This month we bring you news of new funding for youth Arts programmes through the Dormant Assets strategy; education and culture news from the government’s Spending Review, including increased assess to free school meals for all children whose parents claim Universal Credit; the funding situation for the National Centres for Advanced Training in Dance after a period of uncertainty; how Arts education is addressed in the Creative Industries Sector Plan within the government’s new Industrial Strategy; a new fund from Arts Council England to address building repairs and upgrades to support improved access; a new report from Universities UK on how higher education organisations should work together to share services and assets; evidence that there is no exodus from the independent school sector as a result of the VAT change to independent school status; honours for colleagues in the Arts education sector; and a taster of what we know about GCSE and A Level take-up in 2025 based on provisional data.
New funding for youth Arts projects through Dormant Assets fund
On 2 June the government published its Dormant Assets strategy which confirmed that £132.5 million will be allocated to support young provision for young people.
The funding already includes the £15 million ‘Building Futures’ programme announced under the previous government in September 2023, and delivered by Youth Futures Foundation.
It will be delivered by the National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF) under a single, unified brand yet to be announced. The government will work with TNLCF to design the specific programmes to be delivered, ensuring they align with ministerial priorities, the government’s five Missions (set out in its Plan for Change), while ensuring “the additionality principle is upheld” (i.e., the funding will supplement rather than replace any existing government funding for schemes for young people).
Within this funding’s broad focus, the government has the following eight priorities to be embedded into delivery:
- Reading: Helping to foster a culture of reading for pleasure amongst disadvantaged children and young people in the spaces and places that matter to them, including schools and youth clubs and other settings
- Music: Improving access to, and engagement with, music-making, performance and production for disadvantaged young people
- Arts and culture: Increasing young people’s access to attending and participating in art, creativity and culture, providing opportunities and activities to enrich their lives and improve their wellbeing
- Creativity for employability: Encouraging investment in activities that will also develop children and young people’s creative skills, increasing their future employability into creative careers
- Participation opportunities: Providing varied, accessible and affordable opportunities for young people to participate in culture, sport, physical activity and access to outdoor spaces; in particular, providing access to physical activities and sports that support the Safer Streets and Growth Missions by targeting those at risk of crime or exclusion, and supporting people to enter/re-enter the workforce
- Safe spaces and community connection: Increasing access and removing barriers to welcoming, safe spaces that support young people’s connections and community engagement, helping them to feel connected, valued and heard through activities such as youth voice, social action or volunteering
- Local partnerships for enrichment: Supporting local partnerships that help young people to access a variety of enriching arts, creative and cultural experiences
- Children in care: Supporting access for children in care and care leavers to a range of enrichment opportunities, recognising the specific challenges they face and providing them with opportunities to thrive, including supporting their wellbeing and employability
The funding aligns with two of the government’s five missions: kickstarting economic growth and breaking down barriers to opportunity. In terms of economic growth, research from the Youth Futures Foundation is highlighted. Sport England estimates that the total annual primary value of sport and physical activity in England to be £8.6 billion from physical activity in children and young people and there is a “statistically significant” association found between attending sports clubs and being in employment eight years later.
In terms of breaking down barriers to opportunity, the government wants to break the link between young people’s background and their future success by delivering in four key areas: giving every child the best start in life; helping every child achieve and thrive at school; building skills for opportunity and growth; and supporting family security.
Alongside the new plans, a great deal of evidence was provided to demonstrate, among other things, that sport, arts, social action and youth activities can have a positive impact on the development of essential skills (including teamwork, communication and resilience) and attainment. We are also told that there is “robust evidence suggesting an association between arts participation and positive impacts on wellbeing and communication skills in young people including social skills, self-esteem and cognitive skills, all of which are also key skills for employment.”
However, some of this data is from 2010 and we would suggest that there is much more data that might be useful here. Our latest June Research Spotlight piece covers one such report.
CLA looks forward to sharing more on this new funding stream fund as details emerge – and hope that the arts education sector will have an opportunity to make a positive contribution to its development.
Government Spending Review
The Spending Review, which was presented to parliament by the Chancellor on 11 June, set planned day-to-day spending totals for all government departments for 2026/27 to 2028/29, and investment spending plans for a further year (from 2026/27 to 2029/30). Key sections for CLA related to two departments: Education and DCMS.
Education and Skills
The Chancellor announced investment to improve classrooms and school buildings, rising to nearly £2.3bn per year. In addition, around £2.4 billion per year is set to be invested in the School Rebuilding Programme over the next four years, reaffirming the Government’s commitment to rebuild over 500 schools.
