new report published today (Friday 14th March) by Child of the North and the Centre for Young Lives, An evidence-based approach to creating a culture of inclusive opportunity through arts and creativity, calls for a new era of creativity and the arts in schools as part of the Government’s Opportunity Mission, to boost the creative economy and provide new opportunities to children whose talents risk being wasted.
It says the success of the UK’s cultural and creative industries is now seriously imperilled by this neglect and warns that the educational pipeline that supplied the infrastructure for professional music careers is severely restricted.
It is the final report in the series of twelve Child of the North/Centre for Young Lives reports focusing on how the Government can put the life chances of young people at the heart of policy making and delivery. The report celebrates the way that Bradford is using its status as the 2025 ‘City of Culture’ to drive forward evidence-based approaches to improving outcomes for all children.
The report calls for a cultural shift to create an inclusive education system with creativity at its heart as a way of boosting attainment, tackling the school attendance crisis, and providing the creative industries with the workforce they require.
While over 2m people are employed in the creative industries in the UK, and the cultural sector accounts for £31bn in gross value added to the UK economy, the report highlights the decline in creative subjects offered at GCSE and fall in extracurricular activity
It found that 42% of schools are no longer entering pupils for GCSE Music, 41% no longer enter pupils for GCSE Drama, and 84% of schools don’t offer GCSE Dance.
Children from the most affluent backgrounds are three times more likely to sing in a choir or play in a band/orchestra than children living in deprived areas while
93% of children are being excluded from arts and cultural education due to a lack of funding in state schools.
Participation in extracurricular activities has also decreased from 46% to 37% since the pandemic.
The report also argues that the evidence shows that schools which value inclusivity and belonging have a better understanding of their students, particularly those from minority backgrounds and those with SEND, leading to increased sense of school belonging and helping to tackle the current school attendance crisis.
The report warns that entry into creative industry careers is grossly skewed by family background and educational experience, with factors such as ethnicity and gender adding further barriers. It highlights how working-class representation in the creative industries is at the lowest level for a decade. Just 8% of workers in TV and radio are from a working-class background and social mobility in these industries is getting worse.
Baroness Anne Longfield, Executive Chair of the Centre for Young Lives, said:
“Britain’s children have got talent – but we are often too slow to nurture it and we are frequently failing to harness the innate skills in our communities through our education system. This is hindering the ability of our country to flourish and thrive.
“Many of our most successful musicians and bands have benefited from a rich, cultural, and creative education in the private school sector. We need to invest in boosting the opportunities of children in our state schools, from all backgrounds, as part of a bold ambition to develop truly inclusive education, support creativity throughout childhood and to tackle problems like the attendance crisis and attainment gap.
“This report provides evidence and proposals for how we can create more opportunities for all children to nurture and develop creative skills which are so important to growing our economy, and which would ensure we have a more diverse and thriving creative arts and music sector.”
