There's still "a lot to do" when it comes to behind-the-scenes diversity in British TV – but what's being done?

Has 'diversity' just become a buzzword across industries? It's a question that many from marginalised and underrepresented communities have been left asking themselves these days. Where five years ago, it seemed at the top of plenty of people's agendas, for many it seems as though efforts have slowed, presenting the pessimistic possibility that it was all just a small drop in the ocean of racism, bias and micro-aggressions.

When it comes to TV, though, many casual viewers may attribute representation to the people who we see on our screens. While there is a slew of rising and established actors from all different kinds of backgrounds, what many TV fans may not even consider is who is also behind the cameras.

The runners, researchers, producers, camera operators, production assistants (and plenty more) all make up the integral process of crafting everything we see on the small screen. From the world of glossy dramas to high-stakes documentaries and everything in between, it's as important to promote diversity behind-the-scenes just as much as in front of the camera.

But it's a well-known fact that, on the whole, things could be a lot better in terms of who we're seeing not only crafting and directing, but also in a range of BTS roles that have room for progression and genuine change within the industry.

Trying to lead the charge in that facet of the industry is ScreenSkills, an industry-led skills body for UK animation, children's TV, film, games, high-end TV, television, VFX (visual effects) and immersive media.

Providing training, career advice, sector insight and opportunities in order to build a skilled and inclusive workforce, ScreenSkills has long remained dedicated to breaking down the barriers of getting into the screen industries.

But have things in the industry as a whole – relating to accessibility, the barrier to entry and the diversity of the workforce – improved? Posing that very question to Chief Executive of ScreenSkills, Laura Mansfield, she admitted that things have – "but slowly".

"There are lots of changes required right across the board, which is why diversity and inclusion is a central pillar of our five-year strategy. We know from our most recent research project 'Sizing Up' that most of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) gains have occurred at more junior levels of the industry, so there is good access to breaking in, but then progressing through and up to the most senior levels is what we need to focus on improving in all areas and sub-sectors together.

"ScreenSkills' Trainee Finder Programme which runs across High End TV, Film and Children's last year had a 72 per cent out of London, 34 per cent minority ethnic and 24 per cent disabled cohort, which is excellent and necessarily over indexing. These are the areas as an industry we need to focus on supporting people to come in and then progress through."

She continues: "One of the big success stories of recent years in the screen industries has been the TV industry coming together around TAP (The TV Access Project) which was stimulated by Jack Thorne's Edinburgh speech, focused on improving access and inclusion for Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent people working in the UK television industry.

"Work has been undertaken to make sets and offices more accessible as well as to support other access needs and promote greater understanding of hidden disabilities. ScreenSkills hosts the employment resources hub on our website as well as new skills checklists and job profiles for a role called Access Coordinator. This is a new, important and growing job role that is responsible for ensuring productions are accessible to those with different needs."

Aiming to "demystify creative sector pathways for young people (such as film and television) to ensure the next generation of creative professionals better reflects the UK's diverse talent pool", Discover! Creative Careers Week has expanded to a month-long programme this November to connect 100,000 young people across the UK with creative industries.

The initiative sees ScreenSkills being the lead delivery partner, with it also being funded by the Department for Culture Media and Sport. Describing the government-funded programme as "an amazing and unique industry-led programme", Mansfield explained: "It pulls together effort, energy and focus from across all the different creative industries from TV, advertising and games to craft, heritage, music and theatre, to support school-aged students gain insight into careers in the creative industries."

She continues: "There is a diverse range of careers in the sector, and that is exciting. Naturally, we predominantly think of the performance roles, but there are even more professions behind the scenes. The programme has been offering support to careers advisors, empowering them to talk more confidently about the broad range of jobs and careers they can get kids excited about, roles they might never have considered.

"The focus of Discover! Creative Careers, which revolves around an annual key campaign moment and this year is taking place across the entire month of November, is on 11–18 year-olds at school and college, creating workplace encounters with industry and highlighting real jobs for them.

"The goal is to awaken a broad range of children and young people, schools, careers advisors and parents to the vast array of careers and opportunities within the Creative Industry – many of which they or their communities may have never thought possible. Our ambition is to reach 100,000 children and young people this year."

It can often be easier said than done trying to lower those barriers to entry, with Mansfield saying: "To break down barriers, we first must raise awareness. That age-old phrase, 'if you can't see it, you can't be it' resonates strongly.

"Then, we show parents and teachers that the creative industry has a broad range of sustainable careers on offer – people don't tend to think beyond actor or dancer, and those are fabulous of course, but there are thousands of other professions working in the Creative Industry, from accountants, lawyers, technicians, editors, carpenters, electricians, games designers, to makeup artists, hairdressers, project managers and many more. And then it's about creating and supporting links between schools, colleges and industry so that young people can have the chance to gain experience locally.

"And there are barriers around socio-economic backgrounds, disability, ethnicity and age. The goal is for the entire Creative Industries to address these barriers, supported by government, by systematically recognising them and then breaking them down. Broadening access so that the creative industries look and feel more like the whole of the UK is the goal here. We need diversity and plurality of perspectives to keep being a world-leading modern sector."

