Access to Musical Education in School

Baroness Twycross Excerpts

Wednesday 18th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

My Lords, I join others in commending my noble friend Lord Boateng for securing this debate. I was particularly struck by his comments on his childhood experience and on the need for the value of music education to be reflected in funding and have time allocated to it. I regret to say that I struggle to remember the names of any of my music teachers, but I agree with the noble Lords, Lord Polak and Lord German, that inspiring teachers matter.

Clearly, there is consensus in this House that music education matters. I do not think anyone could reasonably argue with the Government’s refreshed national plan for music education’s aim of ensuring that

“all pupils receive a high-quality music education, strengthen the creative pipeline, and help create the musicians and audiences of the future”.

However, we need to see the Government take this from aims that we can all agree on to delivery for all children, irrespective of the type of school they attend. Access to music education, future careers and instruments should not be a postcode lottery or dependent on your parents’ income. As the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, said, even repairs can be costly.

It was good to hear from the noble Baroness, Lady Fleet, about her commitment to the implementation of the national plan and of the excellent work of the London Music Fund. I should declare an interest in that I work for the Mayor of London.

My noble friends Lord Faulkner and Lord Watson of Invergowrie mentioned the reduction in the number of music hubs. It would be particularly helpful to understand from the Minister how that reduction will increase the quality and scope of music education and equality of access, rather than do the opposite.

As this debate has shown, this Government have potentially overseen a decline in music education, limiting equal access to the music education that should enable young people to be part of the music industry and the range of roles within it. As my noble friend Lord Watson of Wyre Forest highlighted, the Musicians’ Union estimates that the industry was worth £5.8 billion in 2019, just before the Covid pandemic.

My noble friend Lord Knight and the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, quoted the recent Ofsted subject report on music education, which found that inequalities identified in 2012 persist. Can the Minister outline how the Government plan to address this and to reverse the decline in music education? The noble Lord, Lord Polak, made a powerful argument for music education having a social good in giving young people a valuable opportunity potentially to stay out of gangs and out of trouble. It was inspiring to hear from the noble Lord, Lord Hampton, about the work in his school to inspire pupils to sing and learn collaboratively. The noble Baroness, Lady Garden, mentioned the need for access to music for children with vision impairment, and my noble friend Lord Watson referred to the value of music education for children with hearing impairments. Can the Minister tell us how the Government will ensure that children with disabilities, including vision and hearing impairments and other special educational needs, can have equal access to music education?

As I said at the start, and as has been clear from this hugely interesting debate, there is consensus that music education and ensuring equal access to instruments, tuition, exams and careers in this vital UK industry is hugely important, but more still needs to be done to ensure that this happens in practice.