Big news this month is the announcement of who will be running the new National Centre for Arts Education – see our full report on this in our National Centre briefing. But there has also been policy movement around 14-16 qualifications and lots else happening over the past month. In this edition we report on:
- New vocational GCSE subjects
- Enrichment Expansion Programme news
- First step in supporting all schools to teach children with SEND
- New Key Stage 3 Alliance and call for evidence
- The Freelands Awards winners
- Fair Education Alliance latest Report Card findings
- House of Lords debate on creative education
- A new publication to support cultural educators
- New philanthropic support for school singing
- Arts Council England releases guidance for National Portfolio Organisation funding
In our Latest Thinking article this month, Jacqui O’Hanlon, RSC Deputy Executive Director and Director of Creative Learning – and CLA Evidence Associate – takes a long view on considering how we learn from evidence, experimentation and collective learning, and asks how we can work together to create systems of opportunity to enable every child to access an Arts-rich education
In our Research Spotlight, Professor Pat Thomson, CLA’s Senior Evidence Associate, examines a study from the US which investigates how school leaders’ views of Arts education changes once they actually have more of it in their school, finding that involvement in Arts interventions deepens understanding of its value.
New vocational GCSEs launched
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement that he wanted to put technical education on an equal footing with the traditional academic path, the government has announced new national qualifications to be created to sit alongside traditional GCSEs.
The ambition is to allow every person across the country to purse prestigious new vocational GCSEs which will replace current technical awards, and to be able to access work experience in a major shake-up of the education system to prepare for the world of work.
The announcement follows the interim Milburn report in May, in which Alan Milburn said that without significant change the number of young people not in work or education could grow by 25% by the early 2030s, opening up a “generational fault line” between the young and old.
The shake-up builds on reforms including new V Levels, Occupational and Foundation Certificates and expanded T Levels – giving young people more qualifications routes with a ensuring they have a “clear line of sight to employment”, and helping to tackle the crisis of the 1 million young people who are out of education, employment or training (NEET).
The government is launching a National Mission on Work Experience, working alongside the Good Growth Business Forum and other businesses, to boost opportunities outside the classroom.
They have issued a call to employers to provide an additional 200,000 work experience placements to ensure all young people have vital exposure to the workplace between 14 and 16, with Mayors and local authorities helping to make links between schools and employers. Employers can contact their local careers hub to pledge new work experience placements. Alongside businesses, No.10 North will establish work experience placements for 14-16-year-old students this academic year.
The Prime Minister said: “We’ve all heard someone say ‘school wasn’t really for me’ because they were not given the chance to study vocational courses as well as traditional subjects. That one-size-fits-all approach isn’t working, so we’re building an education system that values both academic and technical paths. I want to give all young people across Britain the hope that their future will be brighter – whether it starts at university or not.”
In terms of phasing in the changes, the government’s press release states that some new qualifications will be available in some subjects from as early as September 2029, as part of broader new technical pathways starting in September 2028. Subject options could include Business Management and Finance, Creative Media Production, Digital Tech, Child Development, and Building and Construction, supporting progression into further study through T Levels and V Levels in these subjects, or through A Levels.
New subjects will be developed as part of a review of existing GCSEs and new Vocational GCSEs, to create a complementary set of qualifications that give students greater choice, but avoid duplication or overlap. English, Maths and Science will remain a common entitlement. Together, the qualifications on offer at age 14 will be aligned to 16-19 progression routes including A Levels, T Levels and the new V Levels.
On 24 September Lucy Powell was interviewed on the Today Programme and talked about working with current GCSEs to make them more vocational: “I’m looking at the current suite of GCSEs, we have some fantastic GCSEs that have a really strong practical element to them that currently doesn’t have the practical assessment that they really should have, which is why students aren’t taking them – whether that computing where the assessment doesn’t actually involve a computer, whether that’s drama that doesn’t involve enough drama, whether that’s PE … we want practical assessment alongside as well.”
There was similar Powell narrative in the Observer on 6 September, about closing the gap between the classroom and the world of work: “If we don’t seize that moment to infuse young people into the economy and into the society, so that we can stay ahead of that, it’s a missed opportunity for those young people, but it’s also a massive missed opportunity for the economy and society.”
