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Chamber

Plenary, 28 Feb 2001

28 Feb 2001 · S1 · Plenary

Item of business

Teaching Centres of Artistic Excellence

Simpson, Dr Richard Lab Ochil Watch on SPTV

I congratulate Kenny Gibson on securing the debate. There is no doubt that the current system gives rise to a waste of talent and, to an extent, an artistic brain drain. There is also no doubt that the funding for performing arts students is not the same in Scotland as it is in England and Wales.

I will broaden the debate out from Ballet West, if I may. In my constituency, young people are able to join Forefront, a local performing arts group. It has an excellent reputation, and I have attended a number of its productions, which are of a very high standard. A number of the young people from that company have gone on to train in England. At one point in the early 1990s, funding was available to help them to do that. However, the local council has latterly been unable to find the funding from its discretionary funds. As a result, talent is being wasted, and that is quite unsatisfactory.

I have spent some time over the past year working with Scottish Youth Dance. It runs some excellent programmes. Its millennium programme, attended by more than 500 young people in Dunblane as well as by the then Deputy Minister for Culture and Sport, Rhona Brankin, was an excellent production. It has also had financial difficulties, however, and has found that, although pupils can be trained at the dance school based at Knightswood Secondary School, which has 70 residential pupils studying classical dance, or can train with Scottish Ballet associates or with other professional dancers at a young age, if they are eager to pursue dance as a career, we leave them high and dry. What does that say about our strategy being joined up?

Highly talented students from Forefront who have been accepted by top training institutions for music and dance in England have had to meet their own tuition and maintenance costs, which are very substantial. What does that say about social inclusion? Some of the pupils are from families from quite poor backgrounds, and money has had to be raised in order to support them.

I will not go into detail on the variation among local authorities that Kenny Gibson referred to, but I acknowledge that that variation exists. In all fields, I think that we are too small a country to allow such discrimination, which allows one local authority to tell a talented individual, "Yes, go ahead," but another to say "No." We have to take a grip of the situation and change it.

Young talent is undoubtedly being put off by such financial and cultural barriers. We are too small a country to afford to waste that talent, which can lead to the creation and development of a vibrant culture, as is so rightly encouraged by the cultural strategy. However, we need to put the strategy into practical effect.

The students and pupils whom we educate in Scotland face severe barriers as they attempt to reach a professional standard. They are at a serious disadvantage compared with their counterparts in England and Wales. That is being perceived increasingly, and we should do something about it.

There are other issues. My colleagues at Scottish Youth Dance tell me that they have serious problems in finding qualified teachers in Scotland for their programmes. Ballet West says that the nationalities of the dancers on cast lists are varied. We should favour, develop and respond to the internationalism that classically has been part of our culture. The way in which we promote dance, song, music, culture and drama sends a message around the world about the nature of our civilisation. I strongly encourage the minister to look again at this issue and consider whether we can deal with it on a national basis. We should remove the postcode element to funding and provide adequate funds for this relatively small group, to sustain and ensure the development of our vibrant culture.