We’re excited to announce that disability and diversity consultant Simon Minty will be joining the Creative Access team of trainers. He’ll be delivering workshops which support our employer partners to broaden their understanding of disability in the workplace and beyond; starting with an open workshop – Disability 101 – on June 9th.
The workshop will include discussing best practice, reasonable adjustments, approaching conversations around disability at work, and dealing with microaggressions and ableism.
Simon has delivered public speaking, training and consultancy in diversity and inclusion since early 2000s and helps improve the portrayal of disabled people in television and on stage.
He is a non-executive director of Motability Operations, is on the board of the National Theatre and co-chair of StopGap Dance. He is an Ambassador to the Business Disability Forum and Business Disability International. He also helped establish the Disability Media Alliance Project in California.
Simon co-hosts two podcasts, BBC Ouch! and The Way We Roll, he regularly reviews The Papers for BBC News, and in 2021 he joined the cast of Channel 4’s Gogglebox. He also co-produced and performed in the Edinburgh Fringe comedy show Abnormally Funny People.
In 2016 GQ named Simon Minty as one of the 100 best connected men in the UK. He has featured on the Power 100 List of disabled people for many years. He has personal experience of disability being of short stature and limited mobility.
Disability 101 Open Workshop led by Simon Minty
Thursday 9th June, 2 – 3:30pm
Sign up for the open workshop here.
If you are interested in organising disability training for your team or organisation, please contact us here.
For their article exploring ‘Are diversity recruitment schemes successful in increasing inclusion and equality in the workplace?’, Hiyah Zaidi spoke to Creative Access, including our director of recruitment Anoushka Dossa, about the use of positive action schemes and how they can influence diversity within the workplace.
Anoushka stated:
(Hiring via PAS) shows employees/contacts their company is serious about making a change to the current workforce. Recruiting via PAS is a great way to find new and perhaps underexposed talent in the creative sector.
Read the article in full here.
Creative Access and the University of Manchester’s CoDE report has been discussed in Arts Professional. The article focuses on the findings that fewer ethnically diverse creatives are employed since the pandemic and are experiencing heightened levels of financial instability.
Read here.
New Creative Access research for Young Carers’ Action Day highlights specific challenges facing this group in the creative industries
A young carer is defined as someone under the age of 25 who cares for a friend or family member who, due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their support.* To coincide with #YoungCarersActionDay on 16th March, Creative Access conducted research and a focus group with both current and young carers to gage how this often over-looked and under-represented group can be better supported in the creative industries.
Key findings from the survey included:
- 70% of participants were under the age of 20 when they first started caring for someone
- 80% felt like caring had an impact on their health and wellbeing
- 80% felt like they missed out on opportunities
- 65% decided to not apply for a new role because of their caring responsibilities
- 60% felt like they were unable to network or attend industry events
- 30% felt like they weren’t supported in the workplace
The statistic that 70% of the participants had started caring for someone under the age of 20 is particularly shocking. Members of the focus group explained how caring at such a young – and pivotal – age actually led to a lack of opportunities such as missing out on networking and industry events due to caring responsibilities and financial constraints.
“I remember things like gap years or trips with universities or school. Those are the types of opportunities I missed out on. You do have a sense of, what if I had been able to do that. Maybe if I’d had that opportunity early, I could have progressed further in my career.”
In response to the call to action surrounding young carer’s needs within the workplace, Creative Access has created a resource directed at young carers themselves on how to navigate their caring responsibilities in the workplace, but also so employers can better understand their needs.
One member of the focus group encapsulated how employers can make this change:
“Employers need to understand that we often don’t know what the next day will be like. Things like an employer saying you can start an hour later or finish earlier and then make up the time make a real difference.”
The pandemic has disproportionately affected under-represented groups in the creative industries, and young carers in particular have been profoundly impacted by the past 2 years. A Carers Trust survey found that 78% of young adult carers aged 18 to 25 were experiencing increased concern for their futures since Coronavirus. Despite this negative impact, one positive aspect of the pandemic referenced by the participants was the benefits of working from home. As one participant emphasised:
“It’s annoying that it took a pandemic to change [attitudes to] flexible working when young carers have been around long before. It’s annoying that it took that for people to realise!”.
However, young carers expressed worries about returning to the office post-pandemic, as well as non-inclusive work cultures within the creative industries, particularly within TV:
“In the industries I work in, they expect you to come in at 7 am and finish when you finish, e.g. 9 or 10. I quickly realised it wouldn’t work, and I didn’t apply again. The nature of shift work is long and gruelling hours.”
In spite of this, Creative Access’ findings did highlight the unique skills and attributes that young carers can bring to the workplace. The participants frequently cited their empathy, time management, patience and crisis management abilities, as well as practical skills such as first aid training and Covid awareness. Of the positive attributes that young carers bring to the workplace, one participant said:
“Being more resilient; thicker skin. If a crisis comes up at work, I don’t lose my cool – I can persevere through”.
