Public consultation on proposed changes to the Music and Performing Arts Service (MAPAS)

Salford City Council has recently consulted on the restructure of the Music and Performing Arts Service in light of changes to the funding situation both locally and nationally. This consultation ended on 16 March 2012. As a result of this consultation the decision was made at the beginning of April for Salford MAPAS to become a commissioned service and move to be part of Salford Community Leisure.

So what does this mean for you as parent/carers of students of pupils who are taught by MAPAS or who attend the arts centre?

School tuition: MAPAS will continue to offer the same level of service to all Salford Schools including the wider opportunities programme, individual and small group instrumental tuition, whole class curriculum delivery in music and drama and whole school singing sessions known as Jump Start to Singing. These sessions will be delivered by quality staff all with the relevant qualifications and experience to ensure the standard of delivery remains high.

Arts centre: The biggest change that will take place from September 2012 is that the MAPAS arts centres will move from the Swinton High School to Moorside High School. For many years the new school, being built on the East Lancashire Road, has been planned as the base for MAPAS administration and arts centre delivery. It therefore seemed practical for us to move to the school, prior to the opening of the building, to establish good working practices and relationships with the school based staff. The decision to leave Swinton has been a difficult one as we have built up an excellent partnership over the years that has enabled both the service and the school to benefit in many ways. This is something we hope to develop in our new home.

MAPAS will continue, through the arts centres and in partnership with schools, to deliver high quality opportunities for young people to perform with others in a range of ensembles and genres through music, dance and drama. As we do every year we will take time to evaluate the current programme and in September the full range of activities will be published.

Proposal for the redesigned MAPAS Service

You can download a copy of the consultation report below which details the proposals. In summary it is proposed that Children's Services would commission Salford Community Leisure (SCL) to deliver this service from 1 September 2012. Independent tutors would be commissioned by SCL.

Another local authority has recently moved to this model of delivery and have shared their model in detail (see appendix 1 In the MAPAS consultation report for suggested charges for a commissioned service). Fees for Salford's proposed commissioned service have now been developed and are now also available below.

Who to contact

Name

MAPAS Consultation

Address

Children's Services
Unity House
Chorley Road
Swinton
M27 5AW
Map to this location

Telephone

0161 778 0135

Email

CSDBusinessSupport@salford.gov.uk

This page was last updated on 23 May 2012