Creative Education Access Bill [HL]
Friday, 11 September 2026
Contributions
Second Reading
Moved by
Baroness Featherstone
That the Bill be now read a second time.
Baroness Featherstone (LD)
My Lords, first, let me congratulate the Minister, welcome her to her place and wish her all the very best. This is a gentle start, I hope. This Bill has the support of many organisations, and I give thanks to the Cultural Learning Alliance, the National Society for Education in Art and Design, the National Theatre, the Independent Society of Musicians, Arts and Minds, the Independent Schools Council and the National Education Union, among many others. For far too long, creative education has been treated as an optional extra in our schools, a luxury to be squeezed in when time and budgets allow. Yet creativity is not just some sort of enrichment activity. It is a fundamental human capacity—one of the defining strengths of the British economy—and by creative education, I mean music, art, drama, dance, creative writing, design, film and digital media, as well as newer areas such as gaming and other forms of creative technology. These subjects matter in their own right, but they also help children to develop confidence, imagination, communication, collaboration and problem-solving. They give children the chance to make things: to perform, experiment, take risks and find out what they are capable of. For some children, that can be particularly important, because a child who struggles in one part of school life can discover through music, drama, dance, art and design that they are good at something. That discovery can affect how they see themselves and how they approach literally the rest of their lives. In too many schools, creative subjects have come under pressure from crowded timetables, accountability measures, financial constraints, and the misguided view that creativity is a “nice to have”. There is another hugely important challenge. There is deep inequality in this country, depending on wealth or location, and so often, where there is a creative deficit, families who can pay for music lessons, dance classes, theatre trips, art materials or other opportunities outside school, do—of course they do—or they send their children to private school when that provision is regarded as truly important. But many cannot and for those children, school may be the only place where they get the chance to pick up an instrument, perform, paint, design, write creatively or experience live theatre, dance or music. That is why access matters so much. A child’s opportunity to discover and develop a creative ability should never ever depend on their parents’ income, where they live or which school they happen to attend. The Cultural Learning Alliance found that almost half of teachers in independent primary schools report more than two and a half hours of art teaching each week, but in state primaries, only 6% do. That gap is totally unacceptable and we must not ignore it. At key stage 3, the overall direction is a loss of curriculum time for creative subjects and that decline is reflected in the teaching workforce. The alliance also found that, while the overall secondary teacher workforce grew by nearly 7% between 2011 and 2023, the number of teachers in expressive arts subjects fell by 27%— I repeat, 27%. In design and technology, the fall was more than half, and in drama more than a fifth. We have to make sure that we have the teachers with the skills and confidence to teach it. The five hours a week that this Bill proposes at key stages 1 and 2, and four hours at key stage 3, are deliberately ambitious and are intended to give creative education its proper place in the school week, rather than leaving it to compete for whatever time is left over. Of course, I am not suggesting that every school should deliver those hours in exactly the same way. Schools obviously need flexibility, and there will be different ways of providing a strong creative education, but there must be protected space for that. The Bill also provides for a creative access guarantee, financial assistance, inspection, partnerships with the creative sector and better information about creative careers and apprenticeships. Those wider provisions are important because creative education is not just about what happens in the classroom. We are so very fortunate in this country to have an extraordinary range of theatres, galleries, museums, orchestras, dance companies, film-makers, designers, artists, games companies and other creative organisations. There need to be much stronger links between those organisations and our schools. A visit to the theatre or to a gallery, concert or creative workplace can make an idea real for a child, in a way that classroom teaching alone cannot, and so many children do not come from backgrounds where they can get that any other way. There is also a powerful economic argument. The creative industries are one of the UK’s major economic successes. The latest government figures show that the creative industries contributed nearly £146 billion to the UK economy in 2024. That is around 5.5% of our total economic output and nearly seven times the contribution of the automotive manufacturing industry. The creative industries grew more than four times as fast as the economy as a whole last year. If this Government are interested in growth, I suggest they do everything my Bill says. This is already one of Britain’s great economic strengths and, if we want it to remain so, we have to make sure the next generation has the opportunity to develop the creativity and skills on which those industries depend. Young people from every background need to see that creative careers are open to them and have the opportunity to develop the skills that those careers will require. The case for creative education does not rest on the jobs that it may lead to, because most children who learn music are not going to become musicians, and most who take part in the school play will not become actors—although I used to do a lot of school plays, and they do say that politics is showbiz for ugly people. Anyway, that is not the point; these subjects are part of a rounded education and have value in their own right. We have even more challenges ahead of us. The world of work is changing quickly, particularly with the development of artificial intelligence and automation, and we do not really know for sure what many jobs are going to look like in 10 or 20 years—if we are alive. If no one understood that reference, it is the prediction that there is a 10% chance AI will kill us within the next 10 years. Sorry, I assumed that everyone kept up with the news. Originality, imagination, adaptability and the ability to make connections between different ideas are unlikely to become less important. Indeed, as AI becomes capable of producing words, images, music and ideas in seconds, there is a risk—I would say a likelihood, having read some things that AI has written—that more and more of what we see and hear will begin to look and sound the same. Human originality will be at a premium. I know that the Government recognise many of these concerns, and there is already work under way on the curriculum and on improving access to creative subjects. I welcome that and I particularly welcome the Government’s decision to move away from the dreadful EBacc. I am dovetailing with the Government here. I very much hope and trust that the Government will see this Bill as being very much in the same territory, and as an opportunity to strengthen what the Government are trying to achieve, but at a younger age. There will be questions, obviously, about the number of hours proposed, resources, inspection and implementation. I am open to those discussions, but obviously, the purpose of a Second Reading is to establish whether the principle of the Bill is one the House supports. I hope that there will be broad agreement on the principle. Creative education should have a secure place in our schools, and every child should have the opportunity to discover what they can do. I beg to move.