CLA COMMENT
With a change of government in July, we have been keeping alert to what this means for Arts education, following the last government’s strong commitment to revitalising the Arts in schools. We had assumed that the new government would broadly honour the recommendations of the Curriculum and Assessment Review but make changes in the 14-16 space, andthis new move to create more vocational GCSEs is part of that shift.
Over the summer we published our Capabilities Framework for Employability which is helpful in setting out the value of an Arts-rich education for developing capabilities that are valued by employers in the workplace.
Tracey Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, spoke to the media at the Labour Conference about“radical rewiring of the system” to get young people into work. With the final Milburn report expected soon, tackling NEETs is likely to dominate the political discourse this autumn.
Meanwhile, as well as taking soundings on the new GCSEs, we are trying to understand to what extend the Burnham/Powell changes will delay the timeline of education reform as well as the important question of how schools are supported to deliver the new technical GCSEs. The draft curriculum was not published in September as expected; there is no movement on the Pupil Engagement Framework; and no news on the joint DfE/DCMS Advisory Board that emerged out of the government response to the Hodge Review. We will update our CLA education reform Timeline as soon as we know more.
What are your views on the new GCSE plans? Do get in touch and let us know.
Enrichment Expansion Programme
The government has announced further information about the Enrichment Expansion Programme. More than 400 secondary schools will benefit from tailored support backed by £22.5 million through the programme.
The programme will be delivered by the Youth Sport Trust and a team of national partners, with dedicated Enrichment Co-ordinators managing clusters of local schools to identify gaps in their current offer, develop enrichment plans, and connect with local partners to expand opportunities for their pupils. As part of the funding, schools will receive tailored support to strengthen and grow their enrichment provision, helping more children access high-quality experiences both in and beyond the classroom who otherwise would not have been able to do so.
Education charity Curious Minds has been selected as one of the programme’s official “System Builders” to bring its specialised arts and cultural education expertise to the national framework. Curious Minds is led by Derri Burdon, CLA Co-Chair. Derri stated: “We’re looking forward to bringing our arts expertise and our connections across the cultural sector, helping schools tap into brilliant opportunities for learning from national organisations through to grassroots cultural partners.”
The other Enrichment System Builders supporting the delivery of the programme are the Enterprise Academy; EFL in the Community; and the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom. In addition, Lead Inclusion Schools, an Education Advisory Board and a research partner will contribute practical expertise on inclusion as well as capturing learning from the programme.
The secondary schools taking part are located across all nine regions of England. Areas were selected based on levels of deprivation and local need. They include Birmingham, Blackpool, County Durham, Croydon, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sandwell, Sheffield, Stoke-on-Trent and Sunderland, as well as other communities across the country. Schools on the programme will start receiving support from January 2027.
Supporting delivery of the programme are the five Enrichment Ambassadors announced in the summer (see our July newsletter), representing arts and culture – Lord (Marcus) Davey – sport and physical activity, nature, outdoors and adventure, civic engagement, and wider life and future skills.
The investment will support schools to deliver the opportunities outlined in the government’s new Enrichment Benchmarks, announced earlier this year, which provide practical guidance to help every child access high-quality enrichment opportunities as part of their education.
In its statement, the government said that hundreds of thousands more young people in disadvantaged communities will get the chance to join sports teams, learn an instrument, or take part in debating and outdoor adventures, helping them build confidence, develop new skills and stay engaged both in and out of education.
The investment is designed to help schools broaden opportunities for pupils by putting on more activities during the school day or after school ranging from music groups, engineering clubs and debating societies to football teams, volunteering projects and outdoor learning programmes. By building confidence, skills and a sense of belonging, these experiences can help keep young people engaged in education and set them up for future success.
The government’s position is that without access to enrichment, too many young people miss out on the confidence, skills and sense of belonging that help them succeed. Those least likely to participate are also more likely to become not in education, employment or training (NEET), making these opportunities a vital part of helping young people stay engaged, raise their aspirations and prepare for future success.
Funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), delivered in partnership with the Department for Education (DfE), the Enrichment Expansion programme’s additional funding and support is part of this solution, helping those schools facing the greatest challenges to deliver a wide range of high-quality enrichment opportunities, in line with this year’s new benchmarks for every school.
Schools Minister Georgia Gould said: “A great education is about more than what happens in the classroom. It’s about the football team, the school play, the debate competition, the volunteering project and the outdoor adventure that help young people discover who they are and what they can achieve.”
Minister for Young People, Vicky Foxcroft said: “Through our landmark State of a Nation survey we heard from more than 14,000 young people who told us that they feel they are missing out on safe, supportive environments where they can connect with others and find a community to belong to. Every young person should have somewhere to go, something to do and someone they can trust, where they can discover new interests that help them develop the confidence they need to thrive.”
CLA COMMENT
The government’s enrichment ambitions are widely welcomed, as is its commitment in the Youth Matters National Strategy to halve the participation gap in enriching activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers by 2035.
As we reported in our Newsletter in July, more than a third of secondary students currently say they do not participate in any enrichment activities in school, and a similar proportion say they do not participate in any activities outside school, according to government data.
We welcome the focus on schools serving areas of deprivation including in the North of England and the West Midlands: our Report Cards highlight the Arts entitlement gap is highest in these locations. Too many children have been locked out of these opportunities because of where they live and their family’s socioeconomic circumstances.
The challenge to the new enrichment entitlement in schools is the short timescale between publication of the Benchmarks in July this year and first Ofsted inspections for enrichment in September; and the lack of funding, outside the 400 schools named within the Enrichment Expansion Programme. It is also essential to maintain our focus on the Arts embedded within the curriculum, with parity to other subject areas.
It is good to see a specialist Arts education organisation built in to advise on arts and cultural education from the outset, with the appointment of Curious Minds alongside the Youth Sports Trust. We want to see high-quality Arts and culture provision given parity to the other four enrichment areas (civic engagement, nature and the outdoors, sport and physical activity, and wider life and future skills).
First step in supporting all schools to teach children with SEND
The government has produced what is describes as “first-of-their-kind” free training materials as a first step towards every teacher being supported to teach children and young people with SEND. You can see details here.
The initiative is the first step as part of the government’s wider £200 million investment into teacher training to transform support for children and young people with SEND, ending a postcode lottery that has left too many families fighting for support.
Developed by training experts Ambition Institute and building on expertise from the sector, the materials will put inclusion at the heart of every classroom and workshop, giving teachers practical techniques such as breaking instructions into digestible steps, pre-teaching specialist vocabulary, and carving out time for children and young people to practise it.
The materials will go hand in hand with online training for early years staff, developed and delivered by early years charity Dingley’s Promise, supporting staff to use age-appropriate inclusive practices – like using visual timetables to help children with transitions between activities, or adapting environments to reduce unnecessary noise that can be a barrier to communication and emotional regulation.
Minister for School Standards, Georgia Gould, said that “We are backing staff with the tools to spot and support additional needs from the earliest years, making sure all children and young people feel included.”
One in three teachers in a recent survey said they want more training to support children with SEND. Alongside this, a quarter of surveyed teaching assistants in schools reported that a lack of sufficient training was a barrier to them effectively providing support for these pupils.
Further resources are due to be published in January and April 2007. New, fully funded training courses will then follow in September next year for teachers, school leaders and support staff across the country.
The offer fits into the government’s wider work to ensure there is a pathway for every child, no matter their background or needs. As research finds that young people with SEND are around 80% more likely than average to be NEET it is more important than ever to deliver the right support earlier so every child is set up to achieve later in life.
Claire Heywood, Vice Principal at Kidderminster College, who provided feedback on the materials, said that the strongest feature of these materials is that “they place inclusive practice at the heart of high-quality teaching … Crucially, they provide staff with practical approaches and tools that can be readily applied in the classroom and workshops to support the success of all learners.”
CLA COMMENT
We reported earlier in the year on the new government ambition, set out in its Schools White Paper in February, for more SEND pupils to be supported in mainstream schools. Proposals to reform the SEND system is set to be one of government’s defining policy changes. The government then said it would spend billions to make mainstream schools in England more inclusive for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (see more details here).
