Baroness Keeley (Lab)

My Lords, the music and dance scheme or MDS is a vital gateway for talented children from disadvantaged backgrounds to access world-class training. It is a success story that we must protect to ensure the future pipeline of talented musicians and dancers in the UK. Schools such as Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester—technically independent but primarily funded through MDS—are in financial distress. Rising costs and the introduction of VAT on fees have compounded issues which were caused because government grants have been frozen or increased below inflation since 2011. Chetham’s actually made efficiencies to manage within budget, and says it would be breaking even this year without the increase in national insurance and the teachers’ pay rise. At the Hammond School in Chester, students come from Liverpool, Wigan and St Helens but every parent relies on financial support—whether from MDS, dance and drama awards, bursaries or charities. That school absorbed the VAT on fees, as it felt it could not pass it on to families. Now it is operating at a deficit and fears becoming financially unviable within two years. Chetham’s and the Hammond are vital to ensuring specialist training for children in the north of England. These are not typical fee-paying institutions. They are grant-funded centres of excellence in music and dance, serving children whose families cannot afford fees. I had the privilege on Sunday of speaking to Carlos Acosta, at an event where he was honoured for his outstanding contribution to British theatre. He came from a poor family—as one of 11 children—and received dance training at a state-funded school in Cuba, training that was crucial to his development. Carlos’s vision for Birmingham Royal Ballet centres on the development of future talent. He was therefore disturbed to hear of the financial pressures facing our dance schools. The music and dance scheme is not just a funding mechanism; it is a lifeline. It is the difference between a child from a low-income household accessing world-class training and never discovering their potential at all.