Sporting and Performing Arts Opportunities for Pupils in State Schools

Baroness Smith of Malvern Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2026 Lords Chamber

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

My Lords, we want all pupils to have access to sports and performing arts at school, supporting well-being, belonging, confidence and skills such as teamwork. Voluntary and community organisations are key in broadening access. Our enrichment framework encourages schools to work in partnership with them, and the enrichment expansion programme will support 400 schools in areas of greatest need to make links. PE and school sport partnerships and the National Centre for Arts Education will further support access.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

I thank the Minister for that reply. Will she expand upon this? What are we doing to make sure that schools have the necessary testing ground or experience ground to mean that they can link with these groups outside? If you come to a sport and you do not know the basics, you are much less likely to go to an environment outside to take part in it. The same is true of the arts. What are we doing for a coherent plan to allow you to have the necessary grounding to access these groups?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

PE remains part of the national curriculum from key stage 1 to key stage 4. There are many sports organisations at local level—clubs, often supported by their national governing bodies—which will provide young people with that start and a welcome. Through the PE and school sport partnerships, we want better to join schools with the local and national sporting organisations that will help young people get the experience the noble Lord outlines.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

My Lords, although they are pro bono positions, I declare my interests as a board member of the London Marathon Foundation and the Daily Mile Foundation. At a time when government data shows that fewer than half of children achieve the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity, the daily mile helps around 2 million children in England build such activity into the school day. Simple, inclusive and free, it is accessible to all children. The Minister referred to the new PE and school sport partnerships network. As that is established, will she work to ensure that schools are supported to embed everyday physical activity programmes, such as the daily mile, alongside PE and competitive sport, to get every child active, regardless of their background or ability?

[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.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, there is a community arts project aspect to this, as such projects should act in support of what happens in schools. Does the Minister agree that the local council and council-owned facilities—we had a question earlier on the relationship between local government and the arts—are hugely important at a time when too many council-owned assets, including buildings, are being sold off?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The most effective education in both arts and sports will need to use the broadest range of organisations and facilities, as the noble Earl says. We need to make sure we are building as many links as possible into schools, and I know that councils will be considering this when thinking about the use of their assets. Equally, of course, schools facilities should be used by others who can access them for sports and arts. Unless we work effectively together, we will not be using the resource that we have as well as possible to open up those opportunities to the most people, including both schoolchildren and those of us getting a bit older who also benefit from those activities.

[The Lord Bishop of Leicester]

My Lords, the holiday activities and food programme is a shining example of the approach described by the noble Lord, Lord Addington. It offers a proven way of linking up children from disadvantaged backgrounds with a wide range of enriching activities during the school holidays. However, the current eligibility criteria result in more than 500,000 children, mostly from poorer working families, being unable to access the programme. Will the Minister commit to rectifying this by aligning the programme’s eligibility criteria with those that are attached to term-time free school meals?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The right reverend Prelate is right that the HAF programme has provided both food and activities for very many children and young people. While we have provided 21 million days to children and young people in England, which have been delivered across 153 local authorities, notwithstanding the £600 million that has been committed to it, we need to look carefully at how we get that to as many children as possible. I cannot commit to changing the entitlement rules but I will take back the points that the right reverend Prelate has made on that programme.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, partnerships with independent schools have often led to sharing of sports facilities, as well as expertise in music, drama and dance. However, the imposition of VAT has been devastating for many small specialist schools which have contributed greatly to opportunities for state school pupils. A number have had to close or curtail their outreach offers. Will the Government review their VAT demands on small specialist independent schools to enable them to survive and continue their valuable work with the state schools?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

As we have discussed on several occasions in this House, the impact of VAT on schools has not led to a higher number of schools closing than the trajectory over recent years. I agree with the noble Baroness that, where strong partnerships are built between private and state schools, they open up opportunities. While there are some good examples of that, I am still not sure—given that I worked on this the first time I was in the Department for Education—that this is on the scale we would want to see.

[Baroness Sater (Con)]

My Lords, if we want more children to have access to sport and physical activity, we need to make better use of existing facilities. The Opening School Facilities programme helped open nearly 1,900 schools to their local communities but ended in March 2025. Given the demand from organisations which are keen to deliver activities, I ask the Minister to reconsider renewing the highly successful programme.

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I will come back to the noble Baroness about the specifics of that programme. It is a key part of the Government’s new PE partnership network that we will be able to create those links between local clubs, sporting organisations and schools. I am sure that the partnership will want to look carefully at whatever the most effective way of doing that is.

[Lord Isaac (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government’s decision to scrap the EBacc is very welcome. However, the impact of the EBacc on arts provision in schools will not be reversed overnight. What specific steps are the Government proposing to take to ensure that schools place greater value and emphasis on arts subjects, including performing arts, within the curriculum? If we do not support the performing arts, where will future “Celebrity Traitors” come from?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

There might be some noble Lords who would quite like that—being in an environment where nobody can trust what anybody else is saying, and people getting booted out. Perhaps that is more down the other end of the Palace.

My noble friend makes a really important point about how we can promote arts education. That is the reason why we have established the National Centre for Arts Education. It will play a pivotal role in delivering the Government’s ambition to revitalise arts in schools, so that every child can access a rich, high-quality arts education. It will do that through providing strategic national leadership with a coalition of national, regional and local partners. It will support excellent teaching in our schools through a new online CPD offer and making sure there is full access to existing high-quality teacher development provision. It will promote arts education to school leaders, teachers, parents and young people, including how to progress in the arts and pursue interests and career aspirations.