Madam,

‘If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true’.

Ceredigion County Council is determined to convince the councillors that a new funding model for Ceredigion Music Service will provide multiple improvements to the system while slashing the budget. A win-win situation for all?

This can only lead to a situation where the music service will decline faster than the melting ice-caps.

The council press release uses very clever language: “that a team of core staff are employed on the same terms and conditions of employment”.

This does not mean that teaching staff will be employed on the same terms and conditions that they are at present; on the contrary, this means that all teaching staff will be paid the same rate, meaning a cut of around a third for qualified teachers. No travel expenses included in the budget.

The council also says: “With fewer staff, this new model will not only provide everything that it currently provides, it will also offer piano and ukulele lessons and even outreach to day centres and the like.”

So, our teachers will somehow be able to work a 12-hour day in half the time?

We really need to stick up for the amazing peripatetic team to ensure that they are not subjected to impossible terms and conditions.

Without dedicated teaching staff, there really will be no music service.

Keep lobbying your county councillors.

Yours etc, Alan Phillips, former head of brass, Ceredigion Music Service.

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