Dismay at demise of Wiltshire Music Service

It is much more than this.

WMS currently employs 76 music teachers, plus administrators, who will all be made redundant when it closes.

WMS ensures quality in its staff through selection, checks, training, etc.

WMS staff work collaboratively teaching a wide range of instruments in a wide range of schools.

While the councillors “seek to ensure all children will continue to have the same opportunities”, will Wiltshire Music Education Hub be able to deliver the same breadth and quality of provision?

The Hub will not be employing music teachers, who may seek alternative employment rather than contract with schools on a self-employed basis.

Schools may try to push down costs, failing to appreciate the additional expenses (pension, sickness cover, insurance, etc) involved with self-employment.

Quality may suffer, other areas have seen unqualified people teaching, including on instruments they have little experience of playing.

Without guaranteed work will new music teachers move to Wiltshire?

My children with more than 400 other young people enjoy making music in Salisbury Area Young Musicians (SAYM) ensembles, which I support as chairman of the Friends of Salisbury Area Young Musicians (FSAYM) committee.

SAYM currently operates as a club managed by WMS, who provide about 50 per cent of the running costs, while FSAYM provides the rest through subscriptions and fund-raising.

If WMS closes, SAYM will need to become an independent organisation, (some funding being available from the Hub at least in the short term) and the FSAYM committee, including current WMS staff, is working actively to ensure this happens.

However, I fear that once we lose WMS, with its role in starting, developing and motivating young players, who then join SAYM, provision will be patchy and Wiltshire may never regain the same level of quality music provision.

Françoise Wynn

Downton