Labour: Collapse in music education ‘a disgrace’

Every child should be given access to the arts in school and early years education, Labour's Shadow Creative Industries Minister Chris Bryant has said.

Speaking at an arts hustings event this week organised by What Next? and the Campaign for the Arts, Bryant outlined his party's desire to place the arts on an equal footing with science and maths in schools, and reiterated plans for a review of Arts Council England.

"You've got to make sure that every single child in this country gets a proper creative and artistic education, at primary and at secondary school," said Bryant, whose party is currently around 20 points ahead in the polls a week before the general election.

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"It can't just be kids who go to very expensive schools that have a theatre and a performing arts department and an art room and all the rest of it. It has to be every single child.

"We should move from STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] to STEAM [science, technology, engineering, arts and maths] so we include the arts for every child.

"It's a disgrace that over the last 14 years, we've seen such a collapse in the number of students studying music and I want every child to have a possible career in the creative industries as well, and we cannot have the creative industries as just a hereditary industry."

'Undermining' creative courses

Bryant also criticised the government for "undermining" creative course in universities and colleges, with the Conservatives having said they will cap the number of students in England taking degrees deemed to be 'low value'.

"These [courses] are the route into careers," Bryant said.

"One in 14 people in the UK now works in the creative industries. My guess is that in 10 years time it will be one in 10 and we should celebrate that, not constantly undermine it.

"[The Conservatives] are even now saying that they're going to pay for some of the other manifesto commitments by slashing supposed 'Mickey Mouse' courses, even though they can't name a single recognised course."

In terms of the future of Arts Council England, which had been undergoing a government-ordered review which was shelved due to the general election, Bryant confirmed Labour's intention to conduct its own should it win power.

"A full top-to-bottom review [is necessary] so that the money is going in the right direction, that it is well spent that you don't have crazy decisions that make completely impossible for the English National Opera to survive in London."

Speaking during the event, Conservative peer Lord Parkinson, who has served as Arts Minister since 2022, said his party would recommence a review of ACE should it return to power.

Increased grants

"The role of [Arts Council England] should be to nurture and champion high quality, challenging and innovative culture and creativity across the whole country, engaging people of all backgrounds no matter where they live, so that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy the life-changing power of the arts, whether that's as artists, participants or audiences, and do that independently of the government of the day.

"I'm proud that, thanks to the increased grants that we provided to Arts Council England – we got an extra £43m at the last spending review – it now funds a record number of organisations in more places than ever before.

"But is also right that we make sure that it is delivering as effectively as possible for everyone who cares about the work that it does. That is why we have launched, and would continue, the independent review into Arts Council England that we started earlier this year."

Parkinson also appeared to distance himself from Conservative plans to cut "low value" university courses.

"I didn't do my history degree because I was thinking about my future potential earnings, but because I was curious about the world around me and wanted to expand my mind and my appreciation of it, so we should value the courses in of themselves as well as for the impact that they have on our creative economy," he said.

"It's not just about the earnings that you get in the immediate years after graduation, particularly in our sectors. That's not how we value the importance of these courses.

"It's about getting people into the creative industries."