Introduction Skillset is the Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries and is an independent UK wide organisation owned and managed by, and representing, the UK’s broadcast and allied audio visual industries. The objects of Skillset include the promotion, advancement and provision of “training and education for persons working or intending to work whether as employees or independent contractors in the film, radio, television, video, interactive media, photography, photographic processing, digital imaging and associated industries”. Skillset’s vision is to maintain and enhance the Industry’s future competitiveness and productivity by having businesses and people with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time. Skillset and the BBC BBC is a key industry partner for Skillset; BBC industry representatives sit on our Board and our national and regional industry skills panels in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. BBC is also part of the relevant Industry sector Skills Panels which inter alia produced an industry-led sector skills strategy for Television in 2006. Skillset has been involved in consultations regarding the BBC New Charter and Agreement. Skillset and the BBC are also founding partners of Broadcast Training and Skills Regulator (BTSR -www.btsr.org.uk/ ), a co-regulatory system in which the members work together to ensure training which is relevant to the industry’s needs and which continues to give audiences in the UK high quality programmes and services. Recognising their shared objectives, BBC and Skillset are currently in the process of agreeing mutual commitment to the following aims and principles to govern their relationship: · Mutual collaboration and support at all levels of the working relationship; · Openness in the sharing of information and intelligence · Promotion of diversity within the workforce as integral to all activities · Support for media literacy across the UK as integral to all activities Based on this understanding we would like to comment on 3 of the presented BBC Public Purpose Remits: • Promoting education and learning • Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence • Representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities BBC Public Purpose Remit: Promoting education and learning Question 1 How well do you think the BBC is currently delivering the Purpose Remit priorities? Are there any priorities that the BBC could deliver better (and if so, why) and are there any priorities which you think are being delivered well (and if so, why)? BBC has generally maintained over the years a very good record for supporting training and education in the media industries. However, the Audio Visual Industries are going through a time of radical change – partly due to technological changes, the changing nature of its workforce ( notably becoming more freelance), as well as a bigger reliance on the outputs of the independent production sector. These changes require a new approach when setting the new Purpose Remit priorites. Question 2 Do the priorities need amending in any way? If so, how? We particularly agree with Priority 3: “Promote and support formal educational goals for children and teenagers and support adult education, especially related to basic skills development” . This priority appears to be shaped in terms of the BBC’s own directly produced formal learning materials but we would argue that this priority also needs to be seen in a broader context – in terms of support for training and developing the workforce of the audio visual industries which are a significant element of the UK’s creative economy. We would also like to see the BBC developing its role in promoting media literacy for children at school and supporting the delivery of the 14 – 19 Creative and Media Diplomas and the equivalent developments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We would also wish to see further work in partnership with Further and Higher Education to develop skills for potential new entrants to the workforce. We would also like to see the BBC expand its commitment for continous professional development to adults working in the Audio Visual Industries sector. As this is a highly skilled industry, this would argue for the BBC’s support in this area not to relate only primarily to basic skills. Question 3 Are there any important priorities that have been missed? As mentioned before, we would like to propose an expanded context for Priority 3: Question 4 Do the Purpose Remits present the BBC with enough challenge in promoting the Public Purposes? If not, how might they be improved? If fully implemented, and expanded as we suggest, the above remits will be very stretching for the BBC. Question 5 In addition to the measures included in Annex I to each Purpose Remit, are there any other performance measures which the Trust should use to monitor the Purpose Remits? The measures listed for Priority 3 are: “for children and teens education – Audience perceptions of the BBC helping their children/ teens with what they learn at school / college. For adult education the Trust will use qualitative research to measure the impact of adult education and support for basic skills development” We would like to suggest further measures for monitoring and evaluating Priority 3, particularly in its suggested implemented context: • We would like to suggest the Trust looks at the outputs of the partnership relationship