Baroness Keeley (Lab)
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, on her Bill and the way she opened this Second Reading. I also welcome my noble friend the Minister to her place. I look forward to her maiden speech today and to working with her. Last week we had a debate on the Government’s priorities. I focused on creative education and the importance of making changes to improve the uptake of music in our state schools. Our Labour Government inherited an education system in which the EBacc had squeezed music education and other arts education from the curriculum. In music this damaged both music teacher recruitment and retention and contributed to declining GCSE and A-level entries. Recruitment targets for music teacher training were missed for 11 out of 12 years, and the number of music teachers fell by 850 between 2011 and 2023. A-level music remains in crisis. Entries have fallen by 41% since 2013 to a record low of 4,635 students, while GCSE music entries are around 27% lower than they were in 2010. As the noble Baroness said in her opening speech, this decline has not affected all young people equally. Music has one of the largest disadvantage attainment gaps of any subject. Schools in the most deprived fifth of local authorities are more likely to have no entries in some arts GCSEs. Some 54% of state schools in those areas have no GCSE music entries, compared with 21% in the least deprived authorities. I thank Professor Adam Whittaker of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Dr Anthony Anderson of Birmingham City University for the research they do on disadvantage-related attainment gaps in music education, and for providing briefings on it. Their work found that, in 18 local authorities, either only one school offers a music qualification—A-level or vocational—or, in the worst cases, none do. The list of authorities includes Knowsley, Hartlepool, South Tyneside, Rochdale, Salford and Tameside, as well as four London boroughs. As a former Salford MP, it breaks my heart to see the Salford local authority included in that list. The Social Mobility Commission found that children from poorer backgrounds are three times less likely to learn an instrument, sing in a choir or play in an orchestra. Recently, I attended an event hosted by the excellent Royal Philharmonic Society, where three of our most gifted young musicians, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Ben Goldscheider and Jess Gillam, discussed the state of music education. These musicians were worried that music education is not in a great place and said that “it’s not what it was”. Like many musicians, they do what they can to support music in our schools, but they cannot solve these issues as individuals. It falls to us in this place to create a better future for both arts and music education in our state schools. The United Kingdom’s music industry is one of our greatest success stories: it generates £8 billion for the economy and supports 220,000 jobs. Every performer, composer, producer, sound engineer, technician and educator begins somewhere. If we weaken music education, and arts education more broadly, we weaken the talent pipeline that feeds our universities, conservatoires, orchestras and creative industries. I welcome the Government’s commitment to removing the EBacc performance measure, but removing a barrier is only the first step. We must rebuild the music teacher workforce, restore effective teacher training incentives, such as the bursary, expand access to instrumental tuition and ensure that children in disadvantaged communities have the same opportunities as those elsewhere. Music education is about far more than producing professional musicians; it helps young people to develop creativity, confidence, resilience and collaboration. My hope is that we can create an education system where every child and young person, whatever their background, has the chance to choose music and benefit from all that it offers. Today’s Second Reading debate brings a welcome focus to the subject of creative education and the issues and challenges of restoring it after the damage done in recent years. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, for enabling that focus through the Bill.
The Earl of Clancarty (CB)
My Lords, I look forward to the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Mackenzie of Sherwood. I note that a DCMS Minister is answering an education debate; I hope that is a sign that joined-up thinking is finally going to be a thing. I very much support every part of the Bill and congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, on introducing it. Arts education in schools is important on many levels. The arts are an integral component of a democratic society, and it is the right of young people—indeed, a UN right of the child—to have both access to the arts and an opportunity to engage with them at an early age. We talk a lot about literacy—conventional, digital and even financial literacy—but less about cultural, visual or aural literacy. Within that context, I will make a particular point about neurodivergent students. There are estimates that up to a third of NEETs, or even more, have some form of neurodivergence. The question must arise: if we know there is a connection between creativity and neurodivergent conditions, how much is the decline of creative education in schools and the lack of opportunities responsible, at least in part, for the high numbers of NEETs? I am not convinced that putting a lot of these young people into retail is necessarily the right long-term answer. Research into these areas is sparse, though what there is points in a certain direction. Might the Government consider commissioning research into this whole area, which would be of help to both education and employment? One thing that many would want to change is the negative perception of those with neurodivergent conditions. What is a negative is the narrow belief that the academic route should necessarily represent the gold standard or the only approach to education. The major problem that creative education in schools currently has is the structural deficit from so many years of a decline that is still continuing, despite the removal of the EBacc. As Arts and Minds points out, GCSE entries to creative subjects are down by 47% since 2010. In many schools, there is now an institutionalised bias away from the arts that needs to be reversed; that will be difficult. This Bill puts the hours in place, but there is also the shortage of specialist art teachers, including in primary schools. We need, as has been said, to bring back ITT bursaries for art subjects, and in a big way. The reference point should be not the last year but 2010, since when there has been a huge loss in arts teachers. Much more money must be spent on arts in schools, so that we get back musical instruments, art materials and studios. The Bill says “may”, but it ought to be “must”. School libraries are also important. Books are not just about the written word—they include art books. As Julia Donaldson pointed out at the Publishers Association reception on Tuesday, we also need school librarians to point students in the right direction. Rightly, the Bill encourages partnerships with theatres, museums, galleries and established artists. In my Question on Monday, on the 100% cuts to the Government’s day-to-day funding of higher education creative courses, my noble friend Lord Hampton made the pertinent point that if we start losing graduates in the creative industries, where will the next generation of specialist school teachers come from? We would not, of course, expect everyone who has a creative education to have a creative career, as the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, said, but those opportunities should be there from the outset. What affects HE will feed back into schools, just as what happens in schools will determine the demand for the arts in higher education. We can have either a virtuous circle or a destructive cycle. What surely is required is an overall strategy for creative education that looks closely at the effect of such decision-making across the whole education ecosystem, including the excellent recommendations that the Bill makes.