This is the first step and is just one of the important things schools are now being tasked with during a period of significant education reform. SEND pressures are acute: the peak prevalence point of SEND identification nationally is now in double figures (age 10/11) so early intervention is not working. Expectations of greater inclusion in mainstream schools might overlook, and even penalise, what inclusive schools already do (e.g. avoiding exclusions for high-needs pupils which works to the detriment of high attendance recording).
CLA’s new Blueprint for an Arts-Rich Education will be published soon. Inclusion – spanning SEND, Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs, pupil engagement, relevance and representation – will be addressed throughout the Blueprint following consultation with inclusion experts over the summer.
KS3 Alliance calls for evidence on secondary school transitions
A Key Stage 3 Alliance has been launched, supported by the Department for Education, with the aim of looking to improve children’s transition into secondary school. This new national alliance has put out a national call for evidence on secondary school transitions. It is calling for examples of best practice but also approaches that have not worked.
The Alliance states that Key Stage 3 has “too often been treated simply as a bridge between primary school and GCSEs, rather than as a distinctive and purposeful phase of education in its own right”. The national call for evidence is seeking examples of “effective” practice in early secondary years, along with research and innovation, “as well as lessons from approaches that have not worked”.
A regional roadshow will begin across the country, and the Alliance will focus on four national priorities:
- Engagement and belonging
- Foundational literacy and numeracy
- Assessment and data coherence
- Pathways to adult life
The Alliance is led by Becks Boomer-Clark, CEO of Lift schools and Lesley Powell, CEO of North East Learning Trust. Co-chair Boomer-Clark said: “For too long, Key Stage 3 has been a seriously overlooked phase of education, We have lacked a clear, shared, understanding of what these years are for and what every young person should experience during them.”
Boomer Clark adds that “Schools see the consequences in attendance, engagement and belonging. Too many young people begin Year 7 with enthusiasm, only to gradually lose confidence, curiosity and connection.”
Fellow Co-chair Powell said schools are “stronger together”, and that the alliance will give “teachers and school leaders an exciting opportunity to share expertise to drive meaningful change. It will examine how a rich and purposeful experience from the age of 11 can give young people stronger foundations and make academic, technical and vocational opportunities at 14 genuine and valued choices.”
Seventeen academy trust and council bosses will be acting as regional leads working under Boomer-Clark and Powell. They include Outwood Grange chief Lee Wilson, Dixons leader Luke Sparkes and Windsor Academy Trust’s Dawn Haywood.
The call for evidence is open until 5pm on 9 November. Schools, trusts, colleges, as well as researchers and young people, are invited to take part.
CLA COMMENT
The CLA welcomed the government’s focus on Key Stage 3 in its response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review in November 2025, addressing the current challenge of the weight of content required at Key Stage 4 bleeding into this important Key Stage. This announcement is a valuable step in the right direction for this ambition, although it is focusing on the transition from primary.
The government response in November 2025 said that “Every secondary school needs to give sufficient priority to organising and strengthening key stage 3, driven by a clear vision of a rich and stretching curriculum backed with high-quality assessment, and a broader focus on a rewarding school experience. School leaders should ensure that pupils in key stage 3 benefit from the full three years of the key stage, with a strong transition in place followed by time for breadth of experience, depth of learning and wider enrichment.”
It went on to say that “Pupils should experience the same quality of resources in key stage 3 as they do in key stage 4, including being taught by experienced staff. Schools should also find ways to recognise pupils’ achievements at key stage 3 so that their personal, social and academic accomplishments are celebrated. Many schools already do this well and there are excellent models to draw from that demonstrate what can be achieved.”
At the time we warmly welcomed this news, together with a reduction in the volume of content at KS4, as focusing on the need for opportunity and stretch in the valuable three years of KS3. We particularly liked the recommendation to find ways to recognise and celebrate pupils’ personal, social, and academic achievements at KS3.
We look forward to submitting evidence to the Alliance.
Fair Education Alliance 2026 Report Card published
The Fair Education Alliance has produced its Education Report Card for 2026 – ‘Systems for a fairer future, from Neighbourhood to National’.
The Alliance is a coalition of nearly 300 of England’s leading organisations from business, the third sector and education, all working towards a world in which there is a fair education system. Their Report Card sets out where progress has been made towards their Impact Goals, where urgent challenges remain, and their policy asks to government to ensure that no child’s success is limited by their socioeconomic background.
