Diamond: the indie verdict

While it may sound quite bling, stage one of Diamond, the new pan-industry diversity initiative, is a simple data-gathering exercise, albeit one that could have a huge impact on television.

In a few months’ time, everyone working in front of and behind the camera on UK-made TV productions will be sent an email with a link to a form. The confidential, non-compulsory survey asks six yes/no questions seeking information on disability, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity.

The responses will be logged into an encrypted system and the results monitored and analysed by the Creative Diversity Network (CDN).

Coming on top of broadcasters’ various pledges to improve diversity throughout the industry, it’s clearly coming from a good place. But has it laid the groundwork for getting independent producers on board?

The 150-plus companies that entered this year’s Broadcast Indie Survey (published 18 March) were asked about their approaches and attitudes towards improving diversity. Central to this was the issue of whether they were clear about Diamond’s aims.

Encouragingly, almost three-quarters of the 56 respondents (74%) were either ‘clear’ or ‘quite clear’ on the initiative’s purpose, while the qualitative feedback was largely positive about its intentions. To date, 484 people have been through the training, while others are planning to do so.

Diamond’s advocates said it will mean “diversity is properly monitored” and will “focus production companies to address diversity issues both on and off screen”.

Many also hoped that the initiative would encourage senior production staff and commissioners to rethink who they hire and why they hire them.

“Diamond will force commissioners to shake up their planning, in terms of taking a risk on on- and off-screen talent and indies,” one production company declared. However, some voiced concern over Diamond’s implementation and ‘real-world’ application, questioning how and whether diversity stats could necessarily drive change. One noted: “It has nothing to benchmark itself against, so the stats will be hard to interpret.”

Diversity champion Amanda Ariss, appointed last year to drive the CDN as its executive director, acknowledges that the first set of data – set for delivery in August – will set the ‘bench’.

“We need to start somewhere,” she says. “Otherwise, why will anything change? As an industry, we are lagging behind – TV is still predominantly a white industry and the disabled are very under-represented. If we’re going to do things differently, we have to see where we are at the moment.”

Ariss anticipates that subsequent data sets will be released quarterly, depending on the pace of change. “If results are looking too similar, we may publish them less frequently,” she says.

Some participants in the Indie Survey were sceptical about how long broadcasters would commit to the project, especially those with their own bespoke diversity monitoring systems, whose data is largely kept internal. “Will broadcasters really want to share potentially sensitive information?” asked one respondent.

Shining a light

Ariss, a former Equality and Diversity Forum chief executive – who was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List this year for her services to equality, including securing the 2010 Equality Act – says that Diamond is trying to achieve something unprecedented.

“It’s very rare to see direct competitors use the same system and commit to publishing results that will shine very clear, often stark, light on what’s happening,” she says. “Diamond is unique in that respect – it’s a worldfirst for the British TV industry.” Gathering and sharing the data is one challenge; the key for Ariss will be acting on it and implementing the required changes. “The data should be used to drive change,” she says. “From there we can create actions for individual broadcasters as well as the indie sector.”

While the word ‘target’ can strike fear into even the best-intentioned production executive, Ariss says that “while the will is there to do it, there is nothing like setting goals to focus minds”.

Broadcast’s research threw up several obstacles to a more diverse industry. Regional indies, for example, say it could be a struggle to meet broadcasters’ established diversity targets due to a simple matter of resources and logistics. “Targets are much easier to meet if you are located in a richly diverse place; it’s harder in some regions. We need to recognise diversity in several ways beyond a checklist,” was a typical survey response from out-of-London indies.

Sky and C4 admit that diversity targets will be hard to meet in certain areas, but there are some schemes to redress this balance. These include C4’s Glasgow-based Diversity in the Nations and Regions pilot, which is aimed at recruiting diverse talent at mid to senior level. The broadcaster hopes eventually to roll out the programme nationally. Moreover, some smaller indies feel that new targets are amplifying the gulf between them and bigger players in their ability to meet broadcasters’ demands.

“It’s very difficult for a small company with no BAME heads of department and not enough funding for a diverse team to hit the target,” said one. But according to the CDN, even something as simple as advertising a TV receptionist’s position in a job centre located in a diverse area can be a way in for someone who may never otherwise have got their foot in the door.

Ariss says the network will launch an information hub on its website this summer, packed with actions in which indies of any size can engage to make their company a more diverse place to work.

Respondents who have already taken steps to improve things demonstrate the variety of schemes already out there that are aimed at making a difference.

Indies are working with organisations such as the Prince’s Trust, the Stephen Lawrence Trust and Arrival Education, and business-focused organisations from the Business Disability Forum to the CDN itself.

Perhaps indies’ main bugbear about targets is that broadcasters all have their own requirements. Many believe it would be a huge help to the industry if broadcasters could all support the same targets and work together to achieve them.

Time for action

Will Diamond help in this, providing the framework for one overriding BAME policy to which all UK broadcasters and production companies can sign up?

According to Ariss, broadcasters are likely to remain committed to their own bespoke targets because of their varying remits. “They will continue to have approaches to diversity that will affect their core audiences and things that are distinct to them,” she says. “But where they are all coming together is that they are now all monitoring in the same way.”

So are the goals of Diamond achievable? Many respondents recognised that Diamond is a long play, with most indies taking a cautiously optimistic approach. “Like all proactive initiatives, time will be an important component of this process,” said one, while another added that achieving its objectives would be “difficult, but not impossible.”

Issues raised will be discussed at Broadcast’s Indie Summit on 17 March

For more information visit theindiesummit.com