Youth Music and the other UK nations

Youth Music receives National Lottery funding through Arts Council England. This money can only support projects in England, but strategic alliances are being established with the Arts Councils of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to enable Youth Music programmes to take place throughout the UK in the future.

Our funding complements music in the national curriculum by supporting activities held mainly outside of school hours and delivered by non-profit making organisations.

Youth Music also aims to support wider aspects of music-making through funding training for music leaders, as well as working strategically to bring together partnership organisations from across the music, education and social sectors.

In its advocacy role, Youth Music encourages debate about music education and the provision of music-making activities for young people.

Youth Music's main source of funding is National Lottery money. This is distributed via Arts Council England so is not able to fund projects in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Each nation has its own Lottery allocation and chooses to use it in a variety of ways.

When Youth Music was set up in 1999, equivalent organisations were not in place to support youth music-making activities in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. However, Youth Music has been delighted to have been able to fund a number of programmes in these nations - Instrument Amnesty, Music Maker and Singing Challenge - using money raised from independent sources. The Abbamania fundraising initiative organised by the British Phonographic Industry and supported by the Brit Trust, raised over £1.2m to make this possible.

Feedback on these programmes suggests that further funding and development support would be extremely well-received. As a result, Youth Music has been working closely with key partners in each nation to determine how Youth Music can best support youth music-making UK-wide. 

Youth Music has been working with the Arts Council of Wales to set up two Youth Music Action Zones in Ynys Mon (Anglesey) and in Merthyr Tydfil. The impact of the 24 Action Zones in England motivated an anonymous donor to contribute £260k for two to be established in Wales. Youth Music has also initiated a series of discussions across Wales to bring together informal and formal music-making providers.
Youth Music in Wales background

In 2002 together with the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) and the Musicians Union (MU), Youth Music UK supported the publication of an audit of music-making opportunities for children and young people in Scotland – What’s Going On?  The audit found that although many diverse music-making opportunities for children and young people in Scotland existed, there were gaps in provision and many barriers that stopped children and young people taking part. At the time of the publication of What’s Going On? The Scottish Executive announced a further £17.5m to go towards Young People’s music-making in Scotland, with a further £20m being guaranteed in the November 2004 spending review. This money has been pledged to what is now known as the Youth Music Initiative (YMI), which is administrated by the SAC. Youth Music UK is working in partnership with the SAC to support the design and delivery of the YMI.

More information on the Scottish Audit

Youth Music established links with Northern Ireland in 2000 and we aim to build stronger relationships in the province. Potential activities include links between a Youth Music Action Zone in England and music education providers in Northern Ireland. Youth Music may also propose collaborations, focussing on continuing professional development (CPD) between an organisation based in Southampton, which specialises in the youth arts sector, and a Belfast-based music workshop. These partnerships will be built up in collaboration with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and government contacts.