I grew up in a council flat in Batley, West Yorkshire, on free school meals. I was the first in my family to go to university and the first to forge a career in the arts. As a result, I know the power of access and the dispiriting effect of exclusion.
Sadly, the Conservative government doesn’t seem to agree. Access to the arts and the creative industries has been closed off at every level, including in schools, and as a consequence people are being systematically excluded from one of the great industries of the future.
