationship with, culture, especially in relation to the expressive arts.