Arts Council England (ACE) and the Department for Education (DfE) have announced the next steps in the Music Hub Investment Programme.

Following the DfE's statement in the National Plan for Music Education to 'see a reduced number of Hub Lead Organisations establishing partners across wider geographical areas' and several focus groups and a survey carried out in January, the new proposals have been released.

The DfE have updated their rationale for the newly proposed geographic areas, which will see the number of Lead Organisations potentially drop from 117 to 43, with most covering multiple Local Authorities.

More details on these geographic areas, including maps, can be found on the Arts Council website.

A second survey is being carried out regarding the proposals which is open until 5pm on Friday 31 March. This survey asks respondents to consider the geographic areas in relation to the rationale and answer the question 'Does the proposed geographic area appropriately reflect the updated rationale and how children and young people, families, communities, schools access music education and creative cultural experiences?' Respondents can comment on every location or the one which is most relevant to them.

We would encourage you to either complete this survey or contact us with your thoughts, which we will then feed back to ACE and the DfE.