A new report warns that the UK’s creative industries are at risk because arts education is being neglected.
The report, An Evidence-Based Approach to Creating a Culture of Inclusive Opportunity Through Arts and Creativity, calls for urgent action to ensure that creative careers are not only available to the wealthy.
The report is a collaboration between Child of the North and the Centre for Young Lives, and Professor Simon James of our Department of English Studies is its executive editor.
Despite the UK’s cultural sector contributing £31bn to the economy and employing over two million people, opportunities for young people to engage in the arts are declining.
Many UK schools have cut creative subjects.
42% no longer offer GCSE music, 41% have dropped drama, and 84% do not offer dance.
Children from affluent backgrounds are three times more likely to sing in a choir or play in a band than those from deprived areas, and 93% of children miss out on arts education due to a lack of funding in state schools.
The report calls for a cultural shift to create an inclusive education system with creativity at its heart.
This could help boost attainment, tackle the school attendance crisis, and provide the creative industries with the workforce they require.
The report highlights how limited access to arts education impacts social mobility.
It 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, with just 8% of workers in TV and radio coming from a working-class background.
The report also argues that the evidence shows that schools which value inclusivity and belonging have a better understanding of their students.
This is particularly the case for pupils from minority backgrounds and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The report makes recommendations to the UK Government in three key policy areas:
It is the final in a series of twelve Child of the North/Centre for Young Lives reports focusing on how the UK Government can put the life chances of young people at the heart of policy making and delivery.
The evidence shows starkly both how creativity is valued by multiple industries and employers, but also how it has been threatened and devalued in some parts of the education system. With a new government promising to put creativity at the heart of every British child’s education, we need to act now.
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