UK Task Force Backed By Networks & Streamers Sets Out Plan To Resolve “Burgeoning Disconnect” Between Production Workforce And Demand

Jesse Whittock
·6-min read

A plan has been laid out to close the “burgeoning disconnect” between the UK’s physical production workforce and demand for skills.

The Screen Sectors Skills Task Force, chaired by former Amazon Studios Head of European Originals Georgia Brown and backed by everyone from Netflix to the BBC, has published its report into creating a sustainable future for a skilled workforce and made several recommendations to change the industry from the roots up.

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The Task Force, originally known as the BFI Skills Task Force, was created was in response to a BFI Skills Review last year that set out several issues among the UK’s production sector. That report called for urgent action, including a demand the screen sector invests 1% of all production budgets into training and the need for an additional £104M ($129.5M) and 20,000 full-time jobs over the next three years for the industry to keep up with demand for high-end projects.

Having brought together leaders from 28 organizations across UK industry for the first time to candidly share business insights and knowledge, the Task Force has now made recommended three key proposals:

  • Strengthening strategy and partnerships by embedding cross-industry collaboration in the long-term though a new remit for pan-sector skills, a new approach to data and analysis, partnerships with the education sector and commitment to a sustainable funding model

  • Building sustainable growth and careers by focusing on transferable skills, job mobility, extended pilots for flexible and inclusive working patterns and a joined up strategy across physical and digital production

  • Putting work-based learning at the heart of skills development through apprenticeships, more placements that increase diversity and inclusion, more placements that build capability at mid and senior career level, and better delivery of skills development with more support for trainers

The Task Force’s lead option to achieve the goals is by transforming skills body ScreenSkills, whose CEO Seetha Kumar is stepping down at the end of 2023. Deadline understands there is a belief the timing is right for change and is achievable. ScreenSkills is among the 28 industry bodies involved, so is clearly on board with the idea.

After a media briefing yesterday at ITV’s offices in West London, ScreenSkills issued a statement saying it was “strongly committed to working towards a unified skills strategy, data and insight driven and built on partnership as the backbone for our creatively brilliant sector.

“We also recognise that, together with the broader sector, ScreenSkills needs to evolve so that we can all keep pace with the changing needs and demands of the talented workforce that we were created to support. Having worked constructively with the Taskforce and its members on this report, we look forward to continuing to do so as we work through the detailed recommendations.”

The backdrop to the report is a sector that has experienced much of boom and bust over recent years, with global demand growing as the likes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 moved production to UK shores. However, this has been hampered by many frontline workers exiting the industry during the Covid-19 pandemic and U.S. labor strikes and a lack of studio space. More recent drop in order that has followed a 2022 peak in commissioning after the pandemic has forced more to leave the industry.

With demand high and skills failing to match it, many have been promoted to senior roles much faster than in previous eras, largely due to the production boom that started when streamers entered the UK and started commissioning in volume. Sources privately say that has impacted production quality and inflated wages, unbalancing the market. Amidst all of this, the UK government has set an ambition to grow the UK creative industries by £50M ($62.1M) by 2030.

As such, the industry finds itself at a crossroads. Several submissions to a government-led inquiry into British high-end TV and film warned choices needed to be made to safeguard and improve the current production investment environment or risk losing work to European and international rivals. The Task Force’s recommendations are aimed at providing a framework and solutions for the long-term.

“The film and TV industry is a dynamic part of the UK creative industries, and as an innovative, world-leading centre for content production, there remains a major growth opportunity in the decade ahead,” said Brown. “However, to achieve this growth, we need a high-skilled workforce and despite significant commitment already being made, there remains a burgeoning disconnect between an increasingly strained workforce and the demand for skills that the industry makes of it.

“To create the skilled, sustainable, diverse, and inclusive workforce required for the future, we need radical transformation from the ground up. Our three proposals — to strengthen strategy and partnership; to support sustainable growth and sustainable careers; and to put work-based training at the heart of skills development — are designed to move the sector beyond a reactive response to the immediate challenges and economic climate, and instead work together to seek long-term resolution of the skills challenge in the screen sectors.”

During the briefing, Brown said its membership had revealed a collective £100M was spent on skills development each year, but warned this was not achieving “the sum of its parts.”

She also noted that a “lack of data in this space is one of the big challenges” for the Task Force, but was confident her goals were achievable.

“I feel really confident,” said Brown in response to a question from Deadline. “When we came into this, looking at reviews that have already happened, is quite often we are very reactionary as an industry: ‘There’s a problem today, so lets fire-fight, solve that and move on,’ and that is the nature of production and we are very good at that. But what comes with that great skills is sometimes a misstep because you’re not projecting out and preparing yourself for what might happen in the future.”

She added that understanding had led the Task Force members to collectively decide to work more collaboratively and reject the “quick plasters” approach in the long-term. “When we’re talking about making sure there is a mobility of skills and adaptability in the workforce, so when we’re at a downturn people can seek other employment or utilize their skills in other areas and then come back. That’s incredibly important and something we need to prepare for.”

The Task Force is due to continue until March 2024 to support the implementation of its proposals, though Brown and Vice Chair John McVay, the CEO of producers body Pact, were keen to stress they would not demand other initiatives such as BFI Skills Clusters adopt their principles.

Among the Task Force membership are Amazon Studios, Apple TV+, the BBC, Channel 4, Disney, ITV, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sky, Sony and Warner Bros Discovery — effectively all the main players in UK television, film and streaming. Industry bodies such as the British Film Commission, BFI, Directors UK, the High End TV Skills Council, MPA, Production Guild of Great Britain and ScreenSkills are also members.

Oliver Lang of Silbury Consulting, who was present at the media briefing at ITV’s offices today in London, supported the Task Force’s work, while Wiggin LLP has provided legal advice and Oliver & Ohlbaum conducted the independent investment study that revealed the £100M spend.

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