National Centre for Arts and Music Education

Baroness Blake of Leeds Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)]

My Lords, this Government are committed to improving access to music and the arts, which is why we are launching a new national centre for arts and music education. We intend to appoint the delivery partner for the centre through an open, competitive procurement. We will engage with sector stakeholders, including the music hubs network, to refine the details of the centre ahead of the commercial process later this year. We will set out further details shortly.

[Baroness Keeley (Lab)]

My Lords, the national centre for arts and music education is a welcome development, particularly as it will be the lead for the programme of music hubs. Research by Birmingham City University has shown that hub lead organisations experience major issues in two key areas that the new national centre could support: managing access to adapted instruments, and monitoring pupil progress and supporting pupil re-engagement after periods away from music education. Can my noble friend the Minister tell me whether the Department for Education will engage with hubs and the music sector to help shape solutions to those and other issues?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I start my reply by thanking my noble friend for her contribution in this area in the other place and her continuing interest in our noble House. I assure her that the department will engage with music hubs and the wider sector to establish how the national centre can best support improving outcomes for children and young people—including, as she quite rightly mentioned, those who need adapted instruments. Both of the questions she raised are significant and important. In the current climate, monitoring progress and re-engagement after absence, for whatever reason, is certainly a topical issue and a consideration that I know will be brought forward during the consultation. We look forward to the outcome with interest.

[Baroness Bull (CB)]

My Lords the Minister will know that her department and DCMS worked with an advisory panel, which I had the privilege to chair and undertook a large-scale consultation to hear from the cultural sector its advice on cultural education. One key idea that emerged was the creation of a virtual education hub to harness the power of technology and AI to do some of the things that this centre could deliver: for instance, helping busy schools connect with their local cultural providers and offering CPD. Can she confirm that the panel’s advice and the findings of the sector consultation will be taken into account in developing this national centre? Will the potential of technology and AI be fully exploited so that their impact can be as great as possible?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

Again, I start by thanking the noble Baroness, because I know the amount of work that went in, led by her and other colleagues. I reassure the House that although the report has not been published yet, its contents will be taken very seriously indeed. Of course, there will be future opportunities to feed into the process. The possibilities of the virtual space, tech and AI are, frankly, endless, and I look forward very much to hearing more about those ideas and seeing how we can make the most of them.

[Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Con)]

My Lords, although I welcome the new national centre for arts and music education, I am concerned that dance currently sits within the PE in the curriculum. Can the Minister confirm that dance will be included in and supported through the new centre?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness. She will know, from my personal interest and involvement with the dance sector, that I know that it feels that it needs to have a louder voice; she has quite ably established that that is the case. Dance is one of those areas linked with PE. There is probably a whole raft of reasons why that has been the case, but I know that it is an area of active consideration as to how we broaden this out and give dance the status that it feels that it does not have at this time.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

Can the Minister tell us what the Government are doing to work with voluntary and community groups, where most people will actually take part in musical or cultural activity? What structure has been set up between DCMS and the Department for Education to ensure this happens? Things such as this tend to fall between the cracks.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The really important part about the consultation for the centre is partnerships and how, through them, we can bring together all the partners around the music hubs that exist and make sure they are consistent across the country—I think the noble Lord is well aware of that issue. Of course, DCMS and DfE work very closely together on this. We need the voluntary sector to work in partnership with local authorities, government departments and the private sector to make sure that all children can get the very best possible outcomes from the process.

[Baroness Caine of Kentish Town (Lab)]

My Lords, the welcome announcement regarding the national centre for arts and music education will provide much-needed support for the arts and cultural provision in schools. It was made on the same day as the publication of the interim report of the curriculum and assessment review in England, part of whose role is to help advise on qualification pathways that are cutting edge and will support young people’s future life and work. Will my noble friend therefore support that aspiration by seeking to ensure that the digital, AI and technology expert group, which is about to help the review group on the next stage of its work, takes into account this House’s Communications and Digital Committee’s 2023 report, At Risk: Our Creative Future, and its recommendation on the importance of integrating creative and digital education, and specifically addresses the proposal from Ukie for a digital creativity GCSE?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I know, from my experience of working with her over many years on the contribution of the creative industries to the economy and beyond, that my noble friend will continue to ensure that this is at the top of the agenda. I recognise the issues she raised, but at the moment we have a richness of reviews and plans coming together. We must ensure that all the key areas are talking to each other, taking full account of where we are now but also, as she quite rightly lays out, incorporating the potential of the tech sector and all the other areas to move forward and continue contributing to the economy of this country.

[The Earl of Effingham (Con)]

My Lords, the success of the hubs programme speaks for itself. We are talking about technology. The Prime Minister has clearly stated that his vision is to unleash AI across the UK. When will His Majesty’s Government reinstate the computing and science hubs, which were scrapped earlier this year? They saw the proportion of pupils receiving grade A or above in A-level computing rise by 35% and the number of people taking the subject almost double.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I thank the noble Earl for introducing this. I do not have the specific answers that he seeks. I am very happy to take this away and look at it in more detail. However, the most important thing is that all these areas are integrated across the piece, so that every aspect of work benefits from the skills that he has rightly raised to ensure that things are not put into a silo and that everyone can benefit.

[Lord Berkeley of Knighton (CB)]

My Lords, as my noble friend Lady Bull and the Minister have said, AI could be very important. However, as my noble friend will remember from her days as a dancer, and speaking as an instrumentalist, physical presence in the room is everything if you are learning about movement or bowing a violin. Where will this national centre be? Also, this should not cover up the real need for more music in schools for physically hearing music and thus finding that one has a vocation, where excellence can then be introduced.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The noble Lord raises an interesting point. The national centre will be an umbrella organisation, building on the existing hubs and working with schools. It is critical that everyone realises how important schools and the physical presence is in the room are. In my own experience, having a company such as Opera North take education into a primary school in my ward and teach every child in one of the most deprived parts of Leeds to play a stringed instrument taught me more than anything how important those aspects are. However, we must harness the opportunities and not get held back by failing to recognise that things are changing.