Lord Cashman (Non-Afl)
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow my friend, the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, and I congratulate my friend the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, on this important Private Member’s Bill, which, as we know, would enable access to creative and cultural education in state-funded schools. I will return to this a little later. I also pay tribute to and welcome my noble friend Lady Mackenzie. She is someone I have known for many years, and her work and commitment to the arts goes back decades. She has encouraged bold, inclusive work that has pulled in creators and audiences. I remember my own experience when she helped to give birth to the remarkable work by Phelim McDermott and his company at Nottingham Playhouse in the early 1990s. We are indeed fortunate to have her in the House, and I look forward to her maiden speech. This Bill is crucial, and I hope that the Government will have the good sense to adopt it. I argue this from a personal perspective: there can be no greater start in life than access to the arts and the creative industries. At the age of 11, I was written off because I failed my 11-plus, an exam I did not even know I was taking, and I was shunted off, as with so many others, to a secondary modern education. I was in a place where I felt I just did not belong. It was painful, and I became a rebel—but thankfully, due to my mimicry and my sense of mischief, which I have not lost, I came to the attention of the drama teacher and my life changed. I was no longer the rebel; I had an outlet for my imagination and my energy. There, behind that tatty, faded red curtain in the assembly hall of Cardinal Griffin School in Poplar, east London, I discovered another world that I did not know existed, and it was a world that I did not want to end. It lifted me from the pain and the confusion that was around me, and it gave me options that I had never dreamed of. Access to these classes literally changed my life. I was discovered in the school show impersonating Eartha Kitt and Bud Flanagan—the outrageous and the sublime. A talent scout spotted me, and I ended up starring in “Oliver!” in the West End of London at the age of 12. My life changed. But my arts education could not be maintained in the school. I went to an art school and learned in detail about the English language, drama, dance, ballet, music, elocution and improvisation. Improvisation sets the mind free. The mind is like a parachute; it works best when it is open. Creative access ignites the imagination and enables us to imagine and to enter other worlds. It gives us the ability to stand in the shoes of others, and we are all the better for it. As your Lordships have probably gathered, I am passionate about this issue because an arts education and access to the arts are not luxuries; they are essential to the way we live and engage with others, and particularly to how we engage with the unknown. An active imagination and learning and using language skills and confidence skills are the necessary skills for life and lifelong learning. They give us the ability to actively listen—only then can we properly engage. These life skills will outlive artificial intelligence. Finally, the other essential part of an arts-based creative education is recognising that there is no such thing as failure. All too often in politics, I hear from one Dispatch Box or the other how it is problematic to bring about a suggested solution, and so there is withdrawal. I entered politics to solve problems, not to create them or just talk about them. Maybe, just maybe, if more of us were more willing to work together cross-party and not be terrified of failure, and if we sought solutions instead of highlighting problems, politics might be seen in a much more positive way. I cannot welcome this Private Member’s Bill more passionately, because it has the ability to change young people’s lives and change them for the better.
Baroness Bousted (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, for bringing forward this Bill. I look forward to the maiden speech from the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Mackenzie of Sherwood. I will do my best to follow the marvellous speech from the noble Lord, Lord Cashman. I declare my interest as chair of the Teaching Commission, established now for two years, consisting of teachers, leaders and policy specialists, with representatives from unions and the Chartered College of Teaching. I was also, in a previous incarnation, General Secretary of the National Education Union, which has run a fantastic “Arts and Minds” campaign to promote education in the creative arts for all children of all backgrounds. The Teaching Commission’s second report, published in July, is titled Curriculum and Assessment for All? —there is a question mark at the end. The report examines the required conditions to successfully implement the new national curriculum in 2028. Commissioners welcome the ambition and vision of the 2028 curriculum. It signals a fundamental shift towards a more physical, practical, social and developmental experience of schooling for children and young people, along with a focus on inclusion, belonging and joy for all pupils. The commissioners, along with many others, strongly welcome the significant broadening of the taught curriculum and, in particular, the revitalising of arts subjects with a requirement for breadth and more depth in detailed programmes of study in the foundation subjects of art, drama and music. Very welcome, too, is the establishment of a new national centre for arts and music education, which will promote arts education and enable high-quality teaching through a teacher development offer. These are all excellent developments to achieve the Government’s ambition to enable all children and young people to gain access to the creative arts as part of their education. However, there are challenges which must be addressed and recognised. The broadening of the school curriculum to incorporate a much greater focus on creative subjects must also take into account the challenges that schools currently face, and will face more acutely in the near future, in employing teachers who are qualified and expert in the teaching of those subjects. In this respect, creative subjects face a particular challenge. Since 2010 and after the introduction of the EBacc accountability measure, arts subjects have seen a precipitous 42% decline in applications for initial teacher training, reflecting a trend where more than 40% of English state schools are no longer entering any pupils in music and drama GCSEs. These teachers have been lost from the system and the training pipeline has dried up. The Key Group conducted a small survey of secondary school leaders for the commission which revealed that 40% of secondary school respondents reported that that they would have difficulty offering a wider offer in art because of a lack of specialist subject staff. For drama, 40% of secondary respondents reported a lack of specialist drama teachers, and 45% reported that for music. It is also the unfortunate truth that the teacher supply challenges are not evenly spread across the education system. Schools serving the most disadvantaged communities find it much more difficult than those serving affluent pupil intakes to recruit and retain teachers across the curriculum. The issue of the teacher quality gap is the subject of an Education Policy Institute 2025 report, Closing the Workforce Quality Gap , which reveals that teachers in disadvantaged schools are increasingly less likely to have a relevant degree, with disadvantaged schools now trailing affluent schools by 15 percentage points in the percentage of lessons taught by a subject specialist. Good teacher supply is essential not only to match the increased demands of a broader curriculum; it is also a social justice issue, so that the most deprived pupils have as much chance of being taught by teachers qualified in the subjects they are teaching as their more advantaged peers. If the broadening subject base of the 2028 curriculum is to be well taught by qualified teachers, a new approach to initial teacher training recruitment targets must be developed by the DfE, which should take account of previous declines in applications and reductions in initial teacher training targets for arts subjects and the number of teachers teaching outside the subject area for which they are qualified. Ultimately, no education system exceeds the quality of its workforce. Broadening the curriculum requires considerable analysis and planning so that it can be successfully implemented, and I urge the Government to note the second Teaching Commission report and to respond to the issues and challenges in it.
