Music and Dance Schools: Affordable Access

Lord Addington Excerpts

Thursday 16th October 2025 Grand Committee

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, from listening to this debate it is quite clear that one theme has come through: please give us certainty. With a one-year scheme, nobody would encourage a child to go into this. In dance, you are more certain to break your leg than you are in professional rugby—okay, maybe it is an even draw. You are asking a child to go into something risky, with no guarantees, so at least let them finish their training with a degree of certainty. I have to disagree: three years is not long enough. It should go on through their entire training. There has to be certainty.

If the Government do not like the MDS, they should change it and bring in something else that guarantees opportunity. That is something that is coming out here today. The economic case has been made—here and on many occasions—that you get a very good bang for your buck if you produce good artists.

I could not agree more with the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick. We need to make sure that we have an identification process for getting people into this, by encouraging the schools to at least have an introduction that might allow children to go on to this. You will cut out many people from the state school sector if you do not have some familiarisation package that means that they are ready for specialist training. The two go together, and there has to be an ongoing commitment to ensure that they are both working together.

If the Government do not like the MDS or the CAT scheme, they should come up with something new. If they do like them, they should guarantee them for as long as the Labour Party is in power. That is not too much to ask, and the economic benefits are clear.