ADD2773 London Music Fund – Music Scholars Programme

1.1.    In June 2025 Mayoral Decision 3380 approved the delivery plan for the strategic programme, Supporting and Inspiring Young London (SIYL). This programme will contribute to the following core London-level outcomes: 

•    children and young Londoners achieve the health and learning outcomes they need to thrive at every stage of development 
•    children and young Londoners have the positive opportunities needed to be successful 
•    Londoners have the skills they need to improve their lives. 

1.2.    The SIYL delivery plan describes how the Greater London Authority (GLA) will work to bridge the gap between opportunity and offer; and enhance young Londoners’ ability to access these opportunities. The Mayor will work across London to bring together key partners, all delivering for young Londoners. This includes directly commissioning key programmes to work on meeting the most acute of these opportunity gaps. It includes activity towards meeting the Mayor’s commitment to provide 250,000 positive opportunities for young Londoners during this Mayoral term. 

1.3.     Mayoral Decision 3380 approved the establishment of the SIYL programme; and assigned the role of Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) to the Assistant Director, Civil Society and Sport. It also approved the delivery plan for the SIYL programme, including the resources allocated to it: namely, £527.8m revenue funding across 2025-26, 2026-27, and 2027-28 (as set out in the delivery plan). Mayoral Decision 3380 delegated authority to the Assistant Director, Civil Society and Sport, to approve the receipt of any additional funding from central government, or other sources, to expand or extend existing approved projects contained in the SIYL delivery plan, where the parameters of the project remain the same or similar, and after consulting with legal advisors and the GLA’s Chief Finance Officer, and having subsequently secured agreement from the Mayoral Delivery Board.

1.4.     Mayoral Decision 3380 also approved (where this is not already covered by a delegation in an existing Mayoral Decision) the delegation of authority to the Assistant Director, Civil Society and Sport, to approve expenditure funded by the resources allocated to the delivery plan, or income under the terms set out in Mayoral Decision 3380, for projects listed in paragraphs 1.18 and 1.19 of that decision. The London Music Fund is cited in paragraph 1.19 of Mayoral Decision 3380. 

1.5.    As part of the process of approving Mayoral delivery plans, the governance around spending has also changed for delivery plans’ Senior Responsible Officers (SROs). In delivery plans, there are three categories of projects:

•    where the project is already set out in detail in an approved Mayoral Decision and the SRO has delegated authority to proceed to make expenditure decisions included in that legacy decision form (Category 1)
•    where the project budget is defined in the delivery plan; and the delivery plan Mayoral Decision, once approved by the Mayor, provides delegation for the SRO to take expenditure decisions outside of the thresholds stated in the current Mayoral Decision-Making Framework (MDM) (Category 2)
•    where the project is less well-defined at present and will need a further Mayoral Decision to set the strategic direction of the budget (Category 3).

1.6.     This request falls under Category 2, in that the amount requested is in excess of the thresholds for delegated decisions, as set out in the current MDM, but the delegation to the delivery plan SRO as set out in Mayoral Decision 3380 allows for this. 

1.7.    The London Music Fund (LMF) is an established independent charity, celebrating its fifteenth anniversary in April 2026, with an excellent reputation for providing support and opportunities for young people in the capital and achieving outstanding outcomes for these young people. The Mayor is the patron of the LMF.
 

2.1.    The budget of £78,000 will provide opportunities for young people from low-income and diverse backgrounds to realise and fulfil their potential through musical education, increasing their confidence and skills and providing them with an equal opportunity to pursue their musical talents and ambitions, which have the potential to improve life chances.   

2.2.    Funding supports the charity’s scholarship programme, allowing young Londoners to access tuition with their local Music Education Hubs.   It will provide a total of 78 specialist positive opportunities for young Londoners ensuring young people are equipped to gain good employment and career progression.

2.3.    The funding for the London Music Fund (LMF) will:

•    enable 26 young Londoners per annum to receive weekly 1-1 instrumental tuition through the LMF Scholarship programme, delivered by their local borough music service (78 specialised positive experiences for young people across the term of the funding agreement)
•    enable scholars to take part in weekend or after-school music school / ensemble activity at their local borough music service
•    enable scholars’ families to attend concerts and performances in which their child is participating 
•    support scholars and their families with a dedicated mentor  
•    support LMF to offer free tickets to a range of professional concerts, enabling the scholars to widen their experiences.
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Mayor and GLA must comply with the public sector equality duty and must have due regard to the need to:

•    eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act
•    advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not
•    foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not.

3.2.    The London Music Fund actively promotes cultural diversity across its programmes of work, sharing good practices and case studies on access and inclusion. The programme is targeted at supporting young Londoners from low-income families and will actively ensure an ethnically diverse group of participants.
 

4.1.    The programme outlined in this decision also links to the following Mayoral strategies and mandates:

•    Culture for All Londoners - the Mayor’s landmark strategy for culture, which outlines an ambitious vision to ensure all Londoners can engage with and contribute to the capital’s rich cultural offering on their doorsteps
•    The Positive Opportunities work strand within the Supporting and Investing in Young Londoners programme.

4.2.    The main risk, and its mitigation, is outlined in the table below: 

Conflicts of interest

4.3.    There are no conflicts of interest to note for any of the officers involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision form.
 

5.1.    This decision is seeking approval for up to £78,000 expenditure to deliver the scholars programme over three years.

5.2.    This will be funded as part of the Culture, Creative Industries and 24-Hour London Unit budget with £26,000 per annum (2025-26, 2026-27, 2027-28). The budget was approved as part of the 2025-26 budget. Future year’s budgets will still be subject to the annual budget setting process. Any changes in the anticipated profile of spend across the years will be reflected as updates during the budget setting process.  

5.3.    This programme is included in the Supporting and Inspiring Young Londoners delivery plan (Mayoral Decision 3380). The budget aligns to this delivery plan.
 

6.1.    The project will be delivered according to the following timetable: