Enquiry sheds light on “engagement gap”

Current policy aimed at encouraging young people to engage with the arts places insufficient emphasis on engaging very young children, and needs to focus more on the role of families, parents and carers, according to a new report. Marking the 50th anniversary of the first-ever government arts policy, the White Paper ‘A Policy for the Arts: The First Steps’, the report, ‘Step by step: arts policy and young people 1944-2014’, is based on the findings from a Cultural Enquiry into arts access for young people, led by Culture at King’s. It also highlights the value of learning from international best practice in this area.

The Enquiry aimed to gather together the history and impact of policymaking in this field, to help today’s policymakers learn from the past. Deborah Bull, Director of Cultural Partnerships at King’s College London, said: “There is now a broad consensus that the arts bring value to young people, but despite successive governments prioritising young people’s participation, data continues to show that there is an ‘engagement gap’ to overcome. Cultural policy in England sometimes seems to be re-treading familiar ground, with new initiatives remarkably similar to what has gone before. The introduction of the English Baccalaureate refuelled a debate about the role of arts subjects in formal education that the archives reveal is decades old.”

As well as reflecting on perceived gaps in policy, the report draws attention to a range of issues related to the management of policy-related information. It recommends that government departments and Arts Council England (ACE) incorporate insights gained from the evaluation of previous policies when formulating new policy in this area, and put in place stronger long-term evaluation frameworks to make it possible to “capture the impacts of young people’s engagement with the arts several years down the line”. It warns against the loss of “insight, wisdom and experience” that comes with organisational restructures at ACE and in government departments, and recommends better cataloguing, digitisation and publishing of policy-related material to make existing information more accessible.