APPG for Performing Arts Education and Training

APPG for Performing Arts Education and Training

In January 2021, CDMT was instrumental in establishing the first All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Performing Arts Education and Training at the Westminster Houses of Parliament. This APPG, which meets termly, is of considerable strategic significance to our mission and membership as it directly supports parliamentarians in discussions relating to:

  • Appropriate training, education, assessment and professional practices across drama, dance and musical theatre
  • Practitioners’ continuing professional development within the creative and cultural industries
  • The wider benefits of engagement with the performing arts for students, practitioners and audiences.

The following parliamentarians are officers of the Group:

  • Chair: Anna McMorrin MP
  • Vice Chairs: Lord Aberdare, Simon Baynes MP, Sir Peter Bottomley MP, Lord Clancarty, Lord Clement-Jones, Baroness Featherstone, Lord German, Sharon Hodgson MP, Jack Lopresti MP, Baroness Merron, Lord McNally, Lord Taylor of Warwick, Lord Vaizey of Didcot, Baroness Wilcox of Newport, and Lord Wood of Anfield.

Chair of the APPG, Anna McMorrin MP has this to say about the work of CDMT and the APPG:

“CDMT does outstanding work, advocating powerfully on behalf of members, increasing their public profile and influence with key industry and political stakeholders – not least in their work as the Secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Performing Arts Education and Training. As the voice of their member organisations, they promote outstanding industry-approved institutions allowing prospective students, candidates and parents to better understand what excellent provision in the performing arts looks like.”

CDMT acts as the APPG’s Secretariat and public enquiry point and facilitates submissions from vocational training schools, conservatoires and awarding organisations on current issues of vital importance to the sector, such as:

  • Government support for the UK’s provision of world-class professional training in dance, drama and musical theatre
  • The needs of private teachers working across all levels of study in the performing arts, and the opportunities for greater connections between statutory and private provision.
  • The implications of Covid-19 and EU withdrawal

Further information about the publications that CDMT produces in support of the APPG and other advocacy initiatives can be found here.

More broadly, young people, and their parents/guardians, require assurances that the creative industries will continue to offer valuable career options when rebuilding the UK economy after Covid-19.