Baroness Hamwee (LD)
My Lords, I too welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Mackenzie. I am really looking forward to the teach-ins that she can give us on these subjects. My starting point is that education should form the basis for a fulfilled life, not just passing exams. This is not something on which I expect any disagreement from noble Lords. I want to talk about two forms of creativity. Quite a long time ago, I was lucky enough to have the Industry and Parliament Trust arrange a creative industries fellowship for me—rather a grand term for the experience that I got just talking to a range of people and observing things. It included contact with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s education department, and I visited a couple of schools to observe their approach to teaching Shakespeare. At one secondary school, a class of 12 year-olds was studying “King Lear”, which might sound a bit unlikely. It involved a lot of physical interpretation, and noble Lords may imagine how this lent itself to the issue of sibling rivalry, for instance. I was told—and this picks up a comment made by the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty—that, for “the most challenging child in the school”, which was how they described her, this class worked wonders. She threw herself into it. The class was observed by teachers of other subjects who were enthusiastic about using similar ideas and techniques themselves. For many years, I was a trustee of the Rose Theatre in Kingston—for far too long; one should keep moving on for the good of the organisation. I managed to leave the board only by organising the recruitment of new directors. I am sure this is an experience other noble Lords have had. We had a lot of applications, and I had not expected so many from the parents of children who were or had been members of the Rose’s youth theatre. Many of them referred to how much that experience widened the child’s horizons and made working in a team more doable, and, in particular, how their confidence had been boosted—not just in specific activities such as creating sets, making props, speaking in front of other people and even improvisation, but overall and in all situations. To take another activity, art—a lot falls under that heading; my noble friend referred to the “expressive arts”, which I had not heard before, but it is a very useful term—my experience has been that creating something occupies a different part of the brain from academic work. The creativity one can discover within oneself is tremendously rewarding, even if nobody else can identify it when you produce something. Quite apart from making marks on paper, it prompts curiosity and expands your ways of looking at the world and seeing. All this is very self-indulgent, but I am convinced that the impact of creative education can last a lifetime. I am ashamed to say that all that Latin and Greek, for me, did not. In this very narrow speech, I have not attempted to address the range of issues from other noble Lords, but as the years have gone on, the more keenly I have appreciated the creative activities I have been able to experience. I congratulate my noble friend.
Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-Afl)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, for bringing this Bill. I also welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Mackenzie of Sherwood, to her position in the Government. I declare my interests as a former schools and colleges governor; I was also for 10 years vice-president of the British Board of Film Classification and was chancellor of Bournemouth University, which has a centre of excellence in film and performing arts. I was born and raised in a place which I think most people regard as paradise or utopia. It is called Birmingham, just off the M6 by the gasworks. I went to a grammar school which was known for its academic standing, but there was one fellow pupil who I recall seemed to have a rather unusual ambition. He spoke of his intention to read architecture at university—a perfectly laudable goal—but he also mentioned his real passion was to become an actor. I remember thinking that he would struggle, because there seemed no obvious pathway to achieving that at school. But he obviously did find a way, because Anton Lesser went on to star in Hollywood films including “Pirates of the Caribbean”, TV series such as “Game of Thrones” and numerous Shakespearean roles. I am sure Anton would have been an excellent architect, but it is arguable that his career as an actor has inspired an even wider circle. There is someone else from my home city paradise of Birmingham who did not find a pathway into the creative arts until long after his formal education had finished. The youngest of seven children from a very humble background, his first big break was to write radio commercials for an advertising agency. He is now better known for creating the hit BBC TV series “Peaky Blinders” and is writing the script for the next James Bond film. He is none other than Steven Knight CBE. Anton Lesser and Steven Knight were not overnight success stories. They had to find a way, where there seemed no way, in their formal education at school. It makes me wonder how many other Anton Lessers or Steven Knights—male and female—are out there who we have missed out on. It matters when you consider that the creative industries contribute £145.8 billion to the UK economy. It also matters when you consider that we are going through a fourth industrial revolution. We have had steam, electricity, computers and now AI. We all know that artificial intelligence is bringing with it amazing benefits, especially in the health sector, but it also presents challenges, even dangers. Scientists speak of the left side of our brains supporting logical and analytical skills, while the right side supports our more creative and emotional thoughts. AI is a tool that is increasingly doing the left-side factual work for us, including for our children with their schoolwork. This is why it is all the more important for our creative skills to be protected and nurtured. After all, each of us has AI—that is, actual intelligence. During my time as a film regulator, we on the BBFC board noticed that the number of actors coming from the public school sector grew while the number from less privileged state school backgrounds decreased. The situation is even worse for Black actors. Only 15 Black actors have played two or more lead roles in British films over the last 10 years. After school, Idris Elba, now Sir Idris Elba, did find a way, but that was working as a tyre fitter before a Prince’s Trust grant enabled him to enrol at the National Youth Music Theatre. Over the years, I have been privileged to host a number of charitable events at which pupils from the BRIT School have performed, singing and playing instruments, but not every pupil who has artistic talents can enrol at the specialist BRIT School. Last March, the Government announced plans to create a national centre for arts and music education. The centre is due to launch this month, so can the Minister say what progress is being made on this? In March of this year, the Government Whip, the noble Baroness, Lady Blake of Leeds, stated the Government were “not yet clear” on whether a joint fund will be created to support arts activities in schools. The idea was that the Department for Education, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England would work together with donors, trusts and foundations to achieve this. Please can the Minister also give us an update on that plan? For this Bill to be effective, it will need financial backing. Britain has a strong and historic tradition of wealthy people giving back to society in various ways. This is why it is sad that the billionaire Christopher Rokos is the latest wealthy donor to leave the UK. I wish this Bill success. As a Private Member’s Bill, perhaps it has limited chances of that, but, as the saying goes, those who say it cannot be done should not try to stop those who are doing it.