Josie Dobrin, CEO of Creative Access says: “At Creative Access, we are constantly striving to ensure better representation and support for people from communities under-represented in the sector. As today’s research shows, young carers are a group who face specific challenges and are not currently getting the recognition and support they need at work. We are hopeful that following our findings, employers will recognise the urgent need to create inclusive workplaces that support carers and the valuable perspective this group bring to the creative industries.”
*Cited from Carer’s Trust: https://carers.org/about-caring/about-young-carers
The pandemic has worsened pre-existing inequalities in the creative and cultural industries by causing job insecurity and financial instability among ethnically diverse people employed in the sector, according to a new report. This is particularly concerning given the underrepresentation of these groups within the industries.
Experts from The University of Manchester’s Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity partnered with career support organisation Creative Access to collect data on the experiences of ethnically diverse workers – and those aspiring to work – in the industries.
The researchers found that only 29% of respondents were in employment a year after the first lockdowns – a huge drop of 22 percentage points – and 48% of respondents said they are either becoming financially unstable or need immediate assistance to pay their bills.
The overwhelming majority of ethnically diverse creative workers report feeling anxious or worried, with insecurity being a major contributing factor – 70% of all respondents were worried about their job security, and a staggering 89% of workers with over 10 years of experience said the pandemic had made their job less secure.
One respondent told the researchers that they were unable to claim money from the SEISS [Self-Employment Income Support Scheme] despite having no income – they were existing on Universal Credit, which was barely enough to cover their outgoings. They said their mental health had plummeted from not being able to secure any kind of work.
58% of respondents said that their primary source of income had changed, and alarmingly, 30% of these said they had left the creative and cultural industries for another sector – this suggests a risk that as the industry recovers from the aftermath of the pandemic, it may be even less diverse than before.
37% of respondents said their careers had been affected by discrimination because of their ethnic or racial identity, but many reported that 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests had only seen limited subsequent improvements despite many employers declaring their intent to reduce discrimination and increase diversity. Only 14% agreed that more paid opportunities were available as a result of the protests, and these were also likely to be junior positions.
The report’s authors are calling for a host of changes at creative and cultural organisations to tackle these issues including the adoption of employment targets, guidelines for recruitment practices and financial incentives for organisations which develop targeted schemes for graduates from ethnically diverse backgrounds who have lost out as a result of the pandemic.
“Our findings are extremely worrying because they demonstrate that ethnically diverse creatives and cultural workers are having to deal with the severe impact of Covid on employment in the creative and cultural industries, on top of pre-existing racism, and indicates a potentially lost generation of ethnically diverse talent who are struggling to enter the sector,” said Roaa Ali from the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity. “We believe that the pandemic has significantly compounded issues of ethnic and racial inequality in the sector, and we are calling for urgent and specific actions championed by both industry and policy decision makers to address this – this, too, is integral to the levelling up agenda.”
“The creative and cultural industries were already the site of fundamental race and ethnic inequalities, and our findings suggest that the pandemic has deepened them,” said Professor Bridget Byrne from the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity. “This sector is critical not only for its contribution to the economy, but also because it shapes the cultural life of the country – this is why structural racism faced within the sector is so concerning.”
“We need action within individual organisations, but also more broadly at a policy level to both collect the data needed to track ethnic inequalities and also to implement proactive actions to ensure that ethnically diverse people have fair access to training, jobs and promotion within the sector.”
“Clearly, the Covid pandemic hit everyone who works in creative and cultural industries – but it also exasperated existing inequalities in this sector,” said Dr Anamik Saha from the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity and Goldsmiths, University of London. “While media and cultural organisations were quick to pronounce their support for the Black Lives Matter protests that occurred during the pandemic, our research found this translated into relatively few new opportunities for Black people in particular.”
“Our hope is that in shining a light on their circumstances, media and cultural organisations can better support creative workers from minoritised communities, ensuring fair and equal treatment during these difficult times.”
“On the second anniversary of the pandemic, we are seeing yet further proof of the disproportionate impact of covid on people from groups under-represented in the creative industries in terms of ethnicity. With the huge loss of funding, income and job opportunities in the sector, it’s critical that organisations like ours work with employer partners to ensure that people from these communities do not lose out on career access or progression as a result,” says Josie Dobrin, founder and CEO, Creative Access.
‘The impact of Covid-19 and BLM on Black, Asian and ethnically diverse creatives and cultural workers’ R Ali, S Guirand, B Byrne, A Saha and H Taylor, Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity, March 2022.
Watch the recording of ‘On and off screen diversity: Why does it matter?‘ an event held on Thursday, 11 November 2021. Speakers: Roaa Ali (CoDE), Sadia Habib and Shaf Choudry (The Riz Test) and Josie Dobrin (Creative Access).
The University of Manchester’s Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity partnered with Creative Access to understand the experiences of ethnically diverse workers – and those aspiring to work – in the creative industries as an effect of the pandemic and BLM.
Mirage News has reported the findings here.