School-based nurseries have been given an additional £370 million, as the core schools budget will rise by £3.5 billion a year. Alongside this, the spending review will provide funding for training and upskilling – the budget for which will increased to £1.2 billion a year by the end of the spending review.
Free school meals
The Chancellor also announced that free school meals would be extended to more than half a million children with the aim of bringing 100,000 children out of poverty. Currently, households must earn less than £7,400 a year to qualify for free school meals, but soon all children whose parents claim Universal Credit will be eligible. Guidance for schools on implementing the expansion is here.
Before the Spending Review announcement, the Minister for Social Security, Sir Stephen Timms, confirmed a free school meal fund increase. Speaking at the Victory Academy in Chatham, Kent, the Minister said the government was also increasing funding for each meal to £2.61 from September 2026.
Also prior to the Spending Review announcement, the government said half a million more children will have access to free school meals thanks to removing the eligibility criteria, which the Prime Minister said would “help families who need it most”. The PM has described the measure as a “down payment” on a broader child poverty strategy, including measures that have already been announced, such as free school breakfast clubs and more due for publication in the autumn.
The BBC reported the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank stating that while the rule change would cut child poverty to a degree and would be cheaper than making free school meals universal, “other measures, such as lifting the two-child limit, would have a lower cost for each child lifted out of poverty”. The government is yet to decide whether to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Department for Culture Media and Sport
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) budget will be cut as a result of the Spending Review. Total expenditure at the DCMS will be reduced by 1.4% over the review period from 2025/26 to 2029/29. This includes a 1.2% cut in resource spending (2025/26-2028/29) and a 2.8% cut in capital expenditure (2025/26-2029/30). The department’s administration budget will be cut by 15% by 2030.
The Spending Review document says: “Over the spending review period, DCMS will invest more than £2.9bn across its entire capital programme. This funding will safeguard and modernise much-loved cultural and heritage institutions in towns and cities, while expanding access to local sport and physical activity.”
The Spending Review document does highlight the government’s commitment to funding culture and heritage, with reference to Arts Council England (ACE) as well as national museums. It says: “Funding for the UK’s world-leading culture and heritage sector, with billions over the spending review period to fund celebrated institutions such as the national museums and galleries and organisations like ACE, which support local projects across the country and ensure that the best of British culture is accessible to all.”
What else to note for our sector?
Schools Week has a helpful summary of the implications for schools here, highlighting that the school funding increase will only amount to roughly 1% average real-terms increase to per-pupil funding each year, and that it also has to cover SEND reforms, the free school meals expansion and next year’s pay award. Although school numbers are falling so that may allow for a rise in per-pupil spending. Overall the DfE’s total budget increases to £109.2bn by 2028, equivalent to a 1.5% real terms increase.
The government will set out its SEND reform plans in a schools white paper, to be published in the autumn. We have a busy autumn ahead for policy announcements, with the upcoming Curriculum and Assessment Review report and more news expected on how the government will be addressing child poverty. Meanwhile, we will await news on funding for the National Centre for Arts and Music Education.
Funding for National Centres for Advanced Training in Dance secured for a further year
National Centres for Advanced Training in Dance (or National Dance CATs), work with 10 to 18-years-olds to provide them with multiple sessions of training each week, which is combined with their mainstream education. The Centres use outreach programmes to attract dancers from outside traditional backgrounds in an attempt to make dance, which has had issues with elitism for decades, more diverse and equitable.
Many in the dance world had feared that the 10 National Dance CATs, first introduced by Labour in 2004, might be scrapped after a £300,000 grant for outreach work was cut in December 2024. We reported on this earlier in the year, alongside cuts to National Youth Music Scheme funding.
But, as reported in The Guardian, this month the Department for Education confirmed that funding for the Centres had been secured for another 12 months. Dance sector leaders felt that this decision reflected the government’s commitment to safeguarding pathways into dance careers and recognition of the contribution of dance to the UK’s creative industries.
The Centres – in Manchester, Salford, Leeds, Newcastle upon Tyne, Swindon, Ipswich, London (in which there are two), Bournemouth and Exeter – have produced dancers who have gone on to work with Wayne McGregor, Akram Khan Dance Company, BalletBoyz, Northern Ballet and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures.
