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BBC1’s This Town (Kudos) was filmed in Birmingham, image credit BBC/Banijay Rights/Kudos


Skills body unveils five-year vision for the industry and looks to reduce number of trustees

Collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders will serve as the bedrock of ScreenSkills’ refreshed five-year strategy, as it shakes up its governance model.   


The skills body today unveiled its revamped roadmap, which includes collaborations with the BBC and Create Central on a programme for the West Midlands, a pilot survey with Channel 4 to gauge the scope of the UK’s film and TV workforce and an enhanced partnership with BFI’s Skills Clusters. 


It will partner with Create Central and the BBC to support the West Midlands Skills Accelerator cluster programme, which is now in its second year. It will work with the BBC and other local stakeholders to develop targeted interventions and help guide future training in the region. 


Ed Shed, chair of Create Central, said: “This partnership with ScreenSkills and the BBC is an exciting step forward in our mission to bridge the skills gap in our region’s creative sector. By focusing on granular, data-driven insights into local industry needs, we’re not only supporting current training initiatives but also laying the groundwork for sustainable growth and production-ready skills that will serve the industry well into the future.” 

Separately, ScreenSkills will work with the BBC to co-commission research that will provide more detailed insight into the entry routes into the creative industries in order to help support new talent across the UK. 


Dawn Beresford, director of talent and skills, BBC commissioning, said the union will “support and underpin BBC and public sector investment in key, strategic locations for the sector”.  


She added: “The new strategy gives both ScreenSkills and the wider screen sector a shared blueprint to address the structural issues around access to the industry, career opportunities and reskilling, and to play a key role in growing the creative industries.” 

ScreenSkills will also work with C4’s training arm 4Skills to research the size and profile of the screen industries’ workforce. The work will be conducted by Ampere Analysis, with a survey set to offer a detailed breakdown of the film and TV production and post production talent pool by region, department, role, seniority and demographics.

 

The survey is intended to highlight areas of shortage and oversupply, as well guide resource allocation and assist in setting targets and improving understanding of the industry’s demographics. This research is expected to be an annual undertaking.  

Kevin Blacoe, head of partnerships at 4Skills, said: “Establishing a clearer picture of the people who work in our industry – who they are, where they are and what they do – will enable 4Skills and ScreenSkills to continue to make much more meaningful and impactful interventions to broadcasters, production companies and stakeholders, who will be able to make much more impactful and meaningful interventions to identify gaps, strengthen the workforce and bolster the creativity and resilience of British production.” 


ScreenSkills’ Mapping Project will tie with the BFI Skills Clusters to signpost training, development and placement opportunities across the nations and regions to ensure that regionally-relevant training is available to strengthen the UK’s talent pipelines, as well as supporting inclusivity across the country.  


Harriet Finney, BFI’s deputy chief exec and executive director of corporate and industry affairs, said: “[ScreenSkills’] commitment to developing a data-driven approach to address skills shortages and improve access to high quality training has huge potential to deliver a highly skilled and sustainable workforce, which is truly representative and accessible to all.” 


Other partnerships around animation, post production and games are also planned to explore the opportunities and skills needs in those industries, as well as a team up with Freelancers for Action to address recruitment and working conditions for the freelance talent pool.  


A strategic partnership with CDN was previously announced, to improve access and progression for underrepresented groups across the UK. It will also tie with social charity the Sutton Trust to address socio-economic diversity, while its Trainee Finder initiative will create pathways into the industry for diverse talent.  


ScreenSkills’ chief exec Laura Mansfield said: “This strategy is built on partnership and collaboration, bringing together industry, wider stakeholders, and government to build a workforce skilled for today and agile, adaptable, and resilient for tomorrow’s challenges. We are committed to creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce where opportunities are accessible to everyone.  


“By uniting efforts across sectors and regions, this strategy will address skills gaps, drive innovation, and empower the next generation of creative professionals, ensuring long-term sustainability and growth.” 


Reduced board of trustees 

ScreenSkills’ five-year strategy is the result of the Skills Task Force’s recommendations last year. Most notably, it was suggested the organisation evolve into a pan-sector strategic skills body that will lead the development of a comprehensive, long-term plan for the screen industries.  

High quality training will remain a core focus for the skills body, as it revealed a consultation with 1,600 people across industry showed that 66% of its respondents valued e-learning modules against the 49% who valued placements. To this end, it will expand its Training Passport scheme, which standardizes.  


As well as this, the ScreenSkills’ board of trustees will reduce in size from 16 to an as-yet-undisclosed number to ensure appropriate skills and a diversity of industry interests are represented at board level.  


This change, which was another recommendation from the Skills Task Force, is intended to foster greater transparency and accountability in the skills training body. From next Spring, the board of trustees will also regularly hold its meetings in the nations and regions to nurture better local engagement with key stakeholders and partners.  


