Music and Dance Scheme

Question

14:38:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they will continue to invest in the Music and Dance Scheme, including in the National Dance Centres for Advanced Training programme, to support dance careers for young people from deprived backgrounds.

My Lords, improved access to the arts is important for all young people, which is why the Government are committed to continuing to fund the music and dance scheme, including the centres for advanced training, in the academic year 2025-26. The bursary support will continue for the more than 2,000 students benefiting from it, and at the same rate. It will remain means tested, so that it is targeted towards supporting students from lower-income families.

I thank my noble friend the Minister for her reply. I, too, welcome that DfE has confirmed the continued funding for bursaries, at least for 2025-26. However, there is no commitment beyond 2026 and DfE did cut the outreach funding for the schemes earlier this year. Can my noble friend tell me what steps the Government will take to ensure that young people from rural or economically disadvantaged areas continue to have equal access to dance training, given that short-term funding cycles create instability in delivery, and that outreach funding has already been cut?

The Government will launch a new centre for arts and music education to take forward the ambitions, which my noble friend rightly asks of us, for improved and more equitable arts education in state-funded schools, including a focus on dance. The music and dance scheme is a long-standing programme and the department will consider future funding in due course. Tough decisions have had to be made to get our finances back under control, including, as my noble friend identifies, on additional funding that was made available to dance outreach. Nevertheless, all eligible MDS students for dance have continued to receive bursaries.

My Lords, I welcome the Government’s continued support of MDS and the national centres, and the recognition of their vital role in opening up dance careers to diverse talent. However, does the Minister share my concern that too many children will never know whether they have a talent for dance? Despite dance being a statutory part of the national curriculum, one-third of primary schools are reported not to teach it, and its place within PE means that teachers often do not have the confidence or skill set to deliver that teaching. What steps are the Government taking to improve the place of dance teaching within schools, and will they consider a national plan for dance education or a model dance curriculum, akin to those that exist for music?

The noble Baroness is right that dance is part of the national curriculum for PE, which is part of the entitlement for children in all the first three key stages. I recognise her point about ensuring not only that it exists in the curriculum but that it is of high quality as well. I will bear in mind her point about how we can ensure, as we recruit additional teachers into our schools, that we have the specialist teachers with expertise in dance to be able to deliver it.

My Lords, I declare an interest as a governor of a specialist music school. As the Minister will be aware, the MDS covers music schools as well as dance schemes. Is she aware of the uncertainty and damage caused to parents trying to decide whether they can send their children to these schools, as well as the threat to the viability of these schools, if there is no certainty about future funding? When she talks about a new centre, could she clarify whether this is being considered as an alternative to the MDS? The MDS is vital to the future of many of these very specialist but highly prized schools.

I hope the noble Lord recognises that I recognise the contribution the MDS makes, and particularly the way it enables children who otherwise would not be able to afford this type of education to afford it. As I pointed out, it is longstanding and the Government have made a commitment to it this year, including to the bursaries that are necessary for those young people to benefit from it. We will make further announcements about this in the future. Sadly, given the way that funding decisions and budget planning go, it is not that unusual for there not to be a longer-term commitment to something. But, so far, the Government’s commitment to this has been right and appropriate, given the contribution that it makes.

My Lords, will the Government take the opportunity to let us know whether they will at least upgrade the grants they are talking about in future? If you leave them stationary, they will very rapidly become token gestures. Can the Government represent their long-term planning by saying they will upgrade the support they are giving to people on this particular scheme?

The Government have maintained a commitment to providing generous support to help students to access the specialist music and dance education and training that this scheme funds, committing £36 million for this academic year. That means that all families below average relevant income of £45,000 per annum will continue to benefit from additional financial support in the next academic year. The Government were able to upgrade the contribution made through the music and dance scheme bursary, for example to ensure that all families were unaffected financially by the VAT change in January 2025. I think the noble Lord is trying a different way to get me to commit future funding to this scheme, at a point at which, as I have already identified, it is not possible for me to do so.

My Lords, now that we hear the good news that the Government have agreed to extend bursary funding for the music and dance scheme, including the National Centres for Advanced Training in Dance programme, will the Minister be able to help facilitate an open dialogue with these providers to ensure that there is a strong voice for dance education in informing decision-making, including going forward, and the new national arts and music centre that my noble friend referred to, enabling providers to shape a programme based on expertise and the rich data they hold?

My noble friend makes an important point. There is an enormous amount of expertise in the schools supported by the music and dance scheme, as there is in other parts of the system. The priority here has to be to bring in as many different organisations and voices as possible, in order to design the national centre for arts and music in a way that delivers the objective of broader and more equitable access to arts education in state-funded schools. That will need lots of voices, lots of contribution, and of course the ambition that the Government have already put into it.

My Lords, please allow me to quote the noble Baroness, Lady Longfield, in her role as executive chair of the Centre for Young Lives: “Creativity and the expressive arts should be part and parcel of every child’s education from primary school”. Please also allow me to quote the Prime Minister: “Every young person should have access to music, art, design and drama. That is our mission”. Perhaps the Minister can help us understand why Ed Sheeran, backed by Elton John, Eric Clapton and hundreds of other artists, wrote to the Prime Minister just three months ago to say: “The time to act is now. State schools … have seen a … decrease in music provision … How many more venues need to close, how many music programs need to be cut before we realise that we can’t just celebrate success, we have to protect the foundations that make it?”

Well, I do agree with the words of my noble friend Lady Longfield. I am sure that she, like me, is dismayed at, for example, the big fall-off in young people able to take GCSEs in those subjects over the period of time that the noble Lord was in government, and that she is dismayed about, as the noble Baroness said, the numbers of teachers that we are losing in this particular area. This Government have a commitment, not only through the national centre for arts and music education but through our investment in our schools and teachers, and our commitment to a new national curriculum available for all schools, and an entitlement for all children. I only wish the last Government had been as committed.

My Lords, further to the question from my noble friend Lady Bull, how is the overall effectiveness of the music and dance scheme assessed? Clearly it is a great scheme, but is it possible that there are talented students who need support who may still be missing out, and, if so, how might this be assessed and rectified?

The music and dance scheme has a particular function to play in enabling very talented young people who would not otherwise be able to access the really excellent education provided by the schools in this scheme. But it would therefore be right to say that, of course, there will always potentially be other children and young people who could have benefited from this type of education. That is why we need a broader approach, as is manifest through the proposal for the national centre for arts and music education, to ensure that we are widening the opportunities for all young people to get to that position of excellence where they can benefit from the music and dance scheme.