Brendan Keaney, artistic director and chief executive of one of the Centres – DanceEast in Ipswich – said that “The National Dance CATs are sort of like little beacons across the country, where you can get high-quality specialist dance training without having to go off to a residential school. You can go to a regular school, but also get the kind of intensive training that is absolutely essential if you’re going to compete as professional dancer.”
There had been nervousness in the sector about the funding so there was relief at its continuation, although the situation beyond the next year remains unclear. As we address in our 2025 Report Card, data for Dance is not captured in England in relation to Initial Teacher Training recruitment; unfilled vacancies for Arts teachers; or the vacancy rate for Arts teachers.
However, One Dance UK reports a significant decline in subject experts working in schools running parallel to the erosion of dance as an educational subject. As we state in our 2025 Report Card, Dance is both an engaging physical activity and an expressive artform. It is particularly important that young people’s access to Dance is made possible through schemes such as the National Dance CATs due to the often-prohibitive cost to families of accessing quality dance training outside school, and because of all the evidence highlighting its immense benefits to health and wellbeing.
A new Industrial Strategy including a Creative Industries Sector Plan
On 23 June the government published its Industrial Strategy which sets out a new ten-year economic approach to backing the UK’s strengths, with ambitious plans for eight high-growth sectors, including the Creative Industries.
Key measures for the creative sector include up to £45m pa for UK screen, music and video games; a new £150m Creative Places Growth Fund devolved to six MSAs to tackle barriers to growth; £10m to expand the National Film and Television School, unlocking £11 million in investment from industry; and establishing a Creative Content Exchange – a marketplace for selling, buying, licensing and enabling permitted access to digitised cultural and creative assets.
The Creative Industries Sector Plan has specific reference to a skilled workforce, highlighting three things:
- Greater flexibility for employers and learners via the new growth and skills offer, continuing to consider the needs of small businesses
- A curriculum in England that readies young people for life and work, including in creative subjects and skills, following the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review
- A government and industry partnership to deliver a refreshed UK-wide £9m Creative Careers Service to equip the next generation of young people with the ambition and knowledge to work in the Creative Industries
This reference to the curriculum and the link to the Curriculum and Assessment Review is important. There was no education sector expertise on the Creative Industries Task Force (announced in December) for the Industrial Strategy but the creative talent pipeline starts in schools, including in primary.
Elsewhere in the Plan it is noted that “creative exploration is a critical part of a rich education; this helps young people find opportunities, powers growth in the Creative Industries, and is important in its own right.” We are told that the government wants “every child, regardless of background, to have a rich and broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum, including in creative subjects such as art, design, music and drama.” There is also reference to the role of the National Centre for Arts and Music Education.
We are also told that “DCMS, DfE and Skills England will work with industry to support increased access to quality specialist creative education provision across England to strengthen the supply of highly trained creative students. The government will work with the Creative Industries Council to identify opportunities with a particular focus on high growth regions, working with Mayoral Strategic Authorities.”
Reference the curriculum and the link to the Curriculum and Assessment Review is important. There was no education sector expertise on the Creative Industries Task Force (announced in December) for the Industrial Strategy but the creative talent pipeline starts in schools, including in primary so it is good to see a joined-up cross-departmental approach.
The sector needs to see itself as providing education for employment, removing barriers and creating opportunities in order to build a creative workforce across all sectors, as well as a trained and diverse workforce for a thriving cultural and creative industries sector. As we set out in our Blueprint for an Arts-rich education, published before the general election in 2024, the sector needs to be relevant to national education, skills and industrial strategies and to work with school careers programmes, connecting with post-16 education, including adopting the Gatsby Benchmarks, and offering work experience and entry-level jobs through apprenticeships.
Creative Foundations Fund launched by Arts Council England
Arts and cultural organisations will soon be able to apply for a share of £85 million from the government for vital repairs and upgrades, ensuring wider access to high quality institutions locally.
The new Creative Foundations Fund will help arts venues across England to address a range of issues, such as repairing building infrastructure, outdated or failing systems, inefficient energy systems and inaccessible spaces. It will ensure local venues including theatres, performing arts venues, galleries, grassroots music venues and contemporary arts centres can continue to “offer opportunities, boost skills and attract more visitors from across the country”.
Arts and cultural organisations across England are encouraged to apply for a share of up to £10 million each from the fund, which recognises “the contribution they make towards boosting growth and breaking down barriers to opportunities for young people by helping them to learn vital creative skills.”
