Musical Inclusion – Evaluation & Networking Module – GATHERING ONE - April 2013
Kathryn Deane (Sound Sense, lead organisation), Tamsin Cox, Rob Hunter, Anita Holford, Phil Mullen
Breakout session notes: Hubbery Bubbery
Session rubric
This session was designed to open up dialogue between hub leads and partners in hubs by means of a fast-moving game that concentrated on specific questions designed to encourage honest, but not personal, discussion between professional colleagues.
Step 1
As attenders entered the breakout space they chose an A5-sized card that most nearly corresponded to their role:
- Hub lead
- Hub strategic partner
- Supplier of activities to a hub
- Nothing to do with a hub
And formed sub-groups accordingly.
Step 2
Each individual wrote on the front of their card what their role was, and presented it to the whole group. Discussion occurred at all presentation points.
Step 3
Each sub-group then discussed the issue posed on the backs of their cards (which varied, according to role):
- Hub lead: challenges of working with new partners
- Hub strategic partners: pros and cons of this role for you
- Supplier of activities to a hub: pros and cons of having a more strategic role
- Nothing to do with a hub: would you want to be? why/why not?
They then each wrote a summary on the backs of their cards, and presented it to the whole group.
Step 4
Having heard the challenges and issues, each sub-group discussed and wrote on a new card:
- One thing they could do to improve their own position
- One thing they could offer which would improve another sub-group’s position
And presented in turn to the whole group.
The summaries made are listed below. Session notes have been anonymised. Where what was written was unclear, comments in [square brackets] have been included for clarity. Where a word was not legible, the notes will read [something]. Key; Minc = Musical Inclusion project; CS, BT = cold spot, breakthrough, CCC = children in challenging circumstances, MEH = music education hub.
Step 2– Role
Hub lead (1 of)
- Musical inclusion partnership and programme manager for a hub
Hub strategic partners (6 of)
- Co-write business plan
- Manage/support core/external roles (not all)
- Audit/review delivery partners’ needs and CPD
- Champion children in challenging circumstances (informal education component)
- Develop new partners
- Pilot new provisions/approaches
- Emerging organisation/tick MH boxes
- Sharing best practise
- Delivering breakthrough activities in rural coldspots
- Journey (middle management)
- Give time in kind
- Young music leadership – DMEH interest
- Wonder if anything will ever change
- Attend meetings convened by hub lead (one so far, in October)
- Advised on appropriate methodology for needs analysis
- Attend hub meetings
- on steering group
- question hub set up and processes
- Offer advice to the hub lead
- Not as much as we’d like
- Sit on hub
- Advice on business plan/contribute to business plan
- Contribute to the quality insurance of the hub
- Attend meetings
- Chair when needed
- Develop partners
Supplier of activities to a hub (4 of)
- A Minc CS/BT project in every ‘Hub’ area of our Minc coverage (nine!)
- CPD around CCC for music leaders
- Networks related to projects/subjects
- Provide Musical Inclusion projects to 5 hubs in partnership
- Provide links from projects to [venue] and its programmes
- Development activities for music leaders and non specialist setting staff
- Using findings from mapping provision and practitioners to be able to identify cold spot areas and skilled practitioners that can deliver relevant music making to young people in challenging circumstances
- Offer [something] CPD
- Contacts and networks through projects and activities
- Communication has been difficult and fear of competition
- Working with 4 different hubs
- At present we deliver activities within hub areas that hubs can report on
- We deliver networking events in partnership with the hub
- In some hubs we exist in name only at the moment
Nothing to do with a hub
- Through our Musical Inclusion [something], make sure that children and young people don’t miss out in MEH programmes
- At a national level, monitor progress of MEH activity within the [national music education plan] as a whole
- Sharing practice
- Outcomes approach
Step 3 – Issues
Lead - Challenges of working with new partners
- Gaining trust re musical inclusion - cold spots
- Time and money – [not?] enough
- Non music specialists vs music specialists.
Strategic partners - Pros and cons of this role for you
Profile raising
Recognition
Infrastructure
Potential stability moving forward
Open/challenging dialogue between partners
Greater say and opportunities
A great way of working
Could be so creative and productive
Have a strategic role in community
Having an overview of musical inclusion
Quality and direction
Commercial venture as partner
Different hubs at different levels
Capacity needed to really support hubs
Cultural differences
Politics
Scratch the surface – no change really
Lip service
Not creative
Cultural differences
A lot of time going in – not
Frustration
Emperor’s new clothes
Feel complicit in a fraud – feel responsible for doing something about it but have absolutely no authority or leverage to do it
Time constraints
Suppliers - Pros and cons of having a more strategic role
Influence over development of work and formal education
More say for CCC – advocacy
Bringing in new technology and new practices
ACE would talk to you … you could influence
things are done in your name
The time and the politics of bringing change
Capacity if you cover a few [hubs]
Nothing to do with a hub - Would you want to be? Why/why not?
- What are ultimately the blocks?
- Overall there seems to be significant challenges here in making sure hub lead organisations are genuinely, not tokenistically, collaborative
Step 4a - One thing you can do to improve your own position
Hub lead
- Tenacity – keep chipping away and supporting colleagues
Strategic partner
- Disengaged: leaving opportunity for reflection
- Autonomous action: steam ahead, carry on regardless
- Increased advocacy nationally: case study
- Propose specific tasks to happen; inclusion strategy – practical
- Hub sub-groups nominating [something] to happen
Supplier
- Take things to them – a gift: “Be part of this, it’s good”
Nothing to do with a hub
- Mainstreaming – demonstrating how out of school practice can inform in school practice
- Talk ‘music education’ rather than separate compartments
Step 4b - One thing you can offer which would improve another group’s position
Hub lead
- Open tenders partners can buy into.
- Provide structure and process to collaboration to replace good intentions
Strategic partners
- Practical involvement
- Transparent offers about areas of expertise
- CPD – informal and formal no longer informal versus formal
Suppliers
- Sing the praises of other people’s work
One thing you can offer which would help improve another group’s position
- Report this back to ACE