The Alliance’s impact goals are:
- Primary and Secondary Attainment: Narrow achievement gaps in literacy/numeracy at primary level and GCSE outcomes at secondary school
- Wellbeing: Foster emotional wellbeing, resilience, and character to support strong aspirations
- Post-School and Higher Education: Reduce the proportion of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET) post-compulsory schooling, and close gaps in university graduation rates, notably at selective institutions.
The FEA Report Card contains data, case studies and a wide-ranging series of recommendations to government but in particular shows that the gaps in outcomes between children from low-income households and their peers are still not meaningfully closing:
- At age five, the development gap has widened to 4.9 months
- By the end of primary school, the attainment gap is 10 months
- By the end of secondary school, it has widened to 19 months and will never close on its current trajectory
- Children and young people growing up in households in financial strain are nearly twice as likely to have low life satisfaction
- Young people from low-income households are twice as likely to be NEET as their better-off peers
The FEA sets out 37 recommendations for government across three priorities: making schools part of connected communities; joining up education, skills and employment; and building a village around every child.
In her introduction to the publication, Liz Robinson, Chair of the Alliance, writes that “the progress on policy over the past two years must be seen in the context of a gap in education outcomes between students from low-income households and their peers that has not meaningfully closed over the past 15 years”.
CLA COMMENT
CLA always values the FEA Report Card and the work of such a broad alliance, whose ambitions mirror our own, on a wider basis. The FEA scrutinises the attainment gap; our focus in our own annual Report Cards is the Arts entitlement gap and the Arts enrichment gap.
The FEA Chair makes an important point about how hard it is to make progress when socio-economic factors are so entrenched. In the case of our sector this has been doubly impacted by the erosion of Arts subjects in schools due to accountability measures not valuing the Arts for 15 years. We have a long way to go.
Our upcoming new Blueprint for an Arts-Rich Education will be a guide to the system change required across the education and cultural sectors, and the Arts education workforce, to meet the shared goal: enabling every child to access high-quality Arts experiences, in and outside of formal state education, in every postcode in England.
Freelands Arts Awards 2026
The first Freelands Arts Awards winners were announced on 9 September. The winners are:
- Burton Futures run by The Burton at Bideford, a contemporary art gallery and museum in the in North Devon which plays an important role in supporting art education in a predominantly rural district that has long suffered from underinvestment, deprivation and geographic isolation.
- SIGNAL’s Artist Development Lab – this is part of broad programme run by the grassroots arts charity to deliver high quality, inclusive creative learning opportunities that promote and advance education in the arts in Barrow-in-Furness, one of the most acutely deprived and culturally underserved communities in England.
- Wolverhampton Art Gallery’s Arts and Culture Youth Programme is inspired by its collection and temporary exhibitions, unlocking the creative potential of talented emerging artists in the city. The programme is free or includes financial support, ensuring that talent, not circumstance, determines opportunity. ArtForum is a hands-on youth group for 14-25-year-olds who make artwork and gain experience collaborating on exhibitions and events.
Freelands Foundation is running the Awards annually until 2030 to recognise, support and share inspiring art education work. Each year, three UK-based visual arts organisations, galleries, or museums receive an unrestricted grant of £100,000 each to direct as they wish. This is part of the Foundation’s five-year commitment of £1.5 million to celebrate exceptional art education approaches with demonstrable impact by UK-based visual arts organisations, museums and galleries.
The Awards champion progressive, impactful art education programs that engage local communities, schools, and under-represented groups. Winners collaborate with the foundation on professional video case studies to share their educational practices with the wider sector.
CLA COMMENT
Trusts and foundations committed to Arts education are few and far between, so Freelands Foundation is a valuable ally in the national work to champion Arts education in schools and communities and to promote high-quality practice. And this is a significant investment in this important work.
It is excellent to see this commitment from Freelands, and its first Award winners are characterised by their determined and focused Art education work, often within communities affected by underinvestment and deprivation.
We were pleased to see Freelands Foundation sharing CLA’s research to contextualise the current context for Art education; the findings of our 2026 Report Card were referenced in the Guardian and other Awards coverage.