This £85 million investment into arts and cultural organisations is part of the £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund announced by the Culture Secretary (and covered by the CLA in Latest News) in February, which delivers on the government’s Plan for Change to support economic growth and increase opportunities for people across the country.
Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy said: “Everyone, everywhere, deserves to enjoy arts and culture in the places they call home. This funding will be vital in ensuring that our much-loved venues are fit for the future, so they can continue to boost growth and provide young people with the space to learn vital creative skills. Our Plan for Change is boosting opportunities everywhere and it will support these vital institutions to flourish.”
The fund will open for Expressions of Interest on 30 June. Full guidance, including eligibility criteria and details of how to apply, can be found on Arts Council England’s website here. Within the remit of the fund it is good to see recognition of the need for spaces for young people within cultural organisations.
Potential subject cold spots predicted as universities cut courses
Students could face subject “cold spots” if universities are not allowed to work together more to deliver courses, according to a new report from Universities UK, which represents 141 institutions. The report, Towards a New Era of Collaboration, is the result of work initiated by Universities UK and led by a task force chaired by independent Chair Sir Nigel Carrington.
The report found that universities were reluctant to collaborate because of concerns around breaking business laws designed to promote healthy competition between them. It calls for a shift in thinking, with a much greater focus on how universities across the UK can work together, share services and assets, and collaborate in the national interest. It identifies seven opportunities open to the university sector, and the action needed from central government to enable universities to drive change. Multi-academy trusts are used as an example of how education establishments can work collegiately.
A combination of financial challenges – described as years of frozen income on teaching and research, high inflation, and a drop in international students following government policy changes – have left university finances in trouble. A recent survey of UUK members showed how universities have been responding individually with significant action to cut costs, through the removal of courses, modules, reduced investment and scaling back on some research activity.
While such measures have already delivered savings, the report warns that the continued delivery of efficiencies at an institutional level cannot alone solve the financial challenges facing institutions. Innovative partnership working will be needed across the sector, along with a sustainable funding settlement from government.
In coverage on BBC news, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is quoted as saying said it wanted to support collaboration where possible in a “very challenging” financial situation for the sector. A government review of how higher education will be funded in the long term is under way in England and is expected to be published later this year.
Our 2025 Report Card charts recent declines in the number of undergraduates in England studying Creative, Arts and Design subjects in England despite increases in the total number of all graduates. It also reveals that, relatedly, Creative, Arts and Design subjects
are making up a smaller proportion of all undergraduate degrees in England.
Both data sets point to a diminishing presence of creative subjects in university undergraduate education in England. Whilst economies of scale are important, it is also vital that the HE sector values Creative, Arts and Design subjects and allows young people wanting to progress beyond A Level and Level 3 VTQs to have a genuine choice of courses to choose from.
Private school numbers drop but no evidence of VAT exodus says government
There were 11,000 fewer pupils at private schools in England in January 2025 compared to the same time last year, according to the latest school level census data. The figures come after the government removed a VAT exemption for private schools on 1 January.
A government spokesman said the drop in pupils “remains firmly within historical patterns” and “shatters the myth” of a private school exodus. The independent school sector disagreed and said more pupils than expected were leaving the independent sector due to higher fees putting more pressure on parents.
The figures from the census of all schools in England provide the first complete picture of what is happening in the independent sector after the new 20% VAT on fees was introduced.
Overall, 582,477 pupils in England attended private schools when the census data was collected, down from 593,486 the year before – a drop of 1.9% (or 11,009 pupils). Overall pupil numbers in England have fallen slightly to just over nine million. There was a smaller drop (0.6%) in the number of pupils not at private school.
Private school pupils now make up 6.4% of the total school population, a slightly lower proportion than last year, when it was 6.5%. This is the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic that independent school pupil numbers have fallen. The government had predicted that around 3,000 private school pupils would need to be absorbed into the state system this academic year, with state school places needed for around 37,000 private school pupils over the coming years. This was an estimate of those who would be motivated to take their children out of private school as a direct result of its decision to remove the VAT exemption from private school fees, not taking into account any demographic changes.
Our 2025 Report Card highlights research that indicates the specific disparity in access to and achievement in Expressive Arts subjects between independent and state schools. It also provides evidence for the existence of an ‘enrichment gap’, whereby young people from wealthier backgrounds have much greater access to extra-curricular Arts provision and opportunities compared to their peers from lower-income backgrounds.
A state sector entitlement to a minimum four-hour Arts entitlement within the school week to the end of KS3 would help to address this gap.