Baroness Wheatcroft (CB)
My Lords, I am so grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, for introducing this Bill and doing so with such passion. Her commitment to this issue is incredibly impressive. I welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Mackenzie of Sherwood, and am looking forward to hearing her maiden speech. Her commitment to this cause and to theatre generally cannot be in doubt. This issue is crucial to the country. I know we all want the best for our children. The younger generation deserve the best possible start in life. We do not want them to end up as NEETs. That is punishing for them, and it is not great for the country, as we know. As others have already pointed out, a more rounded education could stop another generation falling into that trap. The need for this Bill is pressing. However, we should not overlook that it is important for children to have the best possible grounding in a broad education, so I was glad to see the figures this week from PISA, the Progression for International Student Assessment. It appears that there are some benefits to the education that we have been giving our children and that performance in traditional subjects has improved, particularly in science. But it is not enough. If these children are going to grow into rounded human beings and be able to put that classical benefit to use, they need a much broader education. We have heard about the expense that this new education approach has already taken to teachers from the arts. The numbers are staggering. We need to address that, and the Bill is a great step towards that. If, as the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, suggested, we survive that 10% risk of being obliterated by AI—let us hope—then we can make the most of the new technology. In order to use it positively, the next generation will need to have the broad approach that a creative education can provide. It will become a tool that will need to be used creatively. The private sector already recognises exactly how important creative skills are. Children who already have the benefit that generally takes them to those schools get the increased benefit of a broad opportunity to experience and take part in the creative arts. We all know that an increasing, really worrying number of the people who are making it to drama school come from what can only be termed a privileged background. I normally shy away from demanding legislation— I do not want to see money that the country does not have being squandered—but the amount of money that would be required to implement this Bill is tiny, and the benefits would be huge. Looking at what has been achieved so far, there is a genuine case for legislation. The concept of creative education is incredibly broad. We know its importance. We need to equip our youngsters to bring design and technology skills to industry. If the Government’s vision of a reindustrialised country is to be realised, it will be very different to the old-style industry. Its success will depend on brilliant design, high standards of finish and slick marketing. Maths and science will play their part, but it is the creative skills that will be important. Look at the importance of tourism to this industry. If the tourist levy is to succeed, we need to bring in a constant flow of visitors to this country. Our arts institutions already do that, but the importance of festivals is huge. Look at what goes on in France—there are festivals for everything, and people flock in. If we have a creative country, new festivals can start here. We need music, art and theatre, which will build confidence, as others have said. My experience is that arts organisations want to engage with schools, but sometimes it is difficult. We can make it easier for them. My final point is that if outreach is to be successful, what about reaching out to our communities? If schools put on performances, they can invite in all the people who live locally who support their work. It will build communities and relationships. We may not really enjoy listening to too many five year-olds playing the recorder, but some people will.
Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (LD)
My Lords, I join others in thanking my noble friend for initiating the Bill. I know and appreciate her dedication to and belief in the cultural and creative sector. She is creative in every way. I also welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Mackenzie. I first came across her in 2012, the doughty champion of what turned out to be the magnificent Cultural Olympiad—which was largely down to her, I think. My noble friend said her speech was narrow, but I thought it was inspirational, alongside the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Cashman. I am afraid that I am going to be narrow, because mine is much more political. We on these Benches wholeheartedly support the Secretary of State Lisa Nandy’s desire to unleash the power of our creative industries, but for this to happen, there needs to be universal access to creative education. This Government, as so many have said, inherited years of decline in the numbers of students taking GCSE and A-level arts-related subjects, as well as the number of teachers who can teach them. So we very much welcome the curriculum review and its acceptance that the EBacc must go, and I join my noble friend in applauding its abandonment. Is the STEAM/STEM argument finally won? It is not totally clear that the Government fully understand how to achieve their laudable aims. My noble friend does. In her Bill, she has laid out a clear course of action; it gives impetus and direction, and I hope the Minister agrees. As we have heard, the Bill requires state schools to increase their hours of creative education per week. Also, schools must be transparent about what is being taught, and Ofsted must consider the breadth and quality. We on these Benches have long believed that Ofsted inspections should give top ratings only to schools that can demonstrate excellence in creative teaching as well as in other subjects. The measures in the Bill follow recommendations from the CLA, which argues that the teaching of creative subjects should be an essential and equal part of a broad and balanced curriculum, rather than “an optional extra”. Noble Lords may have noticed that Prince George started secondary school last week. What does Eton offer him? Extensive opportunities across cultural and creative disciplines, with the seamless integration of these subjects into its formal academic curriculum. That is what my noble friend Lady Featherstone is seeking for all our children. As the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, said, it should not be the preserve of those whose parents can afford to pay. Crucially, the Bill also requires that schools include careers advice on the creative industries. In recent Cambridge University research, many young people described being “steered away from creative subjects by teachers and parents … and being told that creative careers were risky or not for them”. It found that students’ economic background impacted on their likelihood of choosing the arts. This feeds into the lack of diversity from which the sector suffers. The Bill also requires collaboration between schools and the arts sector, with the Secretary of State’s help to enable this—a creative access guarantee, as my noble friend calls it. The recent ACE report from the noble Baroness, Lady Hodge, suggested exactly this, saying: “The Department for Education, Department for Culture, Media & Sport and Arts Council England should consider working together on a specific project with philanthropists, trusts and foundations to create a joint fund that would support improvements to the cultural offer in schools. This … could contribute to the cost of training and paying for specialist teachers, and transport costs to visit theatres or museums”. Can the Minister say whether this advice will be followed? Lastly, noble Lords will not be surprised to hear me bring in the BBC. Every teacher and parent will tell you of the value that it supplies through Bitesize, teacher support packs, arts and music archives, and many other things. Does the Minister not agree that a well-resourced and supported BBC is essential? This Bill provides a legislative framework of action. Much of what it says is contained in a recent UAL report. Who was its recent vice-chancellor? James Purnell. I hope that he is listening to this debate, but, most importantly, I hope that the Government will support my noble friend’s Bill.