Creative Education Access Private Member’s Bill
Baroness Lynne Featherstone has introduced the Creative Education Access Bill as a Lords Private Member’s Bill in Parliament. The Bill is designed to secure guaranteed time for creative learning in state-funded schools across England and Wales and to foster institutional links between education and the creative sector.
The primary objective of the Creative Education Access Bill is to move creative subjects away from being treated as “optional extras” and anchor them as core elements of the school curriculum. Its specific targets include:
- Primary Schools: Guaranteeing a minimum of 5 hours a week of meaningful access to creative education.
- Lower Secondary Schools: Guaranteeing a minimum of 4 hours a week of creative learning.
- Industry Partnerships: Mandating that schools actively develop partnerships with organisations in the UK’s creative industries.
The Bill began its passage in the House of Lords and had its Second Reading debate on September 11, 2026, where members debated its core principles. As a Private Member’s Bill, it faces limited parliamentary time to progress further through the Committee stage and subsequent readings to become law. You can see the debate here.
In her maiden speech in the Lords, Baroness Mackenzie of Sherwood, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, made her response, broadly supporting the Bill’s aims but explaining that the Government had reservations about the legislation itself.
In her speech, Baroness Mackenzie described her personal connection to creative education while growing up in London after her parents fled apartheid-era South Africa. She benefited from free music and arts education, which helped shape her career in theatre and the wider cultural sector.
Baroness Mackenzie talked about the importance of community and place, drawing on her experience in Nottingham: she argued that creative education works best when it is rooted in localcommunities and shaped by young people themselves. Local theatres, museums, libraries, music venues and youth organisations can all contribute.
Unequal access was highlighted as a major problem, with socioeconomic and geographical inequalities in access to creative education and careers. Baroness Mackenzie also referenced the growth of the creative industries – £145.8 billion in gross valueadded (GVA) in 2024 – and linked broader access to creative education with the ambition to generate growth across “every postcode.”
The speech lists several government initiatives intended to improve creative opportunities for young people, including:
- revitalising arts education through a new curriculum
- scrapping the EBacc performance measure
- giving young people greater freedom over subject choices
- establishing a National Centre for Arts Education
- introducing a new Enrichment Framework for schools and colleges
- investing £132.5 million of dormant-asset funding through the Every Child Can programme
During the debate, Baroness Mackenzie responded to concerns about neurodivergent students; curriculum and assessment; the forthcoming National Centre for Arts Education; and recommendations from the Hodge report on Arts Council England. Contributors to the debate were: Baroness Keeley, The Earl of Clancarty, Lord Cashman, Baroness Bousted, Baroness Hamwee, Lord Taylor of Warwick, Baroness Wheatcroft, Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury, Lord Doyle, Baroness Gill, Lord Storey, and Baroness Jenkin of Kennington.
The central message was that every young person should have meaningful opportunities to develop creative skills, regardless of where they live or their socioeconomic background, with locally rooted cultural organisations and community partnerships being crucial to achieving this. Creative education was positioned not only as culturally valuable but also as a contributor to economic growth.
CLA COMMENT
CLA welcomes Baroness Mackenzie’s commitment to arts education and is grateful to Baroness Featherstone for enabling this debate. It is good to see a government minister reiterate the commitment to Arts education in the House of Lords and we value the ambition of her “every postcode” approach and the link to the economic growth of the creative industries alongside the importance of an Arts entitlement for every child.
We look forward to engaging with Baroness Mackenzie when we share our new Blueprint for an Arts-Rich Education later this autumn.
New publication on cultural education leadership
Leading with Purpose: Cultural Education in Practice is a new publication from A New Direction which is described as a collection of observations, studies, analysis and practical tools for today’s cultural educators. A former Bridge organisation, A New Direction is a London-based charity that works to expand creativity, education, and employment opportunities for children and young people
A New Direction states that it supports cultural education leaders with the tools, insight and resources they need to ensure that every child and young person has the chance to own their creativity, shape culture, and realise their creative potential. Describing many of these leaders as working outside traditional structures, navigating shifting policies, funding challenges and gaps in support, they identify them as developing resilience, creativity and deep community knowledge along the way.
The publication brings together three perspectives on the evolution of cultural education leadership:
- Dr David Parker explores what cultural education leadership is, why it matters, and what support the sector needs.