between BBC and Skillset, particularly in areas of mutual commitment. This could assist measuring the impact of the BBC regarding children and young people in creative and media strands of formal education, as well as adult provision and skills for work in the Audio Visual Industries. • Similarly, we would encourage the qualitative research to look also at the impact of BBC in the skills of the Audio Visual Industries workforce (beyond the basic skills provision). This could be assisted by the reports from the Broadcast Training and Skills Regulator. Question 6 Do the priorities adequately reflect the requirements of the Charter and Agreement? We believe that Priority 3 will need to be implemented to reflect paragraph 84 and 85 on Training as appears in The Agreement : “84. Training (1) The Executive Board must make arrangements for the training and retraining of BBC staff engaged in connection with providing any of the UK Public Services or making programmes for inclusion in any of those services. (2) The training and retraining provided under the arrangements must make an effective contribution to— (a) the promotion of the BBC’s Public Purposes, and in particular that of stimulating creativity and cultural excellence; (b) the preparation and maintenance of a highly-skilled media workforce across the audio-visual industry; and (c) competitiveness and productivity in that industry. (3) The Executive Board shall use its best endeavours to work in partnership with others in the audiovisual industry in the planning and provision of training and retraining across that industry.” In the following clause 85, the BBC’s Executive Board is charged with reviewing their arrangements regarding clause 84 and at least once a year make a report to the Trust on the current operation and effectiveness of the arrangements and the Trust is charged with publishing its observations on these. BBC Public Purpose Remit: Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence Question 1 How well do you think the BBC is currently delivering the Purpose Remit priorities? Are there any priorities that the BBC could deliver better (and if so, why) and are there any priorities which you think are being delivered well (and if so, why)? BBC has generally maintained over the years a good record for supporting training and education in the media industries, hence stimulating creativity and original output of high quality. However, there are new challenges in the creation of content in the digital and interactive context, as well as a wider responsibility and leadership role in the continued creation of content with public purposes. It should also be borne in mind that an increasing proportion of this content will be produced by the independent production sector, and with a high dependence on a largely freelance workforce. These changes require a new approach when setting the new Purpose Remit priorites. Question 2 Do the priorities need amending in any way? If so, how? We would like to comment particularly on Priorities 1 and 5. Priority 1: “Establish a leading reputation for creative and innovative programming” We would like to ensure that the Trust will be looking to implement its commitment to establish a leading reputation for creative and innovative programming by supporting the whole spectrum of the creative economy – looking at the creative, technical and business side of the production and supply chain, as they are all interconnected. Priority 5: “Support the creative economy of the UK across a wide range of genres” Similarly to our comments on Priority 1, we feel that the definition of talent should be wider not only to include originators but the whole Audio Visual workforce that supports creative material and are part of the UK’s creative community. For both priorities, we will expect to see BBC promoting diversity in its workforce as an integral part of these activities. Question 3 Are there any important priorities that have been missed? As mentioned before, we would like to see the expanded remit of Priority 1 and 5. Question 4 Do the Purpose Remits present the BBC with enough challenge in promoting the Public Purposes? If not, how might they be improved? If fully implemented, the above remits will enhance BBC’s service to its Public Purposes. Question 5 In addition to the measures included in Annex I to each Purpose Remit, are there any other performance measures which the Trust should use to monitor the Purpose Remits? For Priority 1 “ the Trust will measure: Audience perceptions of the BBC having fresh and new ideas”. We recognise this as measurement of audience perceptions in the UK – however BBC creative products (and the UK’s creative industries) are operating in a global market. Therefore we feel the need for more qualitative analysis and robust measures which will look at the BBC outputs in relation to the performance of the whole Audio Visual Industries. For Priority 5 “ the Trust will measure this priority qualitatively amongst opinion leaders in the wider creative community and amongst the creative community within the BBC itself.” Similarly with Priority 1, Priority 5 is another area where we feel the measurement should be expanded to include the outputs of the whole spectrum of the creative economy (origination, production and supply) within and beyond the BBC. Question 6 Do the priorities adequately reflect the requirements of the Charter and Agreement? We believe that Priorities 1 and 5 will need