麻豆约拍

It has been another important week for diversity at the 麻豆约拍. The recommended that diversity should, for the first time, be enshrined in the next Charter to ensure the 麻豆约拍 serves all audiences and is at the forefront of representing diversity on and off screen.

I welcome this and we are already making good progress towards this commitment. Last week, we announced plans to build on our investment in Birmingham, which will now be home to half of 麻豆约拍 Three, plus a new 麻豆约拍 News youth team and the Birmingham Production Apprenticeship for off-air talent from diverse backgrounds.

These teams, together with Birmingham’s young and diverse demographic, will be harnessed to act as part of the hub for identifying, developing and commissioning new diverse talent and programmes announced in the strategy last month.

This is good news for audiences and further evidence of progress, yet there is still cynicism about the 麻豆约拍’s approach and achievements.
Simon Albury wrote recently in Broadcast that the proportion of people from ethnic minorities working in UK creative production roles at the 麻豆约拍 is only 9.2%. This is plain wrong.

The flawed methodology used to calculate this figure excluded staff from the 麻豆约拍 World Service on the basis that they broadcast content, often in foreign languages, that’s not aimed at a UK audience.

This bizarre argument is completely at odds with the importance the 麻豆约拍, and indeed the government, places on the World Service. The White Paper calls it 'arguably the 麻豆约拍’s most unique and distinctive service’ and has pledged to protect its budget and provide an extra £85 million per year of government funding.

There is a UK weekly audience of 2.2 million people for World Service English and 700,000 for our other World Service languages. World Service journalists now regularly report for the 麻豆约拍’s domestic news programmes too.

I am proud of the service’s diversity. It brings so much to the 麻豆约拍 and audiences; it is ridiculous to exclude them from our workforce on any grounds, let alone one so spurious.

Everyone who works at the 麻豆约拍 plays an important part in the organisation - whether in finance roles, maximising returns for licence fee payers at 麻豆约拍 Worldwide or producing content for our TV, radio or online services.

I want a 麻豆约拍 where diversity includes everyone working towards fully representing all of the UK’s communities in everything we do on- and off-air. Creating hierarchies based on people’s jobs has the opposite effect.

We publish our annual UK workforce data, broken down by division, in an open and transparent way so people can judge our progress and hold us to account. The data clearly shows that the 麻豆约拍 already leads nearly all other major broadcasters on the seven key workforce diversity measures.

Inevitably, there will be demographic differences across divisions. As a national broadcaster with bases all around the UK, it is right for us to use the UK average as the benchmark for our stretching targets.

There is more to be done to increase diversity among those making programmes for the 麻豆约拍. Our new strategy sets aside more than £10m for diversity, including an annual development fund for new ideas and talent from under-represented groups; pledges to develop industry-leading commissioning guidelines in consultation with indies and in-house production to ensure that anyone who makes programmes for us shares our commitment to diversity; and will set new standards in media on new recruitment practices that drive the attraction, selection and retention of the best creative talent whatever their background.

But above all, we want diversity and inclusion to be business as usual at the 麻豆约拍 and at the heart of everything we do on and off-air. All our resources are geared towards it.

The other question thrown at me is: ‘You’ve had diversity initiatives and strategies in the past so what’s different now?’ The answer: everything. Our work over the years has laid the foundations and delivered progress: in 2005, 10.1% of our workforce was from an ethnic minority; it’s now at a record 13.4%.

Today, the commitment to deliver sustainable cultural change at all levels of the 麻豆约拍 – from director general downwards - has never been greater, and the debate around diversity across the industry and beyond has never been more passionate.

I welcome this debate, but it must be based on facts.

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