The Musicians’ Union and actors union Equity have joined other organisations in calling on the revamped UK government to “fully restore the status of arts subjects” like music within English schools, reckoning that much of what the Labour government has previously announced since coming into power in 2024 amounts “to little more than tinkering around the edges”.
Ministers under previous Prime Minister Keir Starmer made some welcome statements regarding the teaching of subjects like music, art and drama, but - an open letter tells new PM Andy Burnham - “to fully deliver on its promises, the government must tackle the wholesale causes of the current status of arts in schools and work with the arts education sector to deliver a meaningful expansion of arts provision”.
Last year the Labour government announced it was abandoning the so-called ‘EBacc’ - or English Baccalaureate - a controversial initiative that prioritised certain subjects at GCSE and then assessed schools based on how students performed in those subjects. The EBacc excluded creative subjects like music, which often resulted in those subjects being deprioritised in schools.
The axing of the EBacc was widely welcomed by the music and wider creative industries. However, the open letter to Burnham says that, “while ending the EBacc was supposed to open the door for more children to study the arts”, other announcements and policies that came out of Starmer’s government “amount to little more than tinkering around the edges and may even entrench the status quo”.
It adds that recent proposals for reforming other ways that English schools are measured and assessed “risk perpetuating the low value given to arts subjects in schools”.
Meanwhile the continued lack of funding makes any ambitions to ensure all young people have access to a good arts education very hard to achieve. The letter then adds, “the arts should not be an add-on or an optional extra; they should be a fundamental part of every child’s school experience”.
Following Burnham’s revamp of the UK government earlier this week, the Department For Culture, Media & Sport is actually still being led by the same people - culture secretary Lisa Nandy and culture minister Ian Murray - but over at the Department For Education there is a new education secretary in the form of Lucy Powell.
The MU and Equity - and other signatories like UK Music, the Royal College Of Art and National Education Union - are hoping they can persuade Powell, as well as Nandy and new PM Burnham, to go much further than Starmer's government on all of this.
Equity’s Head Of Policy Tom Peters adds, “The government has rightly recognised the creative industries as an industrial priority sector. The incoming Secretary Of State For Education now has the opportunity to meaningfully improve access to arts education at all levels of the system across the country to ensure that a career in the creative industries is a realistic ambition for children and young people from all backgrounds”.