Cornwall Music Services Trust for local children

We provide office space, facilities and expertise. The Head is a Trustee to the Cornwall Music Services Trust (CMST) -  a not for profit organisation who work with Cornwall Education Hub providing instrumental teaching throughout Cornwall. CMST employs 120 staff and teaches in excess of 10,000 children throughout Cornwall.

Aims

CMST aims to deliver expert music tuition across schools in Cornwall.

In 2014 Cornwall Council announced that it was disbanding the music service. It was clear that county music would suffer if this happened and that a new charitable structure was needed to keep this social enterprise together.

CMST is now a financially viable charity, responsible for employing around 120 music teachers who deliver lessons to the vast majority of Cornwall’s schools

The immediate beneficiaries are the thousands of school children who have music tuition and belong to ensembles. The wider community benefit from the vast array of county music orchestras, choirs and ensembles

Background

Truro School teamed up with members of the old county music service to map out a vision for county music following the disbanding of the Cornwall Music Service.

It was a team effort to establish the vision and then identify the best structure for a new music service to evolve.

CMST went live on 1/1/2015.

Resources

Key resources are the charity trustees, the leadership and staff of the trust, the office space and computer systems.

CMST is based in office space at Truro School and uses Truro School facilities for trustee meetings, staff INSET etc. 

The Head is on the board of trustees, the Finance Director and Director of HR are on hand to give professional advice.

CMST pays Truro School a cost recovery annual fee which is a small fraction of the overheads they were charged under the previous county music service.

Impact

CMST is now a well established charitable trust, employing 120+ members of staff who deliver music to 80%+ of schools in Cornwall.

The staff employees are held accountable through an annual process of appraisal and have regular access to INSET.

The trustees are responsible for strategic direction and for setting the annual objectives for the Head of Service.

Pupil Involvement

Truro School pupils participate in the many county ensembles and choirs that are led by CMST staff, but the independent:state school partnership element comes at a more strategic level through the provision of trusteeship, professional support and facilities.

Frequency

Truro School won an award in 2015 for Outstanding Contribution to County Music and we are committed in the long term to support the CMST to thrive.