Scottish Government insists music funding is 'secure'

The Scottish Government has insisted Youth Music Initiative (YMI) funding is “secure”, following a “temporary pause” that caused disruption to children’s music tuition.

The distribution of some funding was paused while the Scottish Government completed its Cost of Living Emergency Budget Review, leading to Creative Scotland informing partners there would be a pause in funding payments.

According to educational production company The Beat Box, based in Fife, educators were told to stop going into schools until funding could be secured.

On Twitter, a spokesperson for The Beat Box said: “We do a lot of work for YMI in Fife and we were sent an email on Monday evening, and told not to go to any schools with immediate effect.

“As a small, independent company who have relied on YMI funding since we began, this could be catastrophic for us.

“We were told at 5.30 on Monday evening that all projects were to ‘pause’ immediately.

“Meaning children turned up on Tuesday morning expecting their next session with us only to find we weren’t coming (and teachers will have planned to have us there too).”

More than 320 music education projects in Scotland are funded through the Youth Music Initiative.

The Scottish Government has now confirmed the funding is secure.

Culture minister Neil Gray said: “The Youth Music Initiative programme plays a vitally important role in nurturing the talents of children and young people across the country.

“While there was a brief pause in the distribution of funding while the Cost of Living Emergency Budget Review was completed, the Scottish Government has confirmed to Creative Scotland that the funding for the Youth Music Initiative is secure.

“We are working closely with Creative Scotland and expect local authorities to be informed of the up-dated situation as soon as possible to allow delivery of the programme to start, or restart with minimal disruptions.”