"Yes", says Rodney Rose, deputy leader of Oxfordshire County Council:

OXFORDSHIRE’S music service is highly valued by many people. I have attended concerts and events and can vouch for myself for the quality of the output the service provides.

It is a credit to our county. We want to see the music service flourish into the future.

The key is to find a way of doing this that is affordable and sustainable.

The fact that we are having to consider changed arrangements at all is an indication of just how difficult the decisions that lie ahead will be for the county council.

We’d rather not be in this position. However, we are in the same boat as councils up and down the land as we look ahead to future years.

Having already saved £127m since 2010, the county council may now have to save similar amounts again up to 2018 due to further cuts in grant from central government and Whitehall restrictions on how much finance can be raised via council tax.

We will know more about the exact level of savings expected during the early part of winter before we set our budget in February 2014.

Unfortunately that means there are exceptionally difficult decisions ahead, relating to the 80 per cent of local government services that the county council provides in Oxfordshire.

One potential way of making savings is to outsource some services.

Some county council services, such as property management, have been successfully outsourced since 1992, so the idea of outsourced services is not a new one.

The council is currently undertaking soft market testing to discover whether money may be saved by outsourcing services such as parts of human resources, finance and ICT as well as school support services.

A further service that is part of this exercise is the music service.

No decisions have been taken about the way forward.

We will know more about the results of the market testing later in the autumn – including whether the music service would be taken forward for consideration in terms of different ways of delivering that service.

"NO", says Martin Sheldon, former Senior County Music Adviser between 1974 to 1981:

 Emphatically no. The music service must not be outsourced for the simple reason that none of the companies would have a clue as to how to ‘manage’ a unique organisation which has developed over 55 years.

Thousands of pupils receive tuition on orchestral instruments from a skilled team of peripatetic teachers.

When proficient, these players can join a local music school for orchestral training and experience.

The highest skilled can join the Central Music School, where the orchestra reaches a high standard leading to the County Youth Orchestra, which can undertake overseas tours.

The way parents have supported all of this has been wonderful. Parents spend a small fortune in conveying their children to rehearsals and concerts.

It started in 1958 and was quite humble with just a handful of string teachers around the county. It has reached all through the school system.

Gradually it grew and a music school was established in Oxford and then local music schools were established in Henley, Witney and Banbury.

It expanded the whole time as it got more money from the county. We got more money which meant more teachers which meant we could take on more pupils.

We now have three or four different orchestras of varying standards. The County Youth Orchestra is of a very high standard indeed.

We also established a large stock of instruments we could lend out to children because instruments were expensive. The bassoon, harp, French horn – parents were spending hundreds of pounds.

The other thing is that research has shown over the years, if you are good at music and playing an instrument it helps your ordinary education to develop.

Why the county council is even thinking of outsourcing this jewel in its crown is beyond comprehension.