PERSPECTIVES Optimism and Opportunity: Reflections from the Music Mark Conference

What’s the feeling around Music Education Hubs about singing and music making to support mental health & wellbeing? Baz Chapman attended the Music Mark Conference in Nottingham in November to find out.

It was great to be able to join Sing Up colleagues and attend the Music Mark Conference, to represent the Sing Up Foundation and to be a panellist for a session on Wellbeing in Schools. Music Mark is the membership body for music education in the UK, and I’ve been attending their conferences for the last 20 years or so.

Baz Chapman (right) and Simon Lock during their presentation at the Music Mark Conference in November 2025. (PHOTO: Dan Wray Photography and Music Mark)

What’s cooking at the moment?

There was clear optimism about the Government’s Curriculum & Assessment Review Final Report, particularly its commitment to the (we think, immediate) removal of the EBacc, addressing inequity of access and diversified programmes of study.

What jumped out most for me was that inclusion is now being talked about and addressed as a central part of music education provision, rather than an add-on. And the insights, both from presenters and from the people I spoke with, were encouraging and showed a widespread commitment, passion and skill for this work.

What about mental health & wellbeing?

Around the country, Music Education Hubs are building stronger connections with public health bodies, social prescribing and schools to explore how music can act more as a frontline intervention for mental health problems in children & young people. I was inspired to hear about numerous examples, and to start thinking about how the Sing Up Foundation could partner with some of these localised strategic approaches.

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I noted down a few powerful quotes from sessions I attended:

“Lyricism is so important with engaging young people…. Drawing upon lived experiences you get the best out of them…. Treat them like artists because they are, I’m guided by them” – Joe Cook, Coventry Music

“There aren’t many spaces in the school day for pure creativity” - Aileen Sweeney, composer

“We’re all in it to break down barriers to opportunity” - Nathaniel Dye, Music Mark Champion

“A lot of young people have a passion for music but if they don’t hear it in the curriculum, they vote with their feet” Wizdom Lane, Music Education Council

“Mutual trust, shared knowledge and combined ambition are the building blocks of equity in music education” – Ian Burton, Nottingham Music Service

“The more you let go of the hard outcomes of a session, the whole range of outcomes happen. And no-one achieves that like young people” – Matt Bromley, Southampton and Isle of Wight Music

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Panel discussion

I joined chair Abi Marrison from Music Mark and Simon Lock from West of England Music and Arts for a session exploring music and wellbeing in schools.

Abi shared some of the hard-to-swallow statistics about children & young people’s mental health:

• In 2023, one in five 8–25-year-olds had a probable mental health condition

• Children referred for emergency mental healthcare rose by 10% between 2023 and 2024 with many stuck on NHS waiting lists

• Suicide was the leading cause of death for people aged 5-35 in England in 2022. Around three quarters were boys or young men

• 32.8% of 17–24-year-olds have self-harmed or attempted to self-harm at some point

Simon talked about music therapy, its role in schools and its place on a spectrum of musical interventions:

A slide that Simon shared during his presentation at the Music Mark Conference.

It was really useful to view musical provision for mental health & wellbeing in this context. However, I reflected that there might be a gap between Wellbeing and Music Therapy, where non-music therapists are working with young people in very challenging circumstances and directly tackling mental ill-health at a deeper level than wellbeing. I also mentioned that, in some of our conversations with music therapists and practitioners, there was support for greater crossover between music participation and music therapy, whilst continuing to be aware of clinical boundaries. Music leaders and music therapists working toget

her could achieve exciting things, and Simon and I are going to talk further about how we might explore this aspect of our work.

For more information, check out Sing Up Foundation's guide to Music Therapy and Music Participation.

Check out our Guide to Music Therapy & Music Participation

My contributions were twofold:

Firstly I outlined the strength of formal research evidence which exists to support singing and vocal work as a way to address mental health problems:

A slide shared by Baz Chapman during his presentation at the Music Mark Conference.

It is particularly the areas of weak/insufficient evidence that the Sing Up Foundation wants to explore further, aiming to work with partners to carry out action research with a view to increasing the evidence base.

Secondly, I introduced the initial findings of our emerging State of Play report, a summary of everything we’ve learned so far about singing and vocal work to support mental health & wellbeing for children & young people. The report will be published in early 2026, but I shared some of the headlines, including:

·       The ‘how’ matters as much as the ‘what’

·       Intersectionality compounds risk

·       Infrastructure is non-negotiable, particularly around practitioner wellbeing

·       Critical evidence gaps remain

I sensed genuine interest from a wide range of delegates and came away feeling positive and inspired to continue our work, and excited to build some new partnerships as a direct result of this excellent conference.

More details about the Music Mark Conference 2025 at conference.musicmark.org.uk