3. How is the Welsh Government supporting school children to engage in the creative arts? OQ60533

The expectation of the Curriculum for Wales is that all learners develop their creativity, and expressive arts is one of the six mandatory areas. Both the Creative Learning through the Arts programme and the National Music Service give learners important opportunities to engage in the creative arts.

Diolch, Weinidog. As the chair of the Senedd's cross-party group on arts and health, I'm keen to raise awareness of the benefits that the arts can bring to health and well-being. That's, of course, for all ages, including children and young people. On a recent visit to the amazing Ballet Cymru, who are based in my constituency, I heard about their Duets programme. A unique scholarship programme, Duets is specifically designed to identify talent and open up progression pathways for young people who would not usually have that opportunity to access and engage with dance. The programme is delivered in partnership with primary schools, community dance organisations and freelance professionals. Ballet Cymru are now looking to expand the programme to more schools, supporting more young people to get involved in the creative industries. Minister, would you accept an invitation to visit a school delivering the Duets programme with Ballet Cymru and me so that you can see for yourself the brilliant work that they do with young people through the Duets programme?

Well, can I thank the Member for the work that she has done—and has done for, I think, the entirety of her time in the Senedd—to promote the benefits of arts in health? It's an interest and a commitment that I share with her. It's great to hear about her visit to Ballet Cymru, and the Duets programme in particular, and I would be more than happy to visit Ballet Cymru with her and see the excellent work that they are doing with young people.

Minister, National Theatre Wales plays a pivotal role in getting schoolchildren involved in theatre and the arts, which is an incredibly important sector. Some of the work that they do engage in with young people includes workshops, performance opportunities and projects within schools and universities. The overarching aim of this is to give young people opportunities to grow their confidence and to explore a future in the theatre or the arts sector—incredibly important work, as I'm sure you'll agree, Minister. However, National Theatre Wales has had its funding axed by 100 per cent and, as a result, there have been stark warnings that it will not be able to survive beyond April 2024. Minister, what assessment has the Welsh Government made about the impact that these cuts will have on schoolchildren accessing the creative arts and what will the Welsh Government be doing to bridge this gap? So, Minister, out of interest, do you support—? My apologies; that's it. [Laughter.]

I know that the Deputy Minister will have considered very, very carefully all the implications of the challenging budget settlement, including the effects on the national theatre. There are many, many ways in which our young people are able to access a range of creative experiences both in theatre and, indeed, in other media—we just heard of an important contribution that Jayne Bryant was telling us about—and I think it's really important that schools are able to take advantage of a range of organisations and the services and facilities they provide, and it's really important from the perspective of access to experiences that, actually, many young people wouldn't otherwise have—so, a general benefit in terms of access to creativity and to learning, but that specific benefit of having the opportunity to be in a live theatre setting or a live music setting. Many of us will have taken that for granted over the years; I don't think we should. Many young people don't otherwise have access to those, so I'd like to thank all the organisations that support schools to do that.