Music Teachers: Recruitment

Baroness Smith of Malvern Excerpts

Monday 20th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Keeley]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps, if any, they are taking to recruit more music teachers to bridge the gap caused by missed recruitment targets in past years.

[The Minister of State, Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Smith of Malvern) (Lab)]

My Lords, alongside improved teacher retention, 369 music teacher trainees started training last year—a 55% increase compared to academic year 2023-24. Music teachers are a key part of our pledge for 6,500 additional teachers and we are making good progress, with over 70% of that target achieved. We recently announced a new pay award, including for music teachers, and accepted the recommendations of the independent body, meaning that schoolteachers will see a 17% increase in pay since this Government took office.

[Baroness Keeley (Lab)]

My Lords, under Conservative-led Governments, the EBacc and Progress 8 worked to squeeze music out of the curriculum. Recruitment targets for music teacher training were missed for 11 out of 12 years. In fact, the number of music teachers fell by 850 between 2011 and 2023. I am sure that the Labour Government’s reforms will strengthen provision, but the music curriculum is also constrained by music teacher workforce supply, which is fundamentally a question of unequal opportunity to choose music as a subject. Will my noble friend the Minister look again at teacher training incentives, such as the bursary, and at re-establishing ambitious recruitment targets?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

We look at the subjects to be covered by the bursary on the basis of need and difficulty in recruitment. Given the encouraging improvements in music teacher recruitment over recent years, we have decided not to continue the bursary this year. My noble friend also made an important point about the curriculum, and we have already reformed the EBacc accountability measure and removed it, because it limited children’s choice of what they learned at school. Through the curriculum and assessment review, we will bring about further improvements in the music curriculum.

[Lord Gove (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister, who is a brilliant Minister, for her reply. But she erred slightly in blaming the EBacc, which provides no constraint on choice. What supports choice, of course, is the provision of music hubs. Under the coalition Government, Darren Henley’s music review ensured that they are there to provide support for all schools, but sadly, under the latter years of the Conservative Government, and under this Government, there has been no real-terms increase in funding for music hubs. We know that the incoming Prime Minister is a great fan of music and a champion of the Hallé Orchestra. Will the Minister encourage him to show “true faith” in our music hubs, end the “definitely maybe” culture of funding and guarantee a “new order” with a “wonderwall” of funding for them?

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

Oh dear. We are definitely investing £76 million annually in music hubs, which of course means that the 43 music hubs can continue their important work to help children, regardless of background, to access musical education, by providing instruments and resources. In addition, we are investing up to £13 million in the national centre for arts and music education, which we intend to establish by September, to provide support for the revised national curriculum, improve the professional development of music teachers and make sure that extracurricular school enrichment and partnerships with music and arts organisations are strengthened.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, further to the supplementary question from the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, does the Minister agree that what is needed most urgently, given that the Government are not taking into account the long-term decline in arts education, is a review of the way in which recruitment targets and ITT bursaries are calculated? This affects not just music but art and design. If they were really interested in boosting arts education, they would not just be looking at the most recent baselines.

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

Every year, we review the recruitment trajectory for different subjects. Given the need to safeguard public money and ensure we are spending it efficiently, and given that we have had a 55% increase in recruitment to initial music teacher training and the lowest leaving rate—8.7%—for music teachers at any point, apart from during the pandemic, I do not think it unreasonable to conclude that, at this point in time, the bursary is not required to bring about recruitment. As I said, we will of course review that every year. We will keep in mind the number of teachers needed to maintain the proportion of hours taught by specialist music teachers in our schools at above 90%, and we will, as we have already proved, pay more if necessary to get the teachers our children need.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, if the Government are serious about expanding arts opportunities, along with other opportunities outside the core curriculum, do they accept that they not only have to be aggressive about recruiting teachers but must make sure that they reach those groups who cannot get there through the private sector? If you want equality, you have to have teachers in schools across the board who are reaching those communities that do not usually access private teaching. Is this a priority? Where does it fit in with the national centre for the arts?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Lord is absolutely right. Schools provide children who cannot access it through private means the opportunity to benefit from music and instrumental education. Through the national enrichment framework that the Government recently published, we will make sure there are more opportunities in the school day for children to take part in music and learn instruments.

[Lord Forbes of Newcastle (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government have introduced extremely welcome tax relief for orchestras, theatres, museums and galleries, but the outreach they undertake is not eligible for that tax relief, despite it being a potentially significant source of support for music education in schools. Given that the extension of tax reliefs is being discussed at the moment, will my noble friend the Minister consider discussing with colleagues extending the scope of that tax relief so that every child in every postcode has the opportunity to learn music?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

Tax reliefs are of course the purview of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I am sure the Chancellor—whoever they might be—will be listening very carefully to my noble friend’s argument about how we can encourage as much participation in music as possible.

[Lord Sterling of Plaistow (Con)]

I studied music at the Guildhall School of Music. I suggest there are many ladies here who studied the piano up to level 8, which is a very good level for people to teach in schools. Will the Government look into the possibility that older people could help in that way and bring back that music in state schools, not just private schools?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

This lady only got as far as grade 7, I am afraid—I am grade 6 in cello. The noble Lord makes an important point about the use of volunteers, but the key issue is whether we have the quality of teachers to give our children a strong music education. The fact that we have seen 55% more applications for initial teacher training in music in the past two years is encouraging, but we will, in the spirit of the challenge that has been put through this question, keep that under review to make sure we continue to deliver on the increase in specialist teachers in our state schools that we have so far succeeded in delivering.

[Lord Winston (Lab)]

My Lords, I fear my noble friend underestimates the issue. Music teachers make a great difference to education generally. Music teaches collaboration, awareness of emotions, memory, social awareness, reading ability and a range of other things as well. That has to be done by music teachers, and they should be available in schools. That should be a priority for the Government.

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I am sorry if my noble friend thinks that I have not looked enthusiastic about this. I was emphasising the progress that this Government are making in ensuring that qualified music teachers are in our schools, including through considerable investment. I agree with my noble friend that we need expert music teachers in our schools. At this point, more than 90% of the hours of music taught in our schools is provided by specialist music teachers. Of course that means there can be more improvement, and that is what the Government are committed to doing. But we have made considerable progress in the time we have been in government.