to be implemented to reflect paragraph 84 and 85 on Training as appears in The Agreement and directly relates to this specific Public Purpose Remit: “84. Training (1) The Executive Board must make arrangements for the training and retraining of BBC staff engaged in connection with providing any of the UK Public Services or making programmes for inclusion in any of those services. (2) The training and retraining provided under the arrangements must make an effective contribution to— (a) the promotion of the BBC’s Public Purposes, and in particular that of stimulating creativity and cultural excellence; (b) the preparation and maintenance of a highly-skilled media workforce across the audio-visual industry; and (c) competitiveness and productivity in that industry. (3) The Executive Board shall use its best endeavours to work in partnership with others in the audiovisual industry in the planning and provision of training and retraining across that industry.” We would also refer to paragraph 85 which commits the BBC Executive Board and the Trust to reporting and reviewing the arrangements to deliver the above at least once a year. BBC Public Purpose Remit: Representing the UK, its nations regions and communities Question 1 How well do you think the BBC is currently delivering the Purpose Remit priorities? Are there any priorities that the BBC could deliver better (and if so, why) and are there any priorities which you think are being delivered well (and if so, why)? BBC has generally maintained over the years a good record for supporting training and education in the media industries and its presence has been vital in the development of the Audio Visual Industries across the UK Nations and Regions. There has been an increase in recent years in the BBC’s ambitions for commissioning and creating content across a broad range of genres( and not just local news) from the Nations and Regions, but the planned move to Salford is in part a recognition of the need to do more especially in the English Regions. This will in turn provide impetus and set new challenges for the audio-visual industries based outside London and the South East of England, where they have been concentrated. This will require new Purpose Remit priorities. Question 2 Do the priorities need amending in any way? If so, how? We agree and would like to comment particularly to Priority 1: “Represent the different nations, regions and communities in the UK” We recognise the above priority is of special value to the public broadcasting remit and we would like to emphasise that representation should include BBC programme outputs, its workforce and its production supply. However, in order to achieve the above, we recognise that BBC should also support the infrastructure and development of the Audio Visual Industries in the Nations and regions, opening opportunities for access and participation for new talent from communities across the UK. A commitment to training is key in order to develop sustainable creative sectors beyond the concentration of the creative industries in London. Question 3 Are there any important priorities that have been missed? We would like to see the expanded remit of Priority 1 with a commitment in supporting the creative economy of the nations, regions and communities in the UK. Question 4 Do the Purpose Remits present the BBC with enough challenge in promoting the Public Purposes? If not, how might they be improved? Yes, if fully implemented as suggested. Question 5 In addition to the measures included in Annex I to each Purpose Remit, are there any other performance measures which the Trust should use to monitor the Purpose Remits? Regarding Priority 1 “the Trust will measure audience perceptions of the BBC catering for their area and community and the BBC representing their area and community to other people in the UK”. As mentioned before, we see the fulfilment of this particular priority to be dependent on the creative health of a sustainable Audio Visual sector in the Nations and regions of the UK. One measure will be the impact of the BBC move to Salford Media City. Skillset is committed to support this development. Qualitative research will be needed to measure the impact, particularly on skills. Question 6 Do the priorities adequately reflect the requirements of the Charter and Agreement? We believe that Priority 1 should take into account paragraph 84 and 85 on Training from the Agreement, when considering BBC’s Public Purpose Remit for representing the UK’s nations, regions and communities: “84. Training (1) The Executive Board must make arrangements for the training and retraining of BBC staff engaged in connection with providing any of the UK Public Services or making programmes for inclusion in any of those services. (2) The training and retraining provided under the arrangements must make an effective contribution to— (a) the promotion of the BBC’s Public Purposes, and in particular that of stimulating creativity and cultural excellence; (b) the preparation and maintenance of a highly-skilled media workforce across the audio-visual industry; and (c) competitiveness and productivity in that industry. (3) The Executive Board shall use its best endeavours to work in partnership with others in the audiovisual industry in the planning and provision of training and retraining across that industry.” Please also refer to the obligations to report on and review the arrangements for effecting these ( see above).