Locked Down and Locked Out
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothers working in the UK television industry
The COVID-19 pandemic and associated government lockdowns have been nothing short of a disaster for mothers working in the UK television sector.
Being a mother in television has always been accompanied by enormous difficulties related to the nature of the working practices and cultures that have become prevalent in the UK television. The COVID-19 pandemic has shattered the already fragile and precarious networks of support upon which mothers relied to enable them to manage work and caring responsibilities, up to the point where for many it has become unbearable.
Locked Down and Locked Out: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothers working in the UK television industry represents the voices of hundreds of television workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was led by the Institute for Screen Industries Research in collaboration with sector organisations SMTJ and Telly Mums Network, and with the support of BECTU, which represents 40,000 creative industry workers in the UK.
Find out more
Supporitng Professionalisation of the Sustainability Department in UK Screen Productions
The global screen industries are increasingly reckoning with the environmental impacts of production. While we often think of screen production in terms of intangible "content", latest data from the BAFTA albert initiative reveal that the average hour of television produced in the UK generates no less than 16.6 tonnes of Co2 – as much as the average UK citizen's carbon emissions over 18 months.(1)
As part of the industry's efforts to shift to more sustainable ways of working, new roles and businesses have emerged that specialise in environmental consultancy for the screen sector. Many productions now incorporate a "sustainability department" that works to collect data on and to mitigate the production's material impacts. This new subsector of the screen industries is growing at a remarkable rate globally, with consultants active across the Anglosphere and EU as well as South Africa, Mexico, Colombia, India, Jordan, Uruguay, Argentina and Kenya. However, these still new and evolving roles yet lack professional standards, frameworks, and broad industry recognition, and practitioners face many obstacles to their working lives and capacity to make a difference.
This report, produced in collaboration with leading UK-based consultant Neptune Sustainability Ltd., presents a first of its kind look at the work, expertise, and challenges of sustainability practitioners in the UK screen industries. It examines the conditions and lived experience of work in the sector and proposes actions for supporting the development of the sector as a vital element in the industries' green transition.
Find out more