Exclusive:Councils are 'spending government's free school music funding on other services'
The number of Scots pupils learning an instrument has soared since fees were removed - but more could be done to support the service
More than half of councils are not spending government funding for free music lessons on tuition, a new report claims.
Five years ago the Scottish government announced it would give local authorities money to ensure pupils can learn to play an instrument.
However, an in-depth new survey has found 55 per cent of managers believe the full allocation is not reaching the service.
In some council areas the instrumental music service (IMS) is only receiving around 11 to 15 per cent of the intended allocation.
The findings have led to a call for free music lesson funds - £12 million shared between 32 councils - to be ring fenced.
Graeme Smillie, a music lecturer at Glasgow University, was one of those behind the report for charity the Music Education Partnership Group.
He said: “The issue came up consistently with service managers when I was conducting the interviews with them, so an anonymous survey went out to follow up in that.
“There is recognition of the fact that a lot of local authorities are in a relatively challenging financial position.
“But everybody identifies areas where more schools could be reached, where tough decisions are being made about allocation of instructors, and so the obvious recommendation is to have funding going directly to the IMS.”
A spokeswoman for the Scottish government said: “The Scottish Government expects the full £12 million to be allocated to supporting instrumental music tuition in schools.”
Since the removal of fees, the number of pupils learning a musical instrument has risen from 41,594 learners in 2020/21 to 70,075 learners in 2024/252.
Tutors credit this success to the government funding, saying that families were previously having to remove their children from the service due to costs.
There is still, however, a large unmet demand for instrument tuition such as in Dumfries and Galloway where there is a waiting list of more than 700 learners.
Dumfries and Galloway Council said it uses its full allocation of funding for music tuition and added that “continuous operational and strategic evaluation and improvement” has led to an increase in numbers of pupils playing instruments each year.
Feedback from interviews with staff, pupils and headteachers across Scotland found the government funding to be “indispensable”.
However, councils are believed to not be passing on all the money to IMS.
The funds pay only for the removal of fees for parents but councils still have to make up a shortfall in the cost of the service.
A spokeswoman for Cosla said: “Cosla welcomes the MEPG Report which highlights significant increases in the number of children and young people receiving Instrumental Music Tuition in Scottish Schools.
“Annual findings from the Improvement Service Survey, indicated that Local Government have increased their funding to the programme by 30 per cent in the last four years.”
There are also constraints on the service that are leading to the long waiting lists, such as instructor capacity, timetabling constraints and the availability of appropriate teaching spaces.
Unsuitable accommodation and staggered timetables were seen to limit ensemble and group learning opportunities.
Pupils in more rural areas also struggled to access orchestra and ensemble practice to help them expand their skills.
Mr Smillie said the funding had allowed councils to think strategically about supporting pupils from poorer backgrounds.
However, while provision appears equal for children from different socio-economic groups, the data is skewed by the high number of pupils in Glasgow where work has been done to target children in poorer areas.
Over the course of interviews across Scotland, he said it was clear how crucial the IMS are to those who take part.
He said it will be important to continue monitoring the service to see if the “groundswell” of new participants at primary age want to keep learning through secondary school.
There are also recommendations in the report that music tuition should be embedded in schools as a core part of the curriculum.
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