Source · Select Committees · Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Accepted
Arts and cultural education is important in its own right for the social benefits it...
Conclusion
Arts and cultural education is important in its own right for the social benefits it brings, but it is also an important factor in addressing issues of poor social mobility and the national skills shortage. While we welcome the Government’s efforts to introduce a National Plan for Music Education and Cultural Education Strategy, we have heard that education policy in the main can have a detrimental effect on the provision of education, training and skills development in this country. We remain concerned that cultural education is still seen as of lesser importance to the curriculum, which feeds negative perceptions of careers in the creative industries, discourages people with necessary skills from pursuing those careers and compounds issues of social mobility within the sector. (Paragraph 94) 58 Reimagining where we live: cultural placemaking and the levelling up agenda
Government Response Summary
The Government highlights its commitment to high-quality education, including arts, citing the national curriculum, funding for enriching activities, and investments in further education and skills development for the creative industries, but has no plans to expand the Music Hubs model to other art forms.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government is committed to high-quality education for all pupils, including the arts and creative subjects. Art & Design, and Music, are in the national curriculum which is compulsory for maintained schools for 5–14 year olds. Academies and free schools are not required to teach the national curriculum, but can use it as a benchmark and must deliver a broad and balanced curriculum that includes promoting cultural development of pupils. At Key Stage 4 all pupils in maintained schools have an entitlement to study an arts subject if they wish: over half of Key Stage 4 pupils in state-funded schools have taken an arts qualification over the past four years (2018/19 to 2021/22). We recognize that the arts are an essential part of a broad and balanced education and we have provided funding to assist schools to provide enriching activities for all pupils. The Department for Education has invested over £714m of funding between financial years 2016–17 and 2021–22 in a diverse portfolio of music and other cultural education programmes to ensure all children, whatever their background, have access to a high- quality cultural education. We will continue to invest around £115m per annum in cultural education over 2022–2023 to 2024–2025 over and above schools’ core budgets. These cultural education programmes such as Heritage Schools, Saturday Clubs and the BFI’s Film Academy, support curricular and extracurricular arts education and most have a focus on disadvantaged pupils for example by region (e.g. opportunity areas) and/or income. In addition, over £30m a year is spent in the Music and Dance Scheme, providing means- tested bursaries to over 2,000 young people showing the greatest potential in these art forms. Building pupils’ ‘cultural capital’ has been part of Ofsted Inspection judgements since 2019. In the Schools White Paper, published in March 2022, the Government committed to the publication of a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with Arts Council England, British Film Institute and Historic England. This will include how best to support young people who wish to pursue careers in our creative, cultural, and heritage industries, including learnings from industry-led schools and colleges such as the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology and East London Arts & Music. In August, the Government appointed crossbench peer Baroness Bull as the Chair of the Expert Advisory Panel for the forthcoming Plan. The National Plan for Music Education (NPME) was jointly published by DfE and DCMS in June 2022, and builds on the first Plan published in 2011. The refreshed Plan sets out a vision for music education to 2030–to enable all children and young people to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally. The NPME recognizes the importance of Music Hubs in addressing the unique challenges in supporting young people’s progression in music, with committed funding to 2025. In future, Music Hubs will develop plans around three aims: to support schools to deliver high-quality music education, support young people develop their musical interests, and support all young people to engage in a range of musical opportunities in and out of school. There are no plans to expand the Music Hubs model to other art forms, although Music Hubs already play a wider role to the cultural life of their local areas, under their own auspices. The Government is investing £3.8bn in further education and skills over the Parliament to ensure people can access high-quality training and education that addresses skills gaps in all sectors - including the creative industries - and boosts productivity. This includes: • Rolling out new T Levels in Craft and Design, and Media, Broadcast and Production in 2023. • Reforms to higher technical education (level 4/5), including the introduction of Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs). 32 Digital HTQs are available for teaching from this September. Creative and design HTQs will be first taught in 2025. • Skills Bootcamps in the creative industries, upskilling adults over 16 weeks in courses such as UI/UX design for games, web development and creative computing.