Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of increasing levels of art and design training in Primary Initial Teacher Education on levels of (a) uptake of and (b) attainment in art and design-related subjects at (i) GCSE and (ii) A level.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes in providing a high quality education for all pupils, and integral to this is cultural education, including teaching music and the wider arts. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and this includes promoting pupils' cultural development.
The Department will continue to invest around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through the music, arts, and heritage programmes. With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
The Department published the Model Music Curriculum in 2021 and a refreshed National Plan for Music Education (NPME) in 2022 to support teachers in delivering high quality music education. The NPME was jointly published with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in June 2022, and sets out a vision for music education to 2030 – to enable all pupils to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally.
The Department will also publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with DCMS and Arts Council England. This will include how best to support pupils who wish to pursue careers in creative and cultural industries.
High quality teaching is the most important in school factor in improving outcomes for pupils. The Department therefore published the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) in November 2019. The CCF, alongside the Early Career Framework, establishes an entitlement to a three or more year structured package of support for future generations of teachers.
The CCF has been designed to cover the content required by trainee teachers irrespective of subject or phase, though there is a strong emphasis on the need for training to be subject and phase specific.
Qualified Teacher Status continues to be awarded at the end of ITT against the Teachers’ Standards, which are reflected in the design of the CCF. Standard 3 requires teachers to ‘have a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas, foster and maintain pupils’ interest in the subject, and address misunderstandings’.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of increases in the cost of living on art and design learning.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government remains committed to ensuring that all pupils receive a high quality education in art and design as part of a broad and ambitious curriculum. This starts during the early years and continues in school, with art and design forming part of the National Curriculum from age 5 to 14. Between 2018/2019 and 2021/2022 academic years, around three in ten pupils in state funded schools have taken art and design GCSE and this has remained broadly stable.
All schools have the freedom to choose how to spend their core funding according to their own circumstances and priorities, providing that all expenditure ultimately benefits their students. The Department does not provide additional in year funding for art and design. It is for schools to decide the allocation of resources at an individual school level, including funding in art and design and other arts subjects.
Overall, core schools funding increased by £4 billion in the 2022/23 financial year which is a 7% increase in cash terms per pupil from the 2021/22 financial year. This included an increase in mainstream school funding for 5 to 16 year olds of £2.5 billion in the 2022/23 financial year, compared to the 2021/22 financial year. This is equivalent to an average 5.8% cash increase, or an average of £300 per pupil, with each Local Authority forecast to see at least a 4.8% increase per pupil.
Over and above core schools funding, the Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through arts, music and heritage programmes. With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts subjects.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. Economic disadvantage has an effect on outcomes and disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to reach their full potential. The Department therefore continues to provide support with pupils’ education across all subjects, including art and design, in promoting pupils’ cultural development.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. Economic disadvantage has an effect on outcomes and disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to reach their full potential. The Department therefore continues to provide support with pupils’ education across all subjects, including art and design, in promoting pupil’s cultural development.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding was allocated to art and design education at (a) primary and (b) secondary level in the 2022-2023 financial year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government remains committed to ensuring that all pupils receive a high quality education in art and design as part of a broad and ambitious curriculum. This starts during the early years and continues in school, with art and design forming part of the National Curriculum from age 5 to 14. Between 2018/2019 and 2021/2022 academic years, around three in ten pupils in state funded schools have taken art and design GCSE and this has remained broadly stable.
All schools have the freedom to choose how to spend their core funding according to their own circumstances and priorities, providing that all expenditure ultimately benefits their students. The Department does not provide additional in year funding for art and design. It is for schools to decide the allocation of resources at an individual school level, including funding in art and design and other arts subjects.
Overall, core schools funding increased by £4 billion in the 2022/23 financial year which is a 7% increase in cash terms per pupil from the 2021/22 financial year. This included an increase in mainstream school funding for 5 to 16 year olds of £2.5 billion in the 2022/23 financial year, compared to the 2021/22 financial year. This is equivalent to an average 5.8% cash increase, or an average of £300 per pupil, with each Local Authority forecast to see at least a 4.8% increase per pupil.
