From 2010 to 2019 the creative industries grew more than one and a half times faster than the wider economy, to be worth more than £115bn, making up around one in eight businesses, and accounting for 7.1% of all UK jobs.

Yet every year we find it harder to recruit the diversity of talent we need due to a gradual reduction in funding of art, design and technology subjects in UK state schools since 2010. This restricts not only the potential talent pool, but also the diversity of our teams. An industry like ours depends on diversity of background, perspective, and ideas.

We believe this trend has four causes:

1. Reduction in funding of arts subjects in UK state schools since 2010.
2. Lack of recruitment and retention of teachers for arts subjects.
3. Changes to qualifications and league tables de-prioritising arts subjects.
4. Careers advisers at state schools are too often unaware of opportunities in creative industries – animation, brand strategy, film making, client service, illustration, copywriting and so on – as well as the pathways into them.

To reverse this trend & safeguard the future of the UK’s creative industries, we believe the following commitments are vital.

1. Restore funding of arts subjects in UK state schools to real terms 2010 levels.
2. Establish a task force to reverse the decline in arts teacher recruitment and retention.
3. Initiate a review of creative education assessment and qualifications to ensure that valuable qualifications are protected, and new models of creative education that respond to emerging practice and new markets are explored.
4. Deliver funding for a large-scale programme of cross-sector knowledge and opportunity sharing between state schools and the creative industries.

We are at a critical moment. The creative industries are central to the UK’s future success, and they rely on investment in arts education today. We ask you to sign the petition to reverse this trend.

Together we can make a difference.

Read more about the campaign here.