Lord Doyle (Non-Afl)
My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak in support of the Bill in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, which would ensure that all our children can benefit from a creative education. The Bill puts a deliberately ambitious proposition before us: that creative education should be an entitlement, not an optional extra, including a minimum expectation for creative learning and stronger partnerships between schools and the creative sector. It is also a great pleasure to welcome my noble friend Lady Mackenzie of Sherwood to the Front Bench. She brings to the House immense experience from a range of cultural leadership roles, as we have heard, not least from her role in the Cultural Olympiad. We are very lucky to have her. Indeed, having worked with her when we were both special advisers in the Blair Government, I know that I can confidently praise what will be an impressive maiden speech ahead of her actually making it later on in this debate. We are all here today because of our passion for the arts and the creative industries, and because we know that access to the opportunities that the arts provide is all too often determined by class, geography and money. There are welcome initiatives that are happening today to try to make up for this. James Graham, one of our great playwrights, is doing phenomenal work to try to bring more schoolchildren into theatre productions, and theatres are doing great work; for example, the Royal Shakespeare Company is working with Harriet Walter at the moment to take theatre into schools. I was lucky to be at a state school at a time when I could benefit from a great arts education, both in core hours and with after-school clubs. Playing the trumpet brought me great joy, even if the same might not have always been true for my audience. Sadly, under the previous Government, the arts were completely devalued as part of state education. Not only were they excluded from all important performance measures, such as the EBacc and Progress 8 for secondary schools, they were squeezed out of the primary school day. This Labour Government are committed to delivering a curriculum that is rich, broad, inclusive and innovative, with creative subjects studied for both their intrinsic value and their ability to build confidence in essential skills, such as critical thinking, oracy, creative problem-solving and teamwork. I will give just one example of the benefits. The Cultural Policy Unit, whose work in this area I commend, has written about the “superpower of looking”—that is, getting children to look at paintings and develop their critical thinking skills. At a time when children will increasingly encounter AI-generated images and information, the ability to look closely, interrogate what they see and exercise independent judgment is becoming an increasingly important skill. This shows how creative education is fundamentally civic education. You will find it harder to participate in democratic life and society more widely when you lack the skills that a creative education provides. To that end, I very much welcome the creation by the Government of the National Centre for Arts and Music Education. It has a mandate to provide national leadership on arts education, a new continuing professional development offer for teachers, and better co-ordination between schools and cultural organisations, promoting routes into creative careers, and taking over oversight of music hubs from 2027. The centre was due to start this month, as already been mentioned in the debate. Can my noble friend the Minister update the House on how this is progressing, who the delivery partner is and when we will be able to see a detailed plan on what it will deliver and when; for example, on the core priorities of creating necessary partnerships between schools and cultural organisations, identifying areas with poor arts provision and preparing schools for the revised curriculum? Concern has been expressed about whether this will genuinely be an arts and music education centre that gives proper weight to drama, dance, art and design alongside music, rather than being led predominantly by its role in overseeing music hubs. It would be wonderful to think that we do not need to legislate to ensure the level of arts and creative provision we want to see for our children. I look forward to my noble friend the Minister being able to reaffirm the Government’s commitment in that regard. I do not doubt that we have a Prime Minister and a Government who are champions of the creative industries. I hope my noble friend will understand that any anxiety that is being expressed, across the whole House, is because we want to pin down how the honourable intentions are being translated into practice, and that is motivated only by our ambition for our children and our creative industries. I look forward to supporting my noble friend the Minister to deliver on this vital work.
Baroness Gill (Lab)
My Lords, I add my own congratulations to the chorus to the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, on securing this debate. We are standing at a dangerous crossroads for our children’s imaginations. As we have heard, art, music, drama and dance have been treated as optional subjects for far too long. The principle behind the Bill challenges this head-on, reminding us that every single child, regardless of their background or where they live, deserves a rich and meaningful creative education. The importance of this principle is not something I need to be persuaded of. I experienced its transformative potential myself as a secondary school pupil. I attended a state school, like many others, in one of the more challenging parts of my neighbourhood. When the school got its first purpose-built music room, announcements were made at an assembly inviting pupils to take up an instrument. For a young girl who otherwise would have been standing around in a cold playground, that offer was too tempting to resist, and I signed up at once to learn the clarinet. It opened up horizons that I could scarcely have imagined. I soon joined the school orchestra and before too long became part of the small group that our music teacher, Mrs Fellows, took to concerts and even to watch operas at the Royal Opera House and Sadler’s Wells. Those experiences introduced me to a world well beyond the immediate environment of my neighbourhood and my school. I am still, to this day, enormously grateful to Mrs Fellows, and to Mr Baldwin, my English teacher, who both played an important part in shaping my education and, ultimately, much of what I have achieved in life. My experience is a powerful reminder that, as many noble Lords have said, creative education is not an optional extra. It can and does expand a child’s horizons, builds confidence, and opens doors, as I said, to possibilities that might otherwise never be encountered. When we look at our peers on the global stage, we see that embedding culture into education is standard practice for high-performing societies. Look at South Korea, which built a modern economic superpower by deliberately dedicating nearly 10% of overall school time to creative projects. Look at our European neighbours. Finland seamlessly integrates arts into everyday learning to cultivate flexible, highly capable minds. In Germany, extensive regional networks link cultural institutions directly into the school week, while Austria focuses deeply on multidisciplinary, imagination-led pedagogy. Yet here in Britain, we are sitting on a goldmine that we are failing to replenish. The noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, rightly pointed out that our creative industries generate a staggering £125 billion annually for our economy and account for one in every 14 UK jobs. From the sound stages of Pinewood to the West End, British talent is our greatest export, but we cannot expect to remain a global leader if we stop feeding the pipeline. We cannot harvest the crops if we refuse to sow the seeds in our state schools. It is precisely because I believe so strongly in that principle that I have some reservations about the mechanisms proposed in the Bill. I believe that we need to properly consult the teaching profession, and I do not believe in imposing reforms on a sector which could struggle on the ground. It is important that we do not have top-down statutory mandates without, as we have heard already, consulting on the supply of specialist teachers, the ability to timetable and the resources that are available. I welcome that this Government have already made a clear commitment to improving access to creative education and are actively pursuing wider systemic reforms to the curriculum. Finally, I too welcome my noble friend Lady Mackenzie to her place and look forward to her maiden speech.
