Ballet

Question

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to provide further support to those institutions which provide classical ballet training at degree level.

My Lords, in begging leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, I declare an interest as a member of the president’s circle of the Central School of Ballet.

My Lords, the Government recognise the important contribution of the performing arts, including classical ballet. We continue to support degree-level provision of these subjects through the student finance system and though direct funding for providers via the strategic priorities grant. That includes per-student funding for performing arts courses, the rates for which were maintained this academic year, and direct funding of £57.4 million for 20 world-leading specialist providers, including 12 creative and performing arts institutions.

I thank my noble friend for her Answer. Whatever Timothée Chalamet may say, people care about ballet. The Central School of Ballet, almost uniquely as a degree-awarding classical ballet school, has faced financial uncertainty in recent years, with funding regimes changed and the gap between tuition fees of £9,250 and the costs of £24,000 per student causing real stress. The school awaits the delayed consultation on the strategic priorities grant this autumn, but is concerned that it may not know until well into 2027 what the new funding landscape will look like for 2027-28. Can my noble friend give any reassurance that there will be a prompt response to the consultation and that funding will more closely reflect the costs of specialist providers such as the Central School of Ballet? Can I invite her to visit the school to see the exceptional work of the students and staff there?

I know that my noble friend, as he has already identified, is a very strong supporter of the Central School of Ballet and the excellent work that it clearly does. The Government recognise the valuable contribution made by the Central School of Ballet, which is why it has benefited from £2.2 million in specialist funding from 2022 to the current academic year. I also recognise the point made by my noble friend about the need for certainty. We remain committed to ensuring that SPG funding supports students and aligns with the industrial strategy, including the creative and performing arts. Reform of the SPG is ongoing ahead of 2027-28, including on specialist funding, but we will ensure that there is an opportunity for providers to feed back on our proposals for reform.

My Lords, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has offered a BA degree course in modern ballet since 2009. However, British students from outwith Scotland are financially disadvantaged as the RCS is not recognised as one of the dance centres for advanced training, CATs, probably because there was no such dance provision at this level in Scotland when the CATs scheme began. In contrast, such students at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh are funded by the UK Government. Will the Minister commit to reviewing the status of the RCS as a dance CAT provider so that talented dancers from England, Wales and Northern Ireland are on a par with Scottish students at this globally recognised institution in performing arts education?

I have to confess to not being an expert on the arrangements for the conservatoire, although it is the case that where a student is studying a degree in dance, they are eligible for student funding in the normal way that a student would be. If the noble Baroness sends me further details about whether she thinks that covers the point she is making, I will be happy to look at it.

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord John, for raising the question of classical ballet. As the Minister knows, it is highly specialist, highly intensive and time critical so that a dancer can be internationally job ready at age 18. I take the opportunity to ask her about the music and dance scheme, which—as she knows and as we have heard so often—is a vital talent pipeline that ensures that young talent, whatever their background, can fulfil their potential. I am very grateful to the Minister and to Georgia Gould for repeatedly confirming the Government’s support for the scheme, but is she aware that the lack of clarity on long-term funding is now making it very difficult for schools to convince parents to sign up to a multiyear training programme, which is essential to success? Have there been any conversations on the ongoing questions of VAT, whether the exemption for MDS students will remain and, indeed, multiyear funding agreements for these vital institutions?

It is very good to be facing questions today from at least two excellent dancers—that is no slight on my noble friend. The noble Baroness raises, as have other noble Lords, the question of certainty around the music and dance scheme, which, as she says, the Government have consistently committed to as we commit to revitalising and widening access to arts education. We continue to fund that scheme, providing bursaries to more than 2,000 students. This means that means-tested, targeted support for students from lower-income families can continue. Funding for the academic year 2026-27 onward will be announced in due course. Although it has not been the case for some time that there have been multiyear settlements, I understand the noble Baroness’s point about certainty for students who are starting on courses and their families.

My Lords, I confess that I had to do compulsory ballet when I was a little, round, fat six year-old, so I am not in the elite. As well as the Central School of Ballet, a great number of small, specialist performing arts providers, highly regarded internationally, send their overseas students there. But, of course, providing these courses and keeping a pipeline of high-level tutors is more expensive than for many other subjects, so can the Minister assure us that this will be taken into account when the funding is being considered?

Yes. That is the reason why, as part of the strategic priorities grant, 12 of the 20 small, specialist providers are the type of high-quality performing arts providers that the noble Baroness was talking about. Those 20 providers are being supported in this financial year by £57.4 million precisely because of the point that she has made: they are small, highly specialised and internationally recognised. They therefore have costs that need to be particularly recognised, which is what has happened through the strategic priorities grant.

Like the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, I am here to reset the balance on exceptional ballet talent. I did one term of ballet, aged four, at the end of which I got a report that said, “Diana has no natural talent”. That report, unlike many others, has stayed with me to this day. I want to press the Minister, if I may. She has spoken about the department’s long-term commitment to the music and dance scheme, but can she say a little more about the adequacy of funding levels for the scheme, to ensure access for children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds?

It is definitely not right that the noble Baroness has no talents. Anybody who saw me on “Strictly” will know the extent of my dance talents. Anyway, I reiterate that the Government have given support to the music and dance scheme. It will provide generous support to help students access specialist music and dance education and training, with £36 million committed for this year. As the noble Baronesses have said, the aim of the scheme is to identify and assist children with exceptional potential, regardless of their personal and financial circumstances, to benefit from world-class specialist training. That is very much in line with the Government’s ambition to support dance and the performing arts, both in education and more widely, and we will endeavour to give certainty about next year’s funding for that as soon as possible.

My Lords, I cannot really compete with what has been said about dance specialisation because I ceased my dance classes at three. I want to expand a little on the music and dance scheme in schools, and I have raised this with my noble friend the Minister before. She knows that they are calling for the restoration of three-year settlements and an increase in funding, which has been frozen or increased by under inflation since 2011. It is so difficult for the schools when the budgets are not finalised, or are finalised so late, because schools are having to take a gamble on what their funding will be, and they can lose prospective students who will not gamble on taking up a place with that uncertainty. Can my noble friend give us another assurance about the future of this scheme and the level of its funding?

My noble friend gives me the opportunity to say, yet again, that through both the music and dance scheme and the dance and drama awards for students studying specific level 5 performing arts qualifications, the Government have maintained their support for those students to ensure that access is widened. I hear the point that my noble friend and others have made about certainty of funding. It is not an excuse, but there has not been multiyear funding for the music and dance scheme since 2020. I quite understand why schools want that longer-term funding certainty. We will continue to do what we can to provide timely—and, if possible in the future, multiyear—funding arrangements, but at the moment that has not been possible.