Over and above core schools funding, the Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through arts, music and heritage programmes. With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts subjects.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. Economic disadvantage has an effect on outcomes and disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to reach their full potential. The Department therefore continues to provide support with pupils’ education across all subjects, including art and design, in promoting pupils’ cultural development.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. Economic disadvantage has an effect on outcomes and disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to reach their full potential. The Department therefore continues to provide support with pupils’ education across all subjects, including art and design, in promoting pupil’s cultural development.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure the adequacy of funding for cultural activities for (a) adults and (b) children in low-income areas.
Answered by John Whittingdale
His Majesty's Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality arts and cultural opportunities and activities, regardless of their background or where they live.
With the encouragement of the government, Arts Council England has developed a focus on Priority Places and Levelling Up for Culture Places to address historic imbalances in investment. As part of this, priority places receive dedicated Arts Council staff resources to build local capacity. The Arts Council’s Investment Programme for 2023–26, which is funding a record number of organisations in more places than ever before, has resulted in funding of £42.9 million per year in Levelling up for Culture Places. Stockton-on-Tees is a Levelling Up for Culture Place, and Tees Valley Combined Authority is a Priority Place.
The government’s Cultural Development Fund supports culture-led regeneration projects in areas across the country with the lowest levels of investment and engagement in arts and culture. This fund has provided £76 million of capital investment to 20 transformative, place-based creative and cultural projects over three rounds (2019 to 2023). In addition to this, in January 2023, the Government awarded £546 million to 31 culture and heritage projects as part of the second round of the Levelling Up Fund.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to encourage cultural exchange between the UK and India.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Culture features prominently in the India-UK 2030 Roadmap. A key Roadmap deliverable was the recently concluded and hugely successful India-UK Together Season of Culture. This programme saw 51 partners employing nearly two thousand artists, reached an audience of over fourteen million people and welcomed visitors to 21 cities across both countries. This has set the stage for further collaboration and exchange. Furthermore, the Arts and Heritage Minister, Lord Parkinson, recently visited India to attend the G20 culture track and meet his Indian counterparts and key culture sector stakeholders. DCMS (Department of Culture, Media & Sport), the lead UK Department, is committed to facilitating ongoing bilateral collaboration.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent meetings her Department has had with (a) authors, (b) scriptwriters and (c) playwright organisations in the last 12 months.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Arts Council England, as national development agency for creativity and culture, engages with a range of organisations on a broad range of artforms, including in the theatre and literature sectors.
Officials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have, in the last 12 months, attended roundtable meetings convened by Arts Council England where author organisations have been in attendance.
Additionally, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, Minister for Arts and Heritage, delivered a speech for the Northern Writers’ Awards on Tuesday 22 June, an event supported by the organisation New Writing North. Lord Parkinson also attended and provided a speech at the London Book Fair on 18 April. He attended a reading and literacy themed roundtable run as part of Baroness Sanderson of Welton’s independent review for public libraries which was attended by a representative of the Society of Authors, and has had meetings and engagements with a range of poets, playwrights and authors in the course of his ministerial engagement.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 53 of the consultation document entitled Disability Action Plan: Consultation, published in July 2023, what steps her Department is taking to encourage autism-friendly programmes in the cultural and heritage sectors; and whether she (a) has made and (b) plans to make an assessment of the effectiveness of those programmes.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport works closely with its arm’s-length bodies, such as Arts Council England (ACE), the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) and Historic England (HE), to ensure that the cultural and heritage sectors are accessible to everyone, including those who are autistic.
ACE provides regular funding to disability-led organisations across the country through its National Portfolio Organisation investment programme. This programme includes organisations that support neurodivergent creatives and autism-friendly programming – for example, Unanima Theatre: a new joiner to the 2023–26 investment programme, which has an exclusively learning disabled and autistic cast who draw on their lives and experiences when creating work.
More broadly, ACE has worked to increase the investment in disability-led organisations across the National Portfolio; within the current portfolio there are now 32 such organisations. ACE monitors each organisation throughout the funding period, in this case 2023–26, to ensure they deliver the plans and activity agreed with ACE.
