Everyday Diversity in the UK Screen Sector - UKRI Inter-Disciplinary Interface Innovation Fellowship

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The UK screen sector is vital to the country's economy and culture. Comprising film, TV, video games, animation and special effects production, it contributes at least £6bn to the UK economy (Olsberg SPI with Nordicity 2015), employs around 186,000 people directly (Oxera, 2017), and is the second largest driver of services GDP (Sweney, 2017). The screen sector needs a strong and diverse pool of creative talent and skills - to be competitive, and to better reflect the diversity of UK society. While the sector has expressed its commitment to change, its talent base is currently neither as strong nor as diverse as it needs to be (Bazalgette, 2017; Eikhof et al., 2018). The proposed Innovation Fellowship project will conduct new research that will help the screen sector to achieve its ambitions for greater workforce diversity.Some mentoring, networking and monitoring initiatives to increase diversity in the screen sector exist. But delivering the step change that the sector aspires to will require that diversity is more consistently embedded and routinized into all aspects of business practice - what we might refer to as 'Everyday Diversity'. Workforce diversity is not simply a case of monitoring statistics but of ensuring that inclusion and opportunity inform practices and decision-making throughout screen business: recruiting cast and crew, for instance, planning projects or financing ideas. Currently, many business practices constitute barriers that women, workers from minority ethnic or working class backgrounds and disabled workers find difficult to overcome. Screen sector practitioners need to change these practices so that they do not (inadvertently) exclude workers and limit their business' access to talent and skills. The proposed research project will help them make these changes. The proposed project has been developed in conversation with screen sector organisations such as the British Film Institute, Creative Diversity Network, PACT, Creative Industries Federation and UK Screen Alliance. It will have three phases: - A Research phase will identify the most important situations in which employment and career opportunities are being granted or withheld, and assess how these situations could be changed to have better outcomes for workforce diversity. - Development & Production phase will build Everyday Diversity, a set of innovative tools embedded in a bespoke website, to help screen sector practitioners work towards diversity in their everyday business. The scope of Everyday Diversity will depend on the outcomes of the Research Phase, but indicative components are an online self-test, case studies, good practice checklists, change roadmaps, monitoring tools, slide decks and briefing papers.- A Capacity Building phase will make sure that practitioners and policy-makers know about Everyday Diversity and use it. This phase will contain a launch event, workshops and masterclasses, implementation coaching or 'train the trainer'-type programmes, and promotion at industry events and through (social) media.To make sure that Everyday Diversity is fit-for-purpose and used by the screen sector, the project will work closely with screen sector organisations and businesses. The lead researcher will work on a part-time secondment to the British Film Institute and the Creative Diversity Network to address issues of use and legacy and expand her network of screen sector contacts and collaborators. Establishing a more diverse workforce in the screen sector and other creative sectors, making sure these sectors are competitive and represent and inspire the whole UK society is a key part of the Government's Industrial Strategy. The proposed Fellowship will help deliver on all of those aims. Most importantly, it will make the UK screen sector a more accessible career destination for individuals - regardless of, for instance, their race, gender, class or sexual orientation.