Future of Heritage Schools programme yet to be decided

The government has not confirmed if it will continue to finance Historic England’s Heritage Schools programme beyond the end of the current financial year.

Asked by Conservative MP Caroline Dinenage if Labour would commit to funding the scheme in 2025/26, Minister of State for School Standards Catherine McKinnell said that all programme funding, including for Heritage Schools, is subject to the outcomes of the department’s business planning, with details to be set out “in due course”.

Speaking to Arts Professional, Dinenage said that the minister’s response would not reassure the hundreds of schools involved in the programme, which she said was “vital” to giving pupils an understanding of the history and heritage of their local area.

Teacher training, resources and partnerships

Unveiled in 2012 under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, Heritage Schools was developed in response to a review on Cultural Education in England led by current Arts Council England chief executive Darren Henley.

The programme aims to help school children learn about their local heritage and its significance through teacher training, resources and partnerships with local heritage organisations, prioritising pupils in areas of low social mobility.

At the time of its launch, Henley, who was then managing director of Classic FM, said: “It is vital that the schools have teachers who recognise the importance of cultural education within their schools and have the training, experience and tools to teach it to a high level.”

Its initial three-year span saw £2.7m of DfE funding go to Historic England – then known as English Heritage – to fund “heritage broker” roles that would work with clusters of schools to help them embed local heritage into their curriculum.

Currently, the programme comprises eight regional centres working with 582 schools. It is delivered in partnership with Churches Conservation Trust as part of a parallel project partly funded by DCMS that promotes the use of churches as learning resources.

Historic England and DfE did not confirm how much funding Heritage Schools currently receives.

In February 2023, the Conservative government said it was one of the programmes that benefited from £115m of annual investment between 2022/2023 and 2024/25, alongside other schemes such as Saturday Clubs and the BFI’s Film Academy.

Long term impact

A 2022 report by Historic England examining the impact of the Heritage Schools programme found that it increased access to heritage and cultural engagement for pupils, especially for those living in levelling-up areas, and that 95% of teachers said they had developed skills they would continue to use in their teaching.

“There is clear potential to encourage continued participation among schools that are currently part of the programme and to extend the programme to new schools to bring these benefits to more children,” said the report.

Its conclusion found a consensus among participating teachers that without the Heritage Schools programme, its benefits would not be easily achieved through other means and that access to heritage was becoming especially limited due to the increasing cost of living putting school budgets under pressure.

“That the resources provided by the programme are free to schools, and that the local heritage that schools are supported in utilising is ‘on the doorstep’ is fundamental to providing equality of access to heritage and the associated benefits this brings,” said the report, adding: “This is only likely to become more pressing.”

‘Warm words for culture and heritage’

A Historic England spokesperson told Arts Professional: “The Heritage Schools programme is part of a range of cultural education work funded by the Department for Education and reviewed on an annual basis.

“The programme reaches around 675,000 children each year, and 99% of teachers agree that learning about local heritage improved pupils’ sense of belonging. We await an update when the department has done its business planning for the year ahead.”

Dinenage told Arts Professional: “The minister’s response will not reassure the [hundreds of] schools involved in the Heritage Schools programme. The programme is vital to giving pupils an understanding of the history and heritage of their local area and is proven to foster creativity and develop cultural knowledge.

“At a time when pride in our country has fallen sharply among young people, I find it hard to believe that the government can see the benefits in cancelling a programme that gave pupils an awareness of the positive aspects of their local heritage.

“The government always seems to have warm words for culture and heritage, but when it’s really put to the test, it doesn’t have any of the answers.”

A spokesperson for DfE said there was nothing further to add to McKinnell’s response at this stage.