Sounding off over Big Noise
Appeal to keep music project expansion free of fees
A councillor has said families outwith Raploch should access the Big Noise project for free if is extended to other communities.
Councillor Chris Kane said he would be uncomfortable if parents in other areas were charged for Big Noise music facilities when families in Raploch received them for nothing.
The comments were made as officers updated Stirling Council’s community planning and regeneration committee on funding negotiations with Sistema, the organisation behind Big Noise Raploch.
The council’s current five-year agreement, which provides a grant of up to £500,000 a year to the project, is due to come to an end in March 2018.
However, the council wants to reduce its direct funding from April, 2018, and is instead working to identify a “revised model of support”.
Big Noise Raploch will celebrate its 10th birthday in 2018. There are now a further three Big Noise orchestras in Scotland - at Aberdeen, Glasgow and Dundee. Each is subject to different resource arrangements, with Big Noise Raploch being the most dependent on direct grant funding from the local authority.
Stirling Council has already said it expects the Big Noise to widen its reach to other communities across the council area. While there is widespread support of the project itself there has been some criticism of the fact it is focused on Raploch children and youngsters are expected to pay for music tuition in other communities regardless of their parents’ financial position.
Councillor Kane, chairing the committee, said: “I don’t think anyone can say anything other than positive things about what Sistema and Big Noise has achieved in Raploch, but after 10 years in Raploch we have to learn from that and we have to get what’s happening with Big Noise into more Stirling areas.
“My concern is not what Sistema do. I think they have fantastic results. My point is we have had 10 years in Raploch and they say a few more years of assessment are needed. I am just mindful that this can’t go on for much longer.”
Officials said evidence was being gathered to determine if the programme could be dealt with as a paid-for intervention to tackle vulnerability and inequality through perhaps social work or education services, as opposed to simply being grant funded by the council.
Other possible changes being looked at include potential savings on equipment, instruments and staff training by using “sharper” procurement and possible tie-ins with the City Regional Deal as well as opportunities for corporate sponsorship, crowd funding and charitable/benevolent donations.
Asked by Councillor Kane how discussions were going, an official said: “It is a bit of a tricky one because obviously there is a lot of money involved at the moment and it will be difficult for Sistema to identify where it might fill that gap. We are looking at a partnership with them and perhaps not grant funding but resourcing it in a different way.
“The Big Noise is not about music but social change. What we need is to work with Sistema and identify the added value it provides and whether we buy that as a service. Expansion to some other areas of Stirling is also under discussion.
“Sistema Scotland describes the approach as an immersive programme designed to intervene positively in the lives of vulnerable children, young people and their families. Music is the medium of the intervention but the success of the programme is not music proficiency.”
Asked by Councillor Jeremy McDonald whether there were plans to look at using the formula for activities other than music, am official said: “It wouldn’t be Sistema who would do that but the use of music or any other activity for social intervention is a growing agenda and there is a lot of interesting research.”
We have to get what’s happening with Big Noise into more Stirling areas