- John Riches shares the stories of ten practitioners whose lived experience shapes their leadership and opens pathways for others.
- Dr Chrissie Tiller connects today’s work to radical thinkers of the past, showing how their ideas can help us create new possibilities for children and young people.
A New Direction is keen to hear reflections on other practice in response to the publication. Colleagues are invited to complete their expression of interest form.
CLA COMMENT
This publication makes an important point about arts education leaders often working outside traditional structures. Our upcoming CLA Blueprint for an Arts-Rich Education will have a strong focus on the Arts teaching workforce, across leaders, teachers, learning leads in cultural organisations, other practitioners and teaching artists. We will have a number of recommendations so look out for those this autumn.
The publication is helpful in demonstrating why this work is important; how career paths can vary; and how taking a long view can help us to create new possibilities for the future.
New philanthropic support for school singing
The Clore Duffield Foundation has established a new School Choirs and Singing Programme. The programme will fund a small number of organisations for three years to work alongside groups of schools, with practitioners and teachers developing together, so that the singing, and the partnership, has somewhere to go when the money stops.
The Foundation states that three years at this level of funding will make possible something an organisation and group of schools could not otherwise attempt.
The Foundation wants the funded projects to be connected. They will form a national cohort, meeting across the three years, comparing what works against what doesn’t, contributing to a published resource for the sector.
There will be grants of £50,000 to £100,000 a year, for three years. Between five and ten projects will be funded. The scheme is for organisations with expertise and a track record in choirs and group vocal work and depth of expertise matters more than scale or national profile.
Each project will work with at least three state-funded schools in England: primary, secondary or both. Schools are partners rather than applicants, although a school or trust with the right expertise can lead one.
Applications opened on 21 September and close at midday on 30 October 2026. Delivery begins in autumn 2027.
CLA COMMENT
As with the Freelands Foundation Awards, it’s good to see more philanthropic support for the Arts in schools, this time through support for school singing. Sing Up was created in 2007 under the then Labour government to reinstate signing in primary schools and to provide singing packages, teaching resources, and curricula for schools and educators, but there has been less policy focus on singing in recent years so it’s good to see Clore Duffield stepping into this space.
Arts Council England publishes guidance for 2028-33 National Portfolio Investment Programme
The new guidance for this Arts Council England (ACE) NPO funding programme is now online, and submissions are accepted between October and December 2026. ACE states that the guidance details the changes they have made to the programmes, including a more straightforward application process and how – for the first time – local expertise and community voice will have to inform the Council’s decisions.
The application process now enables applicants to describe their work and ambitions for creative excellence in their own words with no attachments or detailed plans needed unless funding is offered.
New regional boards will provide insights about local priorities and feedback will be gathered from Mayoral Strategic Authorities to deliver the best for people in postcodes everywhere. They will also be surveying 20,000 people across the country to help better understand what Arts and culture people want to see in their communities. The funding round will last for five years not three, in order to provide greater stability to organisations.
Dawn Airey, new ACE Chair said: “Our new national portfolio process delivers on our commitment to be easier to work with and even more connected to communities. It’s about opening up the conversation, so a broader range of voices can influence our investment decisions. It’s not right that where you live dictate what culture and creativity you get to enjoy. Through our new investment process, we promise to back excellent work that reflects what people value in their own communities and reaches everyone, not just the well-off and well-located.”
CLA COMMENT
Initial ACE changes following the Hodge Review have taken some time to implement so organisations which depend on ACE funding, or wish to apply for it for the first time, will be relieved to have this funding round in place now.
Our main take-way of note from the government response to the Review earlier in the year was the formation of a cross-departmental advisory group to support alignment across the DfE and the DCMS but this does not now seem to be materialising.
As we said back in April, the issues we think need to be addressed are:
- Cultural sector responsiveness to school needs
- Strengthening accountability for cultural sector learning and participation
- Supporting the cultural education workforce
- Positioning Arts education to build a future-ready workforce
- Place-based evidence and data for the education work of cultural sector organisations
- Strengthening accreditation schemes as a driver of Arts-rich education
CLA’s upcoming Blueprint for an Arts-Rich Education will feature a series of recommendations for the cultural sector so we look forward to sharing the Blueprint with policy makers and funders as soon as we can.