Lisa Opie, chair of ScreenSkills, said: “Changes in our governance will streamline decision-making and enable us to respond to both immediate needs and long-term opportunities for growth. By staying adaptable to emerging technologies and the shifting industry landscape, we will nurture and support a

workforce that is diverse, highly skilled, and positioned to maintain the UK’s leadership in global content creation.” 


Georgia Brown, chair of Skills Task Force, lauded the refreshed roadmap. “The transformation of Screen Skills into a more cohesive, data led long-term strategic partner to the industry is vital to powering the future of the UK’s creative economies, and the Screen Sectors Skills Task Force supports this new strategy,” she said.   


“Our industry thrives on innovation and talent, but to remain competitive on the global stage, we must provide a clearer roadmap for skills development and invest in sustainable and structured pathways for our workforce. With a more collaborative, connected and future facing approach we can ensure that our creative sectors not only meet current demands but continue to drive economic growth, cultural impact, workforce satisfaction and sustainability for generations to come.” 

Source: The Knowledge


ScreenSkills needs your help to map the screen industries

ScreenSkills has partnered with 4Skills, Channel 4’s training and development programme, and commissioned Ampere Analysis to conduct a study into the size and structure of the screen industry workforce across the UK, including roles, departments, and more.


If you work in film and TV production - including animation, pre-production, post-production and VFX - they'd love to hear from you. Please take a few moments to complete this short, anonymous online survey.


Your input will help them better understand the sector and ensure they’re delivering the right training, at the right time, across the UK.

Updated: Oct 25

It is with great sadness we hear the loss of Dick Pope BSC


Dick’s love of stills photography came from his father who gave him a Box Brownie and let him use his Zeiss twin lens reflex camera. The camera was particularly suited to portraiture and Dick began to recruit potential subjects from his neighbourhood, turning his lounge in Kent into a makeshift studio. He had also become a regular at his local cinema, where he developed a strong passion for film and decided to combine his love of photography and cinema into a career as a cinematographer.


At age 16, he began a three-year apprenticeship at the Pathé Film Laboratory in Wardour Street, Soho. In 1968, having tried unsuccessfully to join the BBC, he went freelance and became a clapper loader on low-end British films, which felt very far away from his ambitions. Through a twist of fate, he fell in with an up-and-coming documentary cinematographer and became his assistant. By 1974, he was a cinematographer himself, travelling the world to remote and inaccessible areas including war zones and shooting films about endangered indigenous tribes such as Disappearing World (1974), highly political programmes like World in Action (1976-8), and also arts programmes like The South Bank Show.


During the 1970s and into the early 1980s he operated on hundreds of rock concerts, many for BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test and shot music videos for artists including Queen, Tina Turner, The Clash, The Specials and The Police. In 1984, he was approached to shoot Coming Up Roses (1986 d. Stephen Bayly) and that finally led to feature films. In 1990, Mike Leigh asked him to photograph Life is Sweet, signalling the beginning of a long term collaboration comprising eleven feature films including Naked (1993), Secrets and Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), Vera Drake (2004), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Another Year (2010), Mr. Turner (2014), Peterloo (2018) and most recently Hard Truths (2024).


Remembering when Naked was presented at the very first Camerimage Festival in November 1993, Dick says: ‘My work on the film was wonderfully received especially by the students, and at the closing awards ceremony, a delegation of those students (including Hoyte Van Hoytema) invaded the stage and insisted on awarding me their own prize, which was a beautiful inscribed piece of stained glass which I still have proudly on display to this day.’ This was a pivotal moment for him. Of his mentors, he names three cameramen: Mike Whittaker, Jack Hazan and Roger Deakins CBE ASC BCS who were (or became) his partners in the documentary filmmaking cooperative, Solus Productions, in the 1970s.


(Credit: Phil Méheux BSC, GBCT Trustee)


Some messages from GBCT.


“Very, very sad about this news- he gave me a lot of tuition and a some amazing jobs, including my first Feature Film with Graham Martyr⁩ and I am forever grateful 🙏🏼 💔“


“He was so encouraging to me as a young Grip Trainee. I watched him lighting, and he’d sit with his eye on the eyepiece, for what felt like hours and hours, but was only really 10 minutes or so. Not lifting his head whilst the chaos ensued around. And I asked him one day, what are you looking for when you’re lighting and staring down the eyepiece for so long, and he said “to be honest, I do that so nobody bothers me with silly questions. Nobody talks to me when I’m looking down the eyepiece.” It was so true and it was his little escape from the chaos. That one job I did with him is still my favourite job to date.”


“Crystal Palace have lost a great supporter! Dick you were a true gent sir with a wicked sense of humour. You will be sorely missed. There is a lot of love for you out there.”


“Its a sad day we have lost a great character a wonderful unique & humorous man . Will miss you Dick your laugh was infectious . RIP”


Our thoughts and condolences go out to his family and all who knew him and worked with him.

Pinewood Studios has set plans to launch what it