The Bacc for the Future campaign launches manifesto ahead of General Election 2019

• Manifesto outlines key initiatives to improve access to and the uptake of creative subjects including music, art, drama and dance, including the abolition or reformation of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
• Bacc for the Future is a campaign to save creative subjects in secondary schools across England and is supported by more than 200 creative businesses, education bodies, and organisations as well as more than 100,000 individuals.

The Bacc for the Future campaign has today released its manifesto outlining key priorities for the Government to improve access to and uptake of creative subjects, including music, art, drama and dance.

The manifesto calls for:

1. A pledge to scrap or reform the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) because for as long as creative subjects are not included within the framework of the EBacc, the arts will continue to lack parity with other areas of the curriculum. The importance given to the EBacc as an accountability measure acts as a disincentive to schools from offering creative subjects which harms the uptake by pupils.
2. The Government should ensure that all schools have a high quality curriculum offer in creative subjects, teaching them on a regular and sustained basis across the whole of Key Stages 1-3. The arts should be an entitlement for every child as part of a broad and balanced curriculum.
3. Support for higher education institutions to promote the creative, cultural and economic benefits of studying for a creative degree.
4. Greater championing of creative subjects within schools, and investment from Government in training, recruiting and retaining teachers of creative subjects.
5. Development of academic pathways from Early Years through primary and secondary school to enable smooth transition between learning a creative subject at different stages.
6. Ensure that Ofsted does not have to focus heavily on accountability measures imposed by the Government and focuses more attention on the presence of creativity and the arts within the curriculum. Ofsted inspections should prioritise the breadth and quality of creative education being offered in schools.
7. A long-term commitment to music education hub funding of at least £100m per annum for the 121 music education hubs for the next five years to support music education in England factoring in inflation and increases to teachers’ salaries/pension contributions.
8. Commission and publicise a green paper that will seek to analyse the state of creative education in secondary schools, responding to the wealth of evidence and research available, allowing individuals in creative education to feed into what the future of creative education should be.

Deborah Annetts, Founder of the Bacc for the Future campaign said:

‘There has been a wealth of new evidence in the last month that only adds to the compelling body of evidence demonstrating the adverse impact of the EBacc, including the CBI’s report ‘Centre Stage’ and the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education’s self-titled report. Both reports outlined in scrupulous detail the decline of creative education in schools and called for the EBacc to be reformed to include a sixth pillar.

The British Council has also reported how the UK has been placed second in the Portland chart Soft Power 30. While Brexit is ‘inevitably seen as the reason for the UK’s apparent decline’ in the ranking, the EBacc is still putting the creative industries at risk. These lucrative industries contribute £101.5billion a year to the economy, generate a huge amount of soft power and influence, and are globally envied. But our British success story will continue to be undermined if the EBacc continues to harm the pipeline of talent supplying these industries.

As a matter of urgency we call on the government, regardless of which political party will come to power, to reform or abolish the EBacc.’

About the Bacc for the Future

Bacc for the Future is a campaign to save creative subjects in secondary schools across England. It is supported by more than 200 creative businesses, education bodies, and organisations as well as more than 100,000 individuals.

Founded by the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM), the UK’s professional body for musicians, it successfully fought against the original arts-excluding EBacc in 2013. Since 2015, it has been fighting against the new EBacc with the aim of saving creative subjects in secondary schools across England.