NLHF regularly funds projects that focus on autism. In 2022, it awarded £245,104 to The National Autistic Society which celebrated and preserved the stories, voices and memories of autistic people. In the same year, VocalEyes was awarded £99,814 to launch a digital heritage volunteering initiative providing neurodiverse people with valuable heritage volunteering experience and contributing to vital access and inclusion work in the sector. As a funding body, NLHF expects funding recipients to report back on expected outcomes and the intended effectiveness/impact of the programme.
Finally, HE has recently launched a new funding round for its Everyday Heritage Grants programme, with neurodiversity and disability identified as groups of people HE is particularly keen to engage and fund. HE will be measuring funded projects looking at the impact on wellbeing outcomes.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the educational arts sector.
Answered by John Whittingdale
His Majesty’s Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people have a broad and balanced curriculum, of which creative education is a key part. We have a wide range of music and arts education programmes designed to improve access to the arts for all children, regardless of their background or where they live, and to maximise potential and unlock opportunity across the country. The Department for Education will continue to invest around £115 million per annum in cultural education over the next three years, through its music, arts, and heritage programmes.
The recently published Creative Industries Sector Vision highlighted our Creative Careers Promise, which will build on our educational arts offering to young people. As part of this, and as committed to in the Schools White Paper, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education are working together to develop a Cultural Education Plan. This plan aims to highlight the importance of high-quality cultural education in schools, promote the social value of cultural and creative education, outline and support career progression pathways, address skills gaps, and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcome. It will also connect relevant organisations delivering cultural learning opportunities and to support the cultural education workforce, including freelancers.
This week, the Government announced 22 independent experts who will sit on an advisory panel to support the development of the Cultural Education Plan. This panel, chaired by the crossbench peer Baroness Bull, comprises teachers, education leaders, and representatives from the performing arts, museums, heritage and youth sectors, and the creative industries.
As part of their work, Baroness Bull, members of the panel, and officials from both Departments are undertaking a series of around 50 listening exercises, working with organisations including the Confederation of School Trusts, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Youth Agency, Creative UK, the Royal Society of Arts, and Arts Council England’s Youth Advisory Board.
This is on top of existing Government initiatives to support the arts in education, including £25 million for musical instruments as committed to alongside the National Plan for Music Education, exploring opportunities for enrichment activities as part of the Government’s wraparound childcare provision, improving creative apprenticeships, and supporting the rollout of relevant T-Levels.
Additionally, we recognise the rich cultural learning experiences that children and young people in England access through the cultural sector, and we are pleased that 79% of organisations being funded through Arts Council England’s 2023–26 national portfolio are delivering activities directly to children and young people – a 20% increase from the last national portfolio.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what data his Department holds on access to arts and culture for children and young people with a disability.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people have access to arts and culture across the UK, regardless of their background or circumstances.
The Taking Part Survey was the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s key evidence source for the level of engagement with the arts, heritage, museums and libraries. In 2019/20 this survey identified that 91.3% of children (aged 5–15) with a long-standing illness or disability had engaged with the arts in the 12 months preceding their response to the survey. The publication can be found here.
In 2021, the Taking Part Survey was replaced by DCMS’s Participation Survey. This captures participation data for people aged 16 and over in England, and also asks respondents if they have a long-standing illness or disability. The most recent annual publication can be found here.
The Department is working closely with the Government-appointed Arts & Culture Disability & Access Ambassador, David Stanley BEM, to improve accessibility to the sector for people with disabilities, including children and young people.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to increase the availability of capital investment to theatres.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Yes - there are a number of public funds which support investment in theatres and in the wider performing arts and cultural sectors. This includes £546 million which was awarded in January 2023 to 31 cultural and heritage projects as part of the second round of the Government’s Levelling Up Fund, £76 million of capital investment through the Government’s Cultural Development Fund, and the Capital Investment Programme run by Arts Council England. In addition, Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants programme is open to theatres where project costs are less than £100,000, and can be used to cover capital costs.