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.
Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)
My Lords, for today and today only, I speak from the Front Bench in the place of my noble friend Lady Cash. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, on her success in the Private Members’ Bill ballot and I thank all noble Lords for their powerful contributions to this interesting debate. I very warmly welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Mackenzie, who comes to this House and her new job with years of relevant experience. I join others in looking forward to her maiden speech today and further contributions in the years ahead. As we have heard, this Bill seeks to mandate a minimum number of hours for creative and cultural education in schools, with five hours weekly for pupils in key stages 1 and 2, and four hours weekly for those in key stage 3. It would also require schools to take steps to ensure that pupils have access to live cultural or creative experiences, to partner with the creative sector and to provide pupils with information regarding creative and cultural careers. On top of that, it would introduce a report on the state of creative and cultural education to be published by the Secretary of State at least once a year. When school timetables are already very full, there is concern about what schools would have to remove from them in order to accommodate this requirement. I echo the view of my right honourable friend Laura Trott, shadow Education Secretary, who said in relation to the Government’s proposals to change the national curriculum that “when everything is a priority, nothing is ”.—[ Official Report , Commons, 5/11/25; col. 930.] The Bill risks adding an unnecessary additional requirement that could put core educational lessons at risk. It is critical to focus on these core educational subjects to give pupils the best possible chance of success. It was this strategy under the previous Government that led to pupils in England rising to fourth for reading—the highest in the western world—as well as 11th in the world for maths. Both positions have risen up the ranks since 2018. These rankings speak for themselves and highlight the progress in improving school standards. Sadly, this improvement does not apply in Scotland or Wales. To include the mandated hours of creative education, schools would have to sacrifice time spent on the most important subjects. It is crucial that pupils are given the chance to excel at these core subjects, as the skills they provide are essential not only for employment but for the life skills they teach. On top of that, it is flexibility that enables schools to allocate time across subjects appropriately and as they see fit. Adding further rigidity into the national curriculum does the opposite of trusting teachers to decide how much time is right for this creative education. In fact, this flexibility in the current curriculum was praised in Professor Becky Francis’s Curriculum and Assessment Review by art teachers themselves, who commented that they “relish the flexibility of the present curriculum across all key stages”. Indeed, the only changes suggested by the review for key stages 1 to 3 was that the programme of study could “clarify the knowledge and skills that pupils are expected to develop”. Again, although “further specificity” was recommended for music programmes, there was no suggestion of mandating a set number of hours. Why, then, if these teachers are not asking for this, would another national curriculum requirement be introduced? To look at a specific example, the school with the highest Progress 8 score in the country is Michaela, in north London—a school that has held that title for three consecutive years. A successful school is able to have flexibility over its curriculum, showing that best practice should not be to introduce more requirements that forces schools to dilute their curriculum. Pupils need core skills. Mandating a specific number of hours for creative education is not the best way to do that. The Bill risks diluting the curriculum and drawing focus away from the core subjects taught in schools. Despite the many passionate arguments that we have heard this morning, on this side of the House we cannot support the Bill.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Mackenzie of Sherwood) (Lab) (Maiden Speech)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, for bringing forward this Bill, which raises vital issues on widening access to creative education, and I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in this debate. We have heard a really stimulating and rich discussion this morning, for which I am so grateful. I am honoured that my first speech in your Lordships’ House should be on such an important topic, which has been a lifelong passion for me. I start by thanking my supporting noble friends Lady Nye and Lady Hunter of Auchenreoch—apologies in advance to my noble friend. I must also thank Garter King of Arms, Black Rod and his team, our excellent doorkeepers, catering staff, the Whips’ Office of the Government, my noble friends on the Front Bench and noble Lords across your Lordships’ House for their generous and kind welcome. I understand it is customary to introduce myself briefly. My parents, Kenneth Mackenzie and Myrna Blumberg, were South African journalists, writers and activists fighting for the abolition of apartheid. After the massacre at Sharpeville, when a state of emergency was announced, my mother, along with many other activists, was imprisoned without charge or trial. As a journalist, she was luckier than many others, and her newspaper helped secure her release. As a result, we fled to London, where I was brought up. In London, as a child, I spent what felt like every Sunday with my parents protesting in Trafalgar Square outside the South African embassy: I realise that this embedded in me the values of equality and the tenacity needed to make change happen. My London childhood also gave me access to the outstanding free music education of the Inner London Education Authority, so that I could learn several musical instruments, play and sing in the ILEA choir and orchestra, as well as developing practical creative skills across the arts. As a result, my first job was in a professional touring theatre company, working with young people in youth clubs, community centres, sometimes parks, offering practical theatre and music workshops to young people, intensive residencies, and performances. Our principle was that young people decided what skills they wanted to learn, the subjects they wanted to tackle, and our job was to serve them and provide the training and support they needed. We were led by the young people, the specific priorities they had in their local communities, and their ambitions. This place-based, community-led approach guided me throughout my career, running theatres, cultural organisations and festivals in Bradford, Nottingham, Glasgow, Chichester, Manchester, London, Amsterdam, Paris and, most recently, Adelaide, South Australia. Please do not panic, your Lordships—I will mention only two places in my career which were particularly crucial for my creative education. Nottingham Playhouse was the first large theatre I led, supported by outstanding leadership from the City of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Education Authority, who encouraged us to become a teaching theatre, like a teaching hospital, where we not only had a dedicated theatre company working in every school, offering creative skills workshops and performances, but where we also set up two full-time, two-year courses for age 16-plus and 18-plus young people to develop their theatre skills and creative talents. The communities of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire pushed us to work with them on an ambitious programme of world-class international theatre and dance, encouraging international stars from around the world, established and emerging UK artists and, above all, local talent. I lived in Sherwood at the time, and I celebrate my time in Nottingham through the name I have taken in your Lordships’ House. My recent work in South Australia gave me the chance to work extensively with brilliant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and communities, including the Nharrangha artistic