Skills for Theatre (Communications Committee Report) Debate

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Baroness Quin

Main Page: Baroness Quin (Labour - Life peer)

Skills for Theatre (Communications Committee Report)

Baroness Quin Excerpts
Wednesday 16th May 2018

(5 years, 10 months ago)

Grand Committee
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My Lords, there was at least a touch of controversy in the last remark, which has knocked the very large consensus there has been in this debate so far, but most of the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Grade, are ones which I shall echo in my own remarks. Like the majority of your Lordships who have spoken in this debate, I am a member of the committee that drew up the report. At the time that it was drawn up I was listed as having no relevant interest. I should perhaps say that, since that time, I have an appointment in the cultural sector as chair of the strategic board of Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums. Although that is not directly part of the theatre industry, it is part of several regional partnerships in which the theatre industry is represented and is very active.

I would also like to join others in the tributes that have been paid to our former chairman, the noble Lord, Lord Best. It was a pleasure to be part of his team as a member of the committee and I am glad that the current chair, the noble Lord, Lord Gilbert, has also been present at this debate and has spoken.

At this stage, so many points have been made that I would simply like to reinforce one or two matters which I am keen to stress and, perhaps—in mentioning my connection with the north-east—to use the north-east as something of a case study, to reinforce some of the points made.

One point that should be stressed is that in our report we concentrate on theatre skills, but what we say about them is relevant to many other parts of our creative industries. Some of the comments in our report and some of the evidence that we received have an obvious read-across to other parts of the creative sector.

Let me give one example. Concern was expressed by several people giving evidence and by members of the committee about the quality of careers advice in schools regarding careers in the theatre, but of course it was about careers not just in the theatre but in the whole of the creative sector, and the importance of careers advisers knowing about the huge variety of jobs available in that sector—from the most obvious, such as acting, to all the technical jobs which are very important in terms of both technology and scientific innovation. In that sense, although I totally support the comments made about STEAM rather than STEM, there are subjects in the STEM curriculum which are very relevant to the creative industry sector.

An issue that I and others have been very concerned about is access to employment in the theatre for those from less affluent backgrounds. I rejoice in some of the examples that the noble Lord, Lord Grade, gave of those who have done spectacularly well from non-traditional backgrounds—to put it mildly—but none the less, great concern was expressed to us in our evidence sessions that the trend is rather negative at the moment. It is therefore important for Government to take great notice of this issue. Obviously, when we were talking about people from less affluent backgrounds, we were also talking about the need to encourage people from a diversity of backgrounds into the theatre sector.

There was a regional aspect to this issue, particularly given that, understandably, there is so much theatre activity in London. It is difficult, because of the cost of accommodation in London for people from less affluent backgrounds from the regions to access those jobs, particularly when they are of the no-wage or low-wage variety. That is a real disincentive for people to move from the regions to get that experience in London, and then perhaps move back to the regions subsequently.

In response to a question that I asked a representative from the National Theatre about how many apprentices had come from areas outside London, I had the reply, “I think there was one from the West Midlands some time ago”, which I must say was not totally reassuring. The Minister giving evidence to us, who is now the Secretary of State for Culture, showed himself to be very sympathetic on the subject. I urge the Minister here today to pass on to the new Secretary of State his commitment to us when he said:

“Further work on the diversity of workforces in theatre is important”.


I hope that the Minister can assure us that such work is being carried forward.

The educational angle has been fully covered in this debate, but I have talked to representatives of some of the theatres in the north-east, and they have found that there has been a reduction in school visits to theatres. It has been a combination of financial difficulties—schools have not wanted to hire buses or cover the cost of tickets and so forth—and an issue referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Grade, and others: time. There is so much concentration on the core curriculum that it is very difficult to find time to fit in these enormously valuable—indeed, life-changing—activities. That is something that we cannot stress too much.

Local authority funding and the pressures on it is a subject that has been raised by many people. That is certainly the experience I have had in talking to local authorities in my own part of the country. On this issue the Minister was less sympathetic. He said that he felt it was a “political choice” to decide whether to support the theatre and the creative sector. But local authorities have had some terribly difficult choices to make when it comes to funding, particularly if we are talking about making a choice between funding the care and social care sector, which is vital, and the theatre sector. It is an extremely difficult choice to make. The funding angle needs to be looked at more sympathetically by government.

My noble friend Lady Bonham-Carter and I probably vie with each other as to which of us is most exercised by Brexit on our committee. It is almost impossible to have any debate that does not mention it. In addition to the issues that she quite rightly raised, there is a general worry in my part of the world, arising partly out of the Government’s impact assessments of Brexit on the different economic regions of the UK. The impact assessment seems to show very clearly that under whatever outcome—even the Government’s preferred outcome—the north-east, with its strong reliance on exports to Europe, particularly in the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors, would take a substantially greater hit than most other areas. Obviously if the economy of the region is hit, that will affect all sectors. It has been mentioned to me by people in the region that they are concerned about this and that they hope it will not affect the vibrant cultural sector we have in terms of attendance at theatres, box office receipts and so forth, and of the links with Europe that have been built up in recent years.

However, I do not want to end on a gloomy note because I share our committee’s enthusiasm for our theatre industry and its tremendous reputation at home and abroad. I hope the ideas and issues raised in the report will be treated very seriously by government.