Haringey Council has formally signed off on £1.7 million in Arts Council England funding to keep music teaching going in more than 400 schools across five North London boroughs.
Councillor Georgia Twigg, the council’s Cabinet Member for Children and Schools, approved the £1,702,986 revenue grant at a cabinet-member signing session on Friday 16 October. The money comes from the Department for Education, channelled through Arts Council England, and covers the 2026/27 financial year.
The decision matters well beyond Haringey. Since September 2024, the council has acted as the “hub lead” organisation for the North London Music Hub, after winning the role through a national competition run by Arts Council England. That means it is Haringey that manages, distributes and reports on the funding for the whole consortium.
Who gets what
The money is shared among five local authority music services according to the Department for Education’s funding formula, which allocates 90 per cent on eligible pupil numbers and 10 per cent on Free School Meals entitlement.
- Barnet – over £500,000
- Enfield – £469,000
- Haringey – £305,000
- Islington – £195,000
- Camden – £169,000
Barnet’s Education Arts Trust takes the largest slice, reflecting the borough’s pupil numbers. Barnet alone contributes £19,500 of the top slice, still leaving it with more than half a million pounds for direct service delivery.
The 3.75 per cent top slice
All five boroughs contribute a 3.75 per cent “top slice” from their allocations to cover the central running of the hub — administration, governance, performance monitoring, reporting and strategic leadership. For 2026/27, the shared management pot comes to just under £64,000.
Council officers told members it was “extremely unlikely” that Haringey would incur any extra cost beyond the established deductions. The report also confirms the grant needs no match funding from the council, and that financial risks around administering it are covered by governance arrangements, partnership agreements and the Music Hub Board.
According to the council’s own report, “Heads of service and service managers from consortium partners continue to have a joined-up approach and positive working relationship, endeavouring in doing what’s best for young musicians and their families”.
What the money buys
The funding is earmarked for co-ordinating music education “tailored to the needs of children and young people across Haringey, Barnet, Camden, Enfield and Islington, including those with special educational needs and disabilities”.
In practice that means classroom tuition and instrumental lessons in more than 400 primary and secondary schools, delivered through partnerships between schools, professional creative organisations and community groups. The hub’s brief is explicitly “high-quality music education” under the Government’s National Plan for Music Education.
There is a separate angle to the money too: alongside the revenue grant sits a capital grant running from 2024 to 2027 that lets music hubs across England buy new instruments and specialist technology for local pupils. The combined package is designed to stop music provision narrowing to the families who can pay for private lessons.
Why it matters now
The decision arrives at a moment when school music in London is under pressure from all sides. Elsewhere in the capital, institutions are tightening their belts — Goldsmiths has scrapped its Catford campus to consolidate onto New Cross, while Hornsey Library closes its adults’ section for RAAC roof repairs next month.
Against that backdrop, a multi-borough commitment worth nearly £1.7 million is a rare piece of good news for creative education. Council officers were clear about the stakes: failing to accept the funding would “significantly reduce music education opportunities” across the five boroughs and jeopardise nationally funded music-hub activity.
The report also links the hub’s work to Haringey’s culture strategy and the London Borough of Culture 2027 project, signalling that music education is being treated as part of a wider cultural offer rather than a nice-to-have extra.
For parents and pupils in the 400-plus schools served by the hub, the effect should be practical rather than abstract: more instruments in classrooms, more specialist teachers, and provision for children with SEND who are too often left out of music teaching.
Haringey’s formal sign-off now clears the way for the grant agreements to be finalised and the money to flow to the five borough music services for the rest of the academic year.