leader Jacob Boehme, his creative team and, above all, his elders, on a large-scale creation. This was based on the stories in their 65,000-year continuous cultural history and on the country in which they lived and worked. It opened at the Adelaide International Festival, and it is still touring internationally. My understanding of how place shapes culture and creative education, how innovation springs from deep roots in your community and the land on which you live, has been transformed by these artists and these elders, who, exceptionally and generously, made me an honorary elder. I feel confident I am the only person in this noble House who can say that. The Bill of the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, includes a vision of creative partnerships to support young people to develop their creative skills, with the support of their local arts and cultural organisations—from libraries to museums, from music venues to youth centres. Our Prime Minister is challenging us to achieve growth in every postcode. Our ambition is to activate in every postcode the creative partners to support young people, to find their talent, to develop their skills and to contribute to the growth of our creative industries. The UK’s creative industries, as many of my noble colleagues have mentioned already, are in the top eight priorities of the UK industrial strategy. We have heard many figures for what they contribute; mine is £145.8 billion in GVA to the UK economy in 2024. However, as we have heard, opportunities are currently unequally distributed across postcodes and across socioeconomic groups. In 2024, 55% of the creative workforce was from an advantaged background, compared to 45% for the economy as a whole. Post-16, economically disadvantaged students are less likely to choose creative paths, as we have heard, and the underrepresentation of students from lower socioeconomic and culturally diverse backgrounds continues at higher education level. Starting with the power of place, the strength of communities in each postcode, the advantages of growing up in the place you know with the support to experiment, innovate and risk—which, as we have heard from the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, is one of the key elements in the process of creation—is, for me, a vision that can allow our next generation of creative workers and creative start-ups to flourish in every postcode. The Government are committed to effective place-based delivery of creative opportunities for all young people, building growth in every postcode, supported by partners at regional and national level. Some important starting points at national level, many of which have been referred to today, include revitalising arts education through our new curriculum; scrapping the EBacc performance measures; removing unnecessary constraints on subject choice for young people; launching a new national centre for arts and music education; publishing the new enrichment framework for schools and colleges; and investing £132.5 million of dormant asset funding through the Every Child Can programme to increase young people’s access to enrichment opportunities. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, for allowing me to play a small part in the presentation of her Bill. While I must express reservations about the Bill on behalf of the Government, I hope I have outlined that we share the values and the intention behind it, and that we are working to ensure that the Government deliver better creative education for all our young people. I join the noble Baroness in her commitment to empowering our young people to lead the future of creative growth in every postcode. I hope that I have covered in my speech many of the points noble Lords have raised. I have just a few other points to refer to, and if I leave anyone out then I hope noble Lords will excuse me. I will be very happy later on to pick up anything I omit. The noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, raised an important point about neurodivergent students and the need for research. That is something I would like to reflect on and take up with colleagues in government. I wish to make a quick point about the wonderful contribution of the noble Lord, Lord Cashman. When he kindly referred to Nottingham Playhouse and his time working with me and with Phelim McDermott, he omitted to say that he was performing Mephistopheles in “Doctor Faustus”. Of course he cannot say, but I can, that he was absolutely outstanding. To pick up on the serious point the noble Lord made about failure, I refer him to the famous line of Samuel Beckett: “Fail again, fail better”. I make the point to the noble Baroness, Lady Bousted, that I will commit to reading the Teaching Commission’s report, Curriculum and Assessment for All? I was very interested in those points and would like to follow them up—once I know what I am talking about. I say to the noble Lords, Lord Taylor of Warwick and Lord Doyle, that the national centre for arts and education will be launched later this year, and we will all know more at that point. I would also like to refer to the point that the noble Baroness, Lady Bonham-Carter, made in paying tribute to my noble friend Lady Hodge for the excellent and outstanding work she has done on the Hodge report for the Arts Council. As many of your Lordships know, we have accepted and welcomed the Hodge report and its recommendations. We, alongside colleagues in the Department for Education, where I will be having a meeting next week, and with the Arts Council, are now working through the many excellent ideas that she has proposed. I finish by picking up a couple of general points, in particular a point the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, raised, but which several other noble colleagues also referred to: AI and how it poses both dangers and opportunities. It is, of course, a topic whose dangers and opportunities this House is debating under many headings; but I stress that, for all of us who believe in the power of art and our artists and creators, as in many areas, many of them are doing exceptional work themselves. They are using and adapting AI, finding ways to make it a force for good. Without being over-optimistic about the 90% chance that we are not eliminated by AI, I suggest that we put our faith—as we should always—in the creativity of our creative industries and artistic sectors, and hope that they will help us to continue to have life-changing moments in a positive sense, as so many of your Lordships have referred to in relation to this topic.
Baroness Featherstone (LD)
My Lords, I really think that that was a marvellous maiden speech. The Minister has a most exquisite voice as well, which gives her a bit of an advantage. I know that she is on our side on this. Given that my noble friend on the Front Bench mentioned that I was the originator and architect of the same-sex marriage law when I was a junior Minister—the only Lib Dem, surrounded by Conservative Ministers, when I got the idea of doing that—and now it is the law, I say to the Minister: I want her to be me and push this in her department, and in the education department. I just thought that was marvellous. I did not feel the same about the Conservative French Bench response, which was incredibly disappointing. I also feel that it is like clinging to a sinking ship if you do not change or move forward, saying that three hours are it for ever. The world is changing; if we do not get with it and prepare for it, then just clinging to the old ways will not enhance our status in the world. We will not remain top of anything if we do not change our ways—and we are having enough trouble as it is. I thank all noble Lords, because it was a wonderful debate. It was like stirring stories for creatives. If it was left to us in this Chamber the world would be a better place, but sadly there are a few other influences. So we have work to do, but I give thanks to all noble Lords for their wonderful creations. The Creative Education Access Bill is not simply an arts policy; it is a statement about the future well-being of our nation. My heartfelt thanks to all of you.
Bill read a second time and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.
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Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5404920.