• This grant from Youth Music establishes The Family Music Hub (TFMH) as a leading national organisation for Family Music training and support.
• Over the next two years, this vital funding will help TFMH to work towards realising their ambition of bringing high quality, meaningful musical experiences to all young children regardless of background, economic status or location.

In partnership with Early Education, The Family Music Hub (TFMH) will spend the next two years developing, trialling and refining their CPD training programme with family workers in Northamptonshire, Central Bedfordshire and Birmingham. High quality resources will be created to support the programme and all their work will be underpinned by research from both academia and existing high quality practice. TFMH is delighted to announce that they will be partnering with NMPAT (Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust), Inspiring Music in Central Bedfordshire and Spurgeons in Birmingham.

Family workers across the country frequently lead low-cost or free music sessions with 0-5s and their families, however this workforce is typically undervalued and receives little or no support/training. TFMH believes that, as a result, numerous opportunities are missed to nurture families, develop musical skills and tastes and support young children and their families more widely. Through the work of TFMH, the status of early years music leaders will be raised and their work recognised as a crucial part of the support offered to families.

This initiative is backed by Youth Music, thanks to the National Lottery via Arts Council England. TFMH founders, Katie Neilson, Rosie Adediran and Nicola Burke are thrilled with the continued support from Youth Music.

The Family Music Hub’s vision is fast becoming the go-to organisation for all those delivering family music in the UK. It invites enquiries from organisations and individuals wishing to develop their practice and deliver more meaningful music sessions that reflect children and family’s heritage, backgrounds, wants and needs.

Early Education Chief Executive, Beatrice Merrick, said:

“We’re delighted to have been able to ‘incubate’ The Family Music Hub as an important resource for putting family music activities on a more evidence-based and inclusive footing.   This second tranche of Youth Music funding, will help The Family Music Hub to build up its portfolio and undertake some regional pilots of its training courses, and to go on to establish itself as the definitive source of training and resources for anyone making music with young children and families.”

Contact for further enquiries:

Contact: Katie Neilson, Rosie Adediran, Nicola Burke hello@thefamilymusichub.org

Notes to editors

1. Early Education

Early Education (The British Association for Early Childhood Education) is the leading independent national charity for early years practitioners and parents, campaigning for the right of all children to education of the highest quality.  Founded in 1923, it has members in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and provides a national voice on early childhood education and care of young children from birth to eight.  The organisation supports the professional development of practitioners through training and resources.  For more information on the work of Early Education visit www.early-education.org.uk

Early Education is registered as a charity in England and Wales (Registered Number 313082) and Scotland (Registered Number SC039472).

2. The Family Music Hub Team

Katie Neilson is a Music teacher with considerable experience in Early Childhood Music Education and Research.  In 2020, she completed her MA with CREC in which she explored musical parenting and new models of practice for family music classes. Katie has subsequently presented research at RiME 2021 and EUNet MERYC 2022.  Katie runs her own independent Early Childhood Music practice, Little Bees, but also works nationally as a freelance practitioner training and mentoring EY and Primary school teachers. Katie has worked with Voices Foundation since 2008 and, in 2016, Katie wrote their award winning book Inside Music: Early Years which is used extensively across the country.

Rosie Adediran is an early years and family music practitioner, singer and songwriter. She loves to create new music with family groups and under 3’s, with a special interest in working in perinatal mental health. She founded award-winning ‘London Rhymes’ (www.londonrhymes.com) in 2015, an initiative that involves collaborating with families to create new songs and rhymes. She was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Ideas and Pioneers fund in 2019, conducting Rhymes Reimagined, a research project, into the state of music provision across the UK for families with under 3’s and is passionate about the role that music can play in the lives of families with young children.

Nicola Burke is an author, strategic leader, researcher and consultant. She is currently the strategic leader of large workforce development initiatives taking place across Leicestershire and Birmingham, involving a range of arts and music organisations and Early Childhood services. She created the award-winning Tune into Listening  free online resource and in 2018 wrote Musical Development Matters in the Early Years, a free downloadable resource to complement the EYFS guidance material, Development Matters in the EYFS.  Nicola works nationally and internationally to strategically support organisations to develop their Early Childhood music programmes and initiatives.

3. About Youth Music

We believe that every young person should have the chance to change their life through music. Yet our research shows that many can’t because of who they are, where they’re from or what they’re going through. Our insights, influence and investment in grassroots organisations and to young people themselves means that more 0–25-year-olds from can make, learn and earn in music. Youth Music is a national charity funded thanks to the National Lottery via Arts Council England, players of People’s Postcode Lottery and support from partners, fundraisers and donors.