In the late 1980s the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic became one of the first orchestras in the country to form an education department, developing a range of projects including outreach work in schools and the Phil Power family concert series. Schools concerts have always formed a part of the post-second world war programme of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and now the annual schools' concert series reaches over thirteen thousand schoolchildren from across the North West of England and North Wales.

Over the last ten years the Education and Participation team has expanded to incorporate a variety of musical genres, establishing successful Youth, Community and Gospel Choirs, many local community development projects and the highly acclaimed Sea People project in 2000 involving many thousands of local people and children. Some forty thousand participants each year benefit from its education and participation programmes.