City-based initiatives supporting arts education in Bristol and Nottingham
Primary-aged students at 11 schools in Bristol are set to receive weekly group music lessons through a £680,000 grant from the Earthsong Foundation to Bristol Beacon, regional Music Hub lead.
The Earthsong programme, which was established in 2019 with an initial £500,000 investment, offers weekly, whole-class music education lessons led by specialist teachers. Its financial model combines philanthropic funding from the Earthsong Foundation with government investment, delivered by Bristol Beacon in its role as Music Hub capacity.
In its first phase, from 2019 to 2024, the scheme taught foundational musical principles of pitch, rhythm, and tempo, reaching 3,150 children across 13 Bristol primary schools and with a focus on those located in areas of multiple deprivation. Over the next five years, the programme will expand to teach every child in 11 of the city’s primary schools how to compose music.
In a review of the programme it was established that in addition to music skills, participants demonstrated improved confidence and self-esteem, enhanced listening skills, increased attention and engagement in school activities, better mental health and wellbeing, and improved social skills.
Meanwhile, a three-year project seeking to bring more creativity and cultural experiences into children and young people’s lives across Nottingham has been launched, following the announcement of a £550,000 investment from Arts Council England (ACE). The Child Friendly Creative City initiative aims to improve access to museums, theatres, and art for young people under 24 across the city through workshops, events, and activities facilitated through new and existing partnerships.
The project is being led by Nottingham’s Local Cultural Education Partnership, ChalleNGe, in collaboration with 22 of the city’s arts, educational, and cross-sector community organisations, with financing totalling £1.5m, including £550,000 of National Lottery Place Partnership funding from ACE.
Addressing access challenges and utilising expertise across education, SEND, mental health, the environment, early intervention, community development, and arts and creativity, the scheme will operate in five strands. Its ‘loud & clear’ strand will develop youth-led cultural experiences, including local arts festivals, youth takeovers and collaborative summer programmes offering first-time creative experiences.
Meanwhile, a ‘cultural rucksack’ initiative aims to establish cultural entitlement across all educational settings in the city by collaborating with arts organisations to build cultural capital and entitlement for all school-aged children, and by placing young voices at the forefront of decision-making.
A ‘creative taskforce’ will provide training for artists and teachers, while supporting the ‘art of belonging pledge’ for refugee children and developing projects to reflect local heritage, languages and diversity.
CLA is interested to see these city-wide approaches and commitment to Arts education. It was good to see the director of education services at Nottingham City Council, Nick Lee, linking the initiative to wanting schools to “consider afresh their arts and creativity offer to pupils and communities.” CLA’s Capabilities Framework sets out why an entitlement to Arts opportunities and experiences is important for children young people within their local communities.
CLA’s Blueprint for an arts-rich education sets out the foundational education changes we need to see to restore the arts in schools, one of which is a minimum four-hour Arts entitlement within the school week – to the end of KS3, enabling high-quality, progressive learning experiences, and provision at KS4/5 outside of exam syllabuses.
Open Theatre’s director honoured for work with young people with disabilities
Among awards to individuals from the arts and education sectors announced in the latest Birthday honours list on 14 June, CLA was pleased to see that a BEM was awarded to Richard Hayhow, director of Midlands-based charity Open Theatre, where he has worked for more than 35 years to develop nonverbal physical theatre practices with young people with learning disabilities. Hayhow has seen many young participants go on to work as artists and hopes that the “honour and the recognition that comes from it will … help Open Theatre continue to develop and enhance its work and increase and sustain the life opportunities of the young people we work with.”
Provisional exam entries for Arts GCSEs and A Levels for 2025
And finally, a taster of GCSE and A Level Arts take-up for 2025 prior to all the full details being shared in our 2026 Report Card when we will have the final picture combined with data across VQTs, progression to HE, hours taught, and workforce.
Looking at the provisional entries data for GCSE and A Level for summer 2025 we are still seeing declines in GCSE Art & Design subjects, Drama, and Media/Film/TV studies, but Performing/Expressive Arts is up by 7.5% and Music by 5.9%. There is no data provided for Dance. Design & Technology is down -3.5%.
All Arts subjects are down at A Level (although again there is no published data for Dance), except Media/Film/TV studies which is very slightly up by 0.9%. Design & Technology is also up by 1.3%. The largest fall is for Drama which is down by 6.2%.
More in spring 2026 when we will bring you the full picture based on the final data in our next annual Report Card.
