APPG 2017-18

Admirably co-chaired by Julie Elliott MP and Baroness Benjamin, the APPG continued to keep its members informed about all aspects of children’s media and arts, suggesting areas that need intervention and support as well as bringing people together to effect change. This year, the APPG:

• Joined with 9 other APPGs in the Drawn Together campaign to raise awareness of the need for freedom of movement for creative talent post-Brexit.
• Sent occasional newsletters, helping members keep abreast of, for example, the Circus250 Campaign, highlighting the difficulties this art form, and often a child’s first experience of live entertainment, face (freedom of movement for talent, V.A.T. and other financial hardships).
• Continued to campaign for better internet safety and security for young people especially and is pleased to see that internet safety has become a higher political priority.
• Held a joint meeting with the International Broadcasting Trust to again make the case that children’s media should help them engage with their society and the wider world around them. Attended by over 70 people, the meeting fed into Ofcom’s review of children’s content, which was published in July.
• Was pleased to see ACA launch ARTS BACKPACK UK. An initiative first mooted at the APPG AGM in 2014, if implemented, this would ensure that every primary school child in the UK has at least five cultural experiences in the school year.  ACA has secured funding for a feasibility study and the APPG looks forward to learning the results in due course.