Sporting and Performing Arts Opportunities for Pupils in State Schools

Baroness Caine of Kentish Town Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes a really important point about the whole range of ways that we can help children to be active. As she says, we do not yet have sufficient children meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s recommendation of 60 minutes of activity every day. The daily mile is an excellent example of how schools can, quite simply and straightforwardly, increase the activity children are engaged in. It is exactly the type of partnership we want to promote.

[Baroness Caine of Kentish Town (Lab)]

My Lords, the aim of the Young Creatives Commission—I declare an interest as a member—is to promote and rebuild youth access to the arts and creativity, on a par with sport. It will publish its final report in January. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that its recommendations will be helpful, and will she agree to a meeting between the commission, DfE and DCMS to discuss progressing that agenda?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

Yes, while I have not seen the detail of that work, I am sure that it will be very helpful. I know that the work that DfE and DCMS have been doing together on this will be informed by the meeting the noble Baroness suggests. It is, of course, in order to promote arts education that we established this September the National Centre for Arts Education, but we are keen to hear further ideas about how we ensure that children can access a rich, high-quality arts education and other opportunities.

Creative and Performing Arts Teaching Grants

Baroness Caine of Kentish Town Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

No, because we have been clear in our pledge to recruit 6,500 more teachers that we would focus them on the areas in secondary and special schools where we are not seeing a fall in the number of pupils and where we know that there is a particular need, and there we have done so. The latest number is over 2,500 more teachers. We are delivering on our commitment to teachers and pupils.

[Baroness Caine of Kentish Town (Lab)]

My Lords, £76 million of capital funding from this grant has been let out to competitive bidding. The OfS prospectus, subject to separate guidelines and the guidance letter, identifies bids that relate to the creative industries nationally and locally as meeting the criteria for growth and priority skills needs. I am confused, as I am sure the universities and the industries are. Please can my noble friend the Minister clarify the situation? Does she agree that, with a new Secretary of State in DfE, it is an excellent time to reflect on the evidence base, ready for next year’s guidance?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I am sorry that I am not completely clear about the point that my noble friend is making with respect to SPG capital, which I think is what she was referring to. I will write to her about that.

Skills, Vocational Training, and Further and Higher Education

Baroness Caine of Kentish Town Excerpts

Thursday 3rd September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Caine of Kentish Town (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Morgan for her excellent speech and this important debate, which is ever more critical as we live in and look to a future revolutionised by digital automation.

The evidence is unequivocal: creativity is becoming one of the most critical human capabilities. Deloitte warns of an “imagination deficit” in organisations, where curiosity, empathy and creative problem-solving are now the essential skills that enable people to thrive alongside artificial intelligence. The World Economic Forum identifies creative thinking as a top workforce skill for 2025, and LinkedIn’s global workforce survey shows that senior leaders rank creativity above analytical reasoning as the most important soft skill for the modern workplace.

Creativity is not a luxury; it is the engine of innovation, adaptability and resilience. If we are serious about preparing young people for the future, it needs to be recognised as a core capability, not peripheral or optional but central to the skills and education agenda at all levels, including higher-level skills in higher education. If we lag behind the realities of technological change, automation will not liberate opportunity; it will deepen exclusion, creating new barriers for those who already face the greatest challenges.

Creative and digital industries are two of the biggest growth sectors in our modern industrial strategy. They overlap, and so increasingly do their skill sets. A substantial proportion of England’s local authorities, including 11 of the 19 mayoral combined authorities, identify them as priorities for growth and for their skills policies.

I wholeheartedly believe that enabling devolution, collaboration and flexibilities to local areas is key to success on this agenda. However, it also needs alignment with national policy, which responds to what key industries and devolved Administrations are prioritising, and indeed what the industrial strategy is saying.

For example, in higher education, creative courses are not currently on the list as eligible for modular support through the lifelong learning entitlement, and that list has been cited as key to deciding which courses will be eligible for the soon-to-be announced maintenance grants for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition, this year, no creative courses are allowed to bid to the Strategic Priorities Fund for capital grants. The message that sends out from Whitehall is that these courses are not valued as much as the very important STEM areas, and underlying that, one suspects, is reliance on debatable datasets that relate to earnings and the ability to pay back student loans.

If we want to strengthen regional prosperity and improve outcomes for disadvantaged learners, we must ensure that the skills we value and teach also match the world they are entering, not the world we are leaving behind. That is one where both digital tech and creative education need to be equally valued and ever intertwined.