ITEM EX15EXECUTIVE – 19 APRIL 2005MUSIC SERVICE REVIEW – BUDGETReport of the Learning & Culture Scrutiny Committee
Executive Summary Oxfordshire has an excellent service. It is greatly appreciated by schools, parents, and children. The impact of music tuition – and in Oxfordshire’s case, high quality music tuition – resonates throughout the rest of the education service. Oxfordshire is highly rated nationally for its Music Service. It also provides this quality more cost effectively than other authorities which are similarly structured. There is no reason to suppose that this quality could be more economically delivered in any other structure. After several years of running a budget surplus, the Music Service has recently been running a significant deficit. The objective of this review is to work out how to resolve issues around the operation of the Music Service, to ensure that it can get on doing what it does best. There have been pressures, and significant issues over past budget management. These include accuracy of information, support from the former Education Department and latterly the Learning & Culture Directorate, inadequate computer systems, and missing staff within the Music Service. Most of these are now resolved, though tight monitoring and control – and support from the Directorate – will still be required. There is more that the Music Service could do to increase its income – from lessons provided to students but also from better use of the physical and human resources at its disposal. Possible Areas for Additional Revenue are set out in a separate section. The Key recommendations are set out below. Recommendations for the Music Service The essential message here is that what the Music Service delivers is valuable to Oxfordshire children. The objective should be to continue to do the good things, but to keep the delivery structure closely monitored and controlled. R1 The Music Service should look at possible sources of extra funding including the suggestions in the section on Opportunities for Additional Revenue. R2 Some past budget recording and charging need to be clarified. There is doubt in some quarters that the Music Service’s debt has been accurately calculated and that it is responsible for this level of debt. It may be past, but it is important to ensure that the good will of staff within the Music Service is entirely engaged with future plans, not distracted by unresolved issues from the past. R3 The budget deficit should be re-paid by the Music Service, over 10 years, at the rate of £21k per year. Central funding from Oxfordshire should remain roughly constant, subject to suitable performance, increased income levels, and a realistic operational budget being put in place. R4 Budget setting and management both within the Music Service and within the Directorate needs to be much tighter. This applies both to budget setting – which should include a realistic operational budget worked out from a zero budget base, not just a rolling forwards of budget headlines – as well as tracking income and expenditure. Provision for monitoring now appears to be just about in place. However, the Directorate will need to continue to support the Music Service in the process of setting an operational budget for the coming year. R5 The Music Service House Committee is described (Annual Report of the Music Service 2002/3) as being like a Governing Body for a school. However, all the issues explored by this review should have been identified long ago by a Governing Body. The House Committee needs to be charged with the same obligations (e.g. for financial management, checking policies and procedures) as a school Governing Body. R6 The Music Service House Committee should consider this report. It should request a series of interim reports from the Director and from the Directorate financial staff on progress towards implementing these recommendations. The Director’s report should be accompanied by a commentary from the Director for Learning & Culture. Recommendations for the Executive R1 To continue to budget for and support the Music Service in providing the valuable high quality service. R2 To look at the accuracy of the deficit and to recommend that the Service repays the debt over 10 years (£21,000 per year operating surplus required of the Service). R3 To ask that the accounts for the Music Service be reviewed to establish the level of the Service’s debt and, in the light of the review, to consider writing off debts that are the subject of dispute. R4 To require the Music Service to follow up the recommendations set out in the above section.
Learning & Culture Scrutiny Committee 22
March 2005
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