Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase uptake of creative subjects in secondary schools.

All schools, including academies and free schools, must provide a broad and balanced curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society.

The national curriculum, which includes music, art and design, English, drama, dance, design & technology and computer science, is compulsory for maintained schools. Academies and free schools are not required to teach the national curriculum, but are required by their funding agreement to provide a broad and balanced curriculum. They can use their freedoms to innovate and build more stretching and tailored curricula, to meet the particular needs of their pupils or their local area or the particular ethos of the school.

Between 2012-2016 the Government invested over £460 million in a diverse portfolio of music and arts education programmes that are designed to improve access to the arts for all children, regardless of their background, and to develop talent across the country.