Lord Storey (LD)

My Lords, first, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Featherstone on winning the ballot—or getting in the top 20. I have every confidence that this Bill will go the distance, because my noble friend has a track record. She fought to make sure that the equal marriage Bill got through Parliament. She brought it to Parliament and made sure that it got through, and I think she will be successful in this as well. I look forward very much to hearing the maiden speech from the noble Baroness, Lady Mackenzie of Sherwood. “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge”. I did not say that; Albert Einstein did. He went on to say that education should inspire curiosity. For very young children, the best way to learn is through play: at the sand tray or water tray, they can learn to co-operate, share and even discuss; with construction toys, they can learn to assemble and to develop new skills. But, as we get older, it very much becomes fact-based. There is nothing wrong, in my view, with learning facts, but it should also be about asking why and challenging. Education should not be about just regurgitating a whole series of information, but using the facts to understand and think critically. Of course, in creative education, the approach is for students to use their imagination and critical thinking to develop new ideas and solutions to problems, and to build new thoughts instead of just memorising those facts—core concepts such as divergent thinking, for example. One of my favourite films is “The History Boys”, where these disaffected young lads have a teacher who is a bit of a rebel but who motivates them—by drama, by reading out aloud, and by challenging. Those should be almost the hallmarks of our own education system. When we think of the cultural side of creative education, we think particularly of the arts. As we know and have heard from virtually every Peer, the Government introduced the infamous EBacc, which specified which suite of subjects should be taken in schools at GCSE. Not one of those subjects, of course, was a creative arts subject—surprisingly, given how much the creative industries earn for the economy—so head teachers and chief executives of multi-academy trusts, under budgetary pressures, or themselves perhaps not realising the value of arts subjects, decided in many schools to reduce the number of creative subjects taught, or to even abandon them completely to save money. Schools also face the difficulty of getting a qualified teacher in these subjects, whether it be music, dance, drama, or design and technology. The EBacc, as my noble friend Lady Bonham-Carter rightly said, wreaked havoc on the creative and performing arts in England. The results are there for us all to see. In music, there is a severe and worsening shortage of teachers. The number of music trainees fell by 51% between 2010 and 2024-25, and, over the decade, the number of entrants to study music dropped by 41%. Arts and design saw qualified teachers drop by 27%. In design and technology, it went from 15,000 teachers to 6,300 teachers, and it is believed to be heading to 4,500 teachers. It is the same picture for drama and dance. There are fewer qualified teachers and fewer students taking GCSEs in the creative arts than ever before—and so, of course, fewer students going to university and fewer graduates going into teaching to create those creative subjects. It is very much a vicious circle created by government. Of course, the same is not true of the independent sector. The answer from government has been, “Oh, we have created these local various hubs”. I am sure hubs are important—I have to say that I have never been to a hub, so I am talking blind here—but I want every school to be a hub of creative arts. I want to give noble Lords an example of something that changed my life in terms of the arts. When I was leader of Liverpool City Council—I am sorry to go on about this—we bid to become European Capital of Culture, and we won that bid, but we created a programme called Creative Partnerships, which was to give money directly to communities. One of the grants that was given was actually life-changing for those young students. It was to an 11 to 16 church secondary school in the city centre. There was appalling deprivation in the area, with high levels of anti-social behaviour, truancy and absenteeism. The boys wanted to make a film—and why not? We gave them a grant with which they employed a film director. The film was produced. I think that it was called “It’s All OK”. The premiere was black tie and red carpet. I went along. The film was okay, but what was important were the skills that they had learned. The teacher was Miss Jones. After the success of that film and the work they collaboratively did together, they said, “We’d like to become teachers ourselves”. It was an 11 to 16 school. “We don’t want to go to an FE college. We want to stay in our community, in our school”. Miss Jones offered to come in on a Saturday morning and teach those lads to do drama and English. Of those boys, three became teachers. Through the arts, through pump-priming, that happened. I have listened in this debate to so many wise words from colleagues. It is not just about what happens in schools but giving young people right across the board the opportunity in the arts. I developed my passion in the arts by going to the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton and seeing a number of shows, then being taken by my parents to the Playhouse, the country’s oldest rep theatre. I remember seeing Vivien Leigh and being inspired by actors. I used to take my pupils to museums and art galleries. But if you are in a deprived community, how do you do that? How do you afford that? As we heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Gill, we can bring theatre companies into schools, which is good, but it is not the only way of doing it. We must find ways of providing those opportunities for all children. Noble Lords have said so many wise words. I was interested in what the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, said. I too failed my 11-plus, so we have something in common. I agree that art can be life-changing. I love the analogy of the parachute that works best when it is open. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, on the importance of design technology in creating skills. The noble Earl, Lord Clancarty—I never know whether it is Earl or Lord these days—is right that in many schools there is now an institutional bias against the arts. We must get back not just arts teaching but all the paraphernalia that goes with it—the equipment, the materials, the kiln for doing pottery, et cetera. The noble Baroness, Lady Bousted, made the point about the pipeline drying up if we are not careful. That is so important. My noble friend Lady Bonham-Carter raised the BBC, which does fantastic arts programmes, from the Proms to Glastonbury, but my worry is that every time it makes cuts, everybody blames the BBC. It is not the BBC that is making the cuts. We are making the cuts because we are not funding the BBC properly. Can the Government get a move on with this, because it will be death by a thousand cuts if we are not careful. My noble friend Lady Hamwee was right to talk about the expressive arts and absolutely right that it is not just about passing exams. The noble Baroness, Lady Gill, also talked about learning a musical instrument. She is absolutely right. It can open up new horizons. One oboe can change the world for you. I end where I started, with my noble friend Lady Featherstone, whose words link to what the noble Baroness, Lady Gill, said. Schools might be the only place where somebody can pick up a musical instrument or perform in a play. Young people from every background deserve the right to have creative art running right through their school.