Unions critise makeup of advisory panel for cultural education

Five trade unions have written to the Chair of the government’s Cultural Education Plan Expert Advisory Panel, saying the panel has failed to engage with them in the development of the forthcoming Cultural Education Plan.

The letter to Baroness Deborah Bull, signed by the general secretaries of the National Education Union, Equity, Musicians’ Union, Bectu and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, expresses "disappointment" that no union representatives have been invited to sit on the panel.

"Despite terms of reference which require the panel to represent 'those responsible for delivering cultural education and wider related sectors such as arts', no trade union representatives in the arts, entertainment or education were invited to participate since the panel was established in July 2023,” the letter states.

The panel, comprised of 22 people, has been overseeing the development of a new plan to improve cultural education for young people, which was due for publication by the end of last year.

Equity’s General Secretary Paul W Fleming said: “The fact that representatives of those involved in delivering the arts, education or entertainment have not been invited to input into this process beggars belief.”

“The complete lack of engagement calls into question the robustness of any recommendations which the so-called ‘expert’ advisory panel makes to government in advance of the proposed Cultural Education Plan.”

“If you want expert advice, you’re best off listening to the hundreds of thousands of world-class educators and creative practitioners working every day to deliver the arts, culture and education. You simply won’t have a meaningful Cultural Education Plan without them.”