Across a wealth of Pass the Mic interviews, many stars and those behind the camera have commented on the lack of racial diversity which filters into the kinds of stories, narratives and viewpoints we often see on our screens.

Actress Tamara Lawrance admitted:"I think a lot more could be done. I think there's just a lot of optics.

"Sometimes, people say, 'Oh, it's such a good time to be a Black actor because there's just so much more work now.' And I mean, in some ways, that's true. In other ways, it's not. I think sometimes these things come in waves, where there's a period in which diverse work feels very popular and then times where, all of a sudden, all of that kind of traction becomes stagnated or the investment is rescinded."

She said: "Or as you say, people will will pick up a project and then kind of sit on it, so it doesn't get developed. I know from a lot of these projects that I've been on that behind the scenes is not very diverse at all. Sometimes it can feel like lip service to change because, really, we need more producers of global majority, people in the sort of gatekeeping positions – producers, directors, showrunners – we need more global majority showrunners.

"For me, I would like to see more people of global majority in those positions of where real systemic change can be made. If it always falls down to casting, we've seen that come and go."

Similarly, writer Kaamil Shah said of the push for diversity, especially in regards to the Muslim community: “To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve seen it. I’m not sure I’ve seen much of an outreach to find specifically diverse shows and I think we’re still finding the same barriers and the same kind of sense that really diverse and different shows about my community and other communities. I think they’re still finding it very difficult to penetrate that kind of concrete ceiling."

He also added: "It’s damaging that it’s been such a struggle for a British Asian showrunner to break through. It hasn’t really happened. There’s not a British Asian drama showrunner in this country. I would hope that it’s something that the commissioners are really thinking about and making active steps to find those people, hopefully I’m one of them. Having had a bit of experience under by belt. But yeah, it’s still really challenging.

Reflecting on the five years since the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, director Poppy Jay admitted: "I don’t think enough change has happened, quite frankly. But I am seeing directors, producers from a minority ethnic background. I don’t think it’s enough, I think we need to see more of us. The tide is turning.

"In terms of representation and the D-word, diversity, that’s just a conversation that we keep having all the time – honestly, it’s getting so boring. I feel like sometimes we are put into a category and it still feels like a ticking exercise, it’s not the norm, it’s not the mainstream."

So, what is some of the feedback that a body like ScreenSkills often hears about the state of diversity behind-the-scenes and how do they remain committed to ensuring there is improvement?

Mansfield said: "ScreenSkills is committed to improving diversity. We've put it at the heart of our five-year strategy. We measure it as a KPI, and we have recently updated all our diversity targets for trainers to ensure the range is appropriate and in line with recommendations made by academics. We need to help progress this positive change more quickly.

"We are only one part of an ecosystem but we can support those working in the industry to make more long lasting change – whether that's via our initiatives such as the Film Forward programme that supports people from deaf, disabled and neurodiverse backgrounds to gain roles in post-production, or by the free training we offer the broader workforce, in unconscious bias or in how to manage or recruit better. Across the UK, different Nations and regions face different challenges and have different demographics and therefore, employers require different levels and types of support to diversify their workforces.

"It's that old adage about teaching someone to fish – that's how you have long lasting impact."

In regards to the general state of diversity within the TV industry, is there more that continues to need to be done? Mansfield admits that while programmes like Discover! Creative Careers are an "excellent foundation stone" to broadening access, "we then need to focus as an industry on helping people progress".

She explained: "ScreenSkills recently conducted a landmark study of the screen industry and found that it is in the mid-to-senior level where there is a particular diversity problem in the TV industry. When it comes to ethnic diversity, this is variable within the industry itself – so some departments, such as technical and craft, are more representative than subsectors like editorial, post-production or production management.

"The Creative Diversity Network (CDN) publish an annual TV diversity report called Diamond. The most recent report reveals that some areas where there has been focus are improving – such as writers, where 25.1 per cent of contributions to TV are from 'Black, Asian and minority ethnic' writers (compared to general UK workforce estimates of 17 per cent).

"However, while representation of 'Black, Asian and minority ethnic' groups has improved overall from 13.4 per cent to 14 per cent in the past year, that is still lower than the 17 per cent of the UK workforce from 'Black, Asian and minority ethnic' groups. Diversity on screen is improving and there have been good strides made but there's still a lot to do."

More recently, Susan Wokoma revealed her thoughts around why the conversation around diversity is growing tiresome for many. "I'm not about banging on doors and begging people. I only want to work with the people who want to work with me and who see me. And if you don't, then that's completely fine. But I think, unfortunately, it was a trend," she said.

"Diversity was a trend and now it isn't trendy. Even though, the thing that's really funny about it is that it makes money. All you've got to do is look at Sinners, it made an untold amount of money, which means that there is an audience out there that's absolutely gagging for these stories. But people still don't want to make them."

When speaking to me about more needs to be done, Mansfield shares a stark fact that "a recent report, Black in Focus, found that 92 per cent of Black people in the TV industry have experienced at least one incidence of racism at work".

She said: "One of their recommendations to counter this is to formalise recruitment and promotion practices across the industry. We then need to support individuals to progress and develop. That's what programmes like our High-End TV Leaders of Tomorrow focuses on – supporting people from all backgrounds. That is how you make systemic change."

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