CLA keeps the pressure on education strategy

Concerns at the limitations of the Henley Review of Cultural Education and the Government’s response to it thus far (AP249) have led the Cultural Learning Alliance (CLA) to abandon its plans to wind itself up. The CLA has since 2009 been working as an advocacy body for a coherent national strategy that will promote and protect access to cultural opportunities for all children and young people. Although established as a time-limited organisation, the steering group has said that, in light of the current climate, the on-going National Curriculum Review and the imminent implementation of the Henley Review, it will remain in operation for a further 12 months. Whilst welcoming the £15m earmarked by the Government for a range of new initiatives, the CLA points out that this does not compensate for the loss of teacher training places for cultural and arts subjects, the absence of arts subjects in the English Baccalaureate, the £10m that was lost from the Museums, Libraries and Archives budget when it moved to Arts Council England, and the £7m lost from the Booktrust budget. It is also concerned at the lack of explicit reference in the Henley Review to education work in Early Years settings and Youth Services.