ITV Granada have covered Creative Access and the University of Manchester’s Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity findings that nearly half of ethnically diverse people in creative industries need help paying their bills and that only 29% of ethnically diverse people in creative industries were in employment in March 2021, down from 51%, amongst other results.
The 2022 grant recipients of the Mo Siewcharran Fund, administered by Creative Access, are Saqi Books, The Reader and the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme. Each organisation will be taking on a paid intern from a Black, Asian or ethnically-diverse background because of the Fund.
The Fund was set up by John Seaton in loving memory of his wife, Mo, who was the director of Nielson BookData.
Read BookBrunch’s article in full here.
Heloise Wood in The Bookseller has reported the latest round of grant recipients from the Mo Siewcharran Fund, administered by Creative Access. Saqi Books, The Reader and the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme will all be taking on a paid intern from a Black, Asian or ethnically-diverse background because of the Fund.
The Fund was set up by John Seaton in loving memory of his wife, Mo, who was the director of Nielson BookData.
Read The Bookseller article here.
Creative Access has announced the first 2022 grants from the Mo Siewcharran Fund to support internships for talent from Black, Asian and other ethnic backgrounds. The Fund grants, which are administered by Creative Access, have been awarded to three impressive organisations working to change the face of the creative industries: The Reader, a national charity working to make literature accessible to all; Saqi Books, a leading independent publisher of trade and academic books on the Middle East and North Africa and the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme (RTYDS), the UK’s foremost programme of paid professional development for theatre directors.
The Fund was set up in memory of former Nielsen BookData Director Mo Siewcharran, who was passionate about ensuring theatre and publishing were accessible to all, and supports internships for talent from Black, Asian and other ethnic backgrounds, which are groups under-represented in the creative industries.
The pandemic has had a devastating impact on people working in publishing and theatre. Creative Access research, conducted in May 2020 and then again in December 2021, shows financial stability has declined dramatically with just 26% of those working in publishing and 34% in theatre describing themselves as financially stable versus 55% in both sectors who had said the same in May 2020. 29% of people in theatre and 26% in publishing said the pandemic had negatively impacted their job security – 26% for those from Black, Asian or other ethnic backgrounds.
John Seaton, Mo’s husband and founder of the Fund, said, “As we come out of the pandemic, it is great to be awarding the first grants of 2022 to three organisations that are leading the way in creating a more diverse and inclusive culture in publishing and theatre. The past two years have been incredibly challenging for the sector, but we now have a real opportunity to make fundamental improvements by changing hiring practices and recruiting talent from diverse backgrounds and I am very pleased that the Mo Siewcharran Fund is playing an active role in this mission.”
Josie Dobrin, CEO and founder, Creative Access, said, “It’s a privilege to partner with John in managing the Mo Siewcharran Fund and to be awarding the first grants of 2022 to three incredible organisations who share our passion to make theatre and publishing more accessible, inclusive and representative. We’re excited to see the talent coming forward to take up the internships with these organisations and the impact they will have on the future of the industry.”
“The Reader is really excited to be able to offer this role of Literature Directorate Assistant. We know that roles in an organisation focused on literature may not feel relevant or accessible for many individuals, particularly if you are from an under-represented background or have an unconventional work/education history. The Mo Siewcharran Fund and Creative Access are supporting us to reach wider in our recruitment to find someone who has a love of reading and support them to become an integral part of our team”
Alison Speight Development Coordinator, The Reader
“We at Saqi are over the moon that an intern will be joining the team in 2022 and are grateful to the Mo Siewcharran Fund for this opportunity. We look forward to helping a publishing professional embark on their career and to a time in the future when employees across the industry reflect the UK population”
Cassie Lawrence Publicity & Marketing Executive, Saqi Books
“RTYDS and Creative Access share the aim of enabling people from communities under-represented in theatre to access careers, progress and reach leadership positions. We’re excited that we can work together to offer a paid Trainee Programme Producer role at RTYDS with the support of the Mo Siewcharran Fund”
Sue Emmas, Artistic Director, RTYDS
The Fund is once again open for other theatre or publishing organisations wishing to support internships for those from under-represented communities. Those interested in applying should contact lucy@creativeaccess.org.uk. The deadline for the next round of applications is 1st July 2022.
Karolina Kaminska in C21 has written about Creative Access’ new partnership with Nutopia to drive diversity in senior leadership in the TV industry. Read Karolina’s article here.
In Adele Redmond’s latest article for Arts Professional, she discusses the recent difficulties in recruiting to arts roles, which is prompting claims of a “great resignation” from the sector. She states: “New staff are demanding higher pay and more flexible working conditions than before the pandemic, leading to imbalances in some organisations.”
Redmond highlights Creative Access’ research into how under-represented groups have been affected by the pandemic, specifically that mental wellbeing is a priority for nearly two thirds (61%) of the Creative Access community and that in a snap survey we conducted last month, 96% said a four-day work week would be good for their career.
Read the article in full here.