Education and Opportunity

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is great to see another former Leeds city councillor in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker.

The value that sports and arts have in people’s lives cannot be overstated and, in this speech, I want to talk about their importance in education. The sad reality is there are significantly fewer access points for people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, who have a disability or who are black or from other minority groups in to sports and the arts.

My constituency is home to a very special organisation called MAP, which stands for Music & Arts Production. It is an alternative provision offering access to creative subjects for young people aged 11 to 16. Students gain qualifications in art, design and music as well as in functional skills, and are welcomed into a creative community. They can see that they could make a career from pursuing something creative and are introduced to a range of role models relevant to their lives, who they would not have met without attending MAP.

For young people who are struggling to fit in with our mainstream education system, that can be life changing and the effects on society overall are immense. If we can reduce school exclusion rates by providing meaningful creative alternatives, we will be able to reduce youth violence, young people will be less involved in crime, and some of the strains on child and adolescent mental health services and other mental health services will be lessened.

When I visited MAP, staff told me of the confidence that attending provision such as MAP can instil in students. Having access to arts subjects allows people to develop a strong sense of identity and transferable social skills, and to build a strong base of friendship and community. Children who have been pushed to the fringes are celebrated rather than punished.

I am so pleased that Labour plans to commission an urgent, expert-led review into curriculum and assessment, and I hope that will mean a broader, more inclusive curriculum. MAP is mainly funded by commercial activities, which is not sustainable; we must ensure that alternative provision that focuses on creative education receives funding similar to mainstream provision. I invite the Minister and the Secretary of State to visit MAP with me in Leeds.

The issues around provision are not limited to 11 to 16-year-olds. By September, 2,500 more 16 to 19 places will be needed in Leeds. Leeds will have enough A-level places, but there is a huge shortage of places for alternative qualifications. That is causing a number of problems for our young people, who, through no fault of their own, are on waiting lists for technical, level 1 and level 2 courses and are therefore officially not in education, employment or training. That is adding to our skills gap and undermining the Government’s growth target.

My view is that the greatest single challenge for our growth and energy missions is not investment or tax, but skills. I look forward not only to the new growth and skills levy, but to a strategy for creating the post-16 vocational places that we so desperately need.

Sport is also crucial to the health of our nation and saves the NHS £1 billion a year by preventing disease and improving wellbeing through participation in community sport. We are seeing a crisis in the number of people who have active lifestyles, and that starts with schools and education. I am heartened to know that the Secretary of State understands that and is protecting sport time. I hope that will mean that we can reach the target of 60 minutes of physical activity a day for all young people.

I welcome the approach my right hon. Friend is taking. We cannot just tell young people about the benefits of sport and celebrate successful athletes, although I love the Olympics and professional sports. We also need to reimagine—as Labour is doing—the role that sport plays in people’s lives and have it at the heart of decision making. I hope we can see new funding for community coaching and equipment, especially in sports that are widely played at grassroots, but less so at elite level in the UK, such as basketball.

Music education is also a vital area. We know how much music enriches people’s lives, but if they do not have the means to buy the equipment and to get music tuition, it is impossible to access music, to progress and to enjoy all that musical entertainment and education provides. We need to offer that in our schools and give that additional enrichment. Therefore, I hope to see an uplift in provision of music teaching, improving access so that families can afford the high costs of many instruments.

Science, technology, engineering and maths subjects are really important—I am a former community scientist—but we cannot neglect the issues around creative education, I am pleased that we will carry on with the creative GCSE, and I hope that we will see a huge uplift in the uptake of arts, sports and creative subjects in our schools and around the education system. That is my hope for enriching our country and our curriculum.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call Baggy Shanker to make his maiden speech.