Fee Remission Policy

Financial Support for music provision between September 2025 to July 2026 

Students living or attending school in Trafford Metropolitan Borough may be able to get financial support for instrumental or vocal lessons with Trafford Music Service (TMS) teachers. 

Trafford Music Service is committed to enriching lives, inspiring a love of music for all. It is our priority to deliver this vision and place our values at the heart of what we do. We are focused on serving our young people and believe that all children should have access to high quality music provision. Trafford Music Service will continue to actively aspire to achieve this aim, working with our community and partners. 

This policy aims to set out how Trafford Music Service can support children and young people to access our musical activities where finance is a barrier.  

This remission policy has been created to provide a clear procedure for the financial support that is available from Trafford Music Service for this academic year. We acknowledge that to provide an equitable service, there is more that can be done to achieve our aim. We will continue to review our policy annually to strive for better support for our community to the best of our ability.   

Details of our financial support 

• Financial support is granted for one academic year only, and once successfully applied for at any stage in the year, all invoices for the rest of the academic year will have the discount applied.   

• Applications for remission of fees should be done at the time of registration for lessons / orchestras / ensembles / instrument hire. 

• Discounts cannot be retrospectively applied for previous terms’ lessons/ensembles within an academic year.   

• It is necessary to re-apply for financial support at the end of the summer term in readiness for the new academic year.   

• Continued eligibility for financial support is subject to satisfactory attendance and continued progress.  

• Financial support is subject to funding availability. Please note that confirmation that a pupil is eligible for help with music fees through this scheme does not guarantee that your child will receive financial support.   

• Students must attend a maintained school. 

• Trafford Music Service operates a waiting list once all available funding is fully allocated.   

Please note that the following is not applicable for universal infant free school meals.

Trafford Music Service Claremont Music Centre Lessons, Ensembles & Instrument Hire 

TMS provides a fee remission for children who are eligible for free school meals of up to: 

• 50% off TMS Claremont Music Centre lessons (this includes Infant sessions and Rock Academy)  

• 90 % off ensemble membership  

• 90% off instrument hire  

Please note, free school meals fees remission is only available for one lesson, one ensemble membership, and one instrument hire.  

Click here to view costs for September 2025 – August 2026

TMS Lessons In School 

Individual schools may wish to subsidise the tuition cost through school funding. Please speak to the school directly about any specific support available for students.    

Free School Meals Eligibility 

Your child may be able to get free school meals if you receive any of the following:  

• Income Support  

• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance  

• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance  

• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999  

• The guaranteed element of Pension Credit  

• Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)  

• Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit  

• Universal Credit – if you apply on or after 1 April 2018, your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get) 

Children who get paid these benefits directly, instead of through a parent or guardian, can also get free school meals. 

What evidence do I need to provide?

Trafford Music Service will require evidence of the child receiving free school meals. The evidence must be dated and must include the name of the parent / carer.  

How to apply 

To apply for a free school meals remission, please make a discount application when you apply for lessons using your online music service account.  

Thanks to generous financial support provided from Trafford Virtual School, we are able to offer all Trafford looked after children support to access our TMS instrumental and vocal provision and to hire an instrument either at the Claremont Music Centre or in school (depending on school provision in place). 

Financial support is awarded for looked after children once, covering each academic year (September to August) via an online application process, including the submission of our short application form and subject to approval from Trafford Music Service and Trafford Virtual School.  

How to apply  

To apply for looked after child funding from Trafford Virtual School, please complete a discount application form when you apply for lessons using your online music service account. Trafford Music Service will then liaise with Trafford Virtual School to confirm eligibility and funding available. 

Please note that any funding requests should be recorded in the child’s Personal Education Plan for the application to be progressed. 

Trafford Music Service provides a sibling discount of 50% to our ensemble membership.  

The discount requires one sibling to be paying the full ensemble membership fee.  

The discount is applied to the lowest ensemble fee(s) if you child(ren) attends more than one Junior or Senior ensemble.  

There is no limit on the number of siblings that can receive this remission.   

Trafford Music Service provides a discount of 50% to each additional ensemble that a student joins in addition to their first ensemble (the discount will be applied to the lowest remaining ensemble fees). Please note that this does not include Infants, Rock Academy, Music Production, School Clubs, Junior Voices or Youth Voices.  

Students who receive any of the available remissions and bursaries are required to give their full commitment to all activities and have regular and punctual attendance at all rehearsals, courses and performances.   

Trafford Music Service reserves the right to withdraw funding should students fail to meet the expected level of commitment and progress. The remission will be reviewed regularly, and continued funding is subject to students demonstrating the required level of commitment and progress.  

Payment plans are available to spread out the cost across the term. Plans can be arranged to be divided into three payments across the period of one school term.  

Please contact our office team for more information, email music.service@trafford.gov.uk or call 0161 911 8659. 

You may be eligible to purchase an instrument for your child through Trafford Music Service using the national scheme known as the Assisted Instrument Purchase Scheme. Trafford Music Service is part of the Greater Manchester Music Hub and we therefore hold large purchasing contracts with instrument suppliers meaning that we can often get better prices on instruments.  

The Assisted Instrument Purchase Scheme (AIPS) allows us to purchase a musical instrument on your behalf exclusive of VAT. We do however charge a £5 or 5% administration fee (whichever is greater). By purchasing your instrument this way, you could see up to a 15% saving on your purchase. 

To qualify for AIPS with Trafford Music Service, the instrument must be: 

• Sold to ourselves, and then supplied to you. 

• Appropriate to the pupil’s needs, meaning: the correct size, an adequate quality of instrument to fit the student’s level, and portable. 

 
To qualify for AIPS with Trafford Music Service, the student must: 

• Be receiving musical tuition at a local authority school, an academy, in either a school orchestra or local authority orchestra, or in a local music hub.  Lessons with Trafford Music Service automatically qualify a student for the AIPS scheme. 

• Be registered with Trafford Music Service on SpeedAdmin. 

• Use the instrument purchased as part of their musical education. 

Purchases are subject to admin fee of £5 if under £100, and 5% if £100 and above. Because of this, we do not run AIPS for instruments cheaper than £40 as there would be little to no savings made after the £5 admin fee. 

Trafford Music Service must be informed immediately of any changes in circumstances. If something changes and the student no longer meets the remission criteria, we may ask you to pay the total amount for the lessons. We have the right to recover any underpayment of fees.   

It may be possible, depending on funding, for Trafford Music Service to authorise other bursaries in exceptional circumstances. These applications will be approved on a case-by-case basis by the senior leadership team. 

Parents, carers, social workers or teachers may apply for a fee remission on a young person’s behalf.   

You must have an online Trafford Music Service account with the child registered and complete the discount application form online.  

If you are not able to complete the online form, please contact our office team who will be happy to support you with the process. 

Phone: 0161 911 8659 

Email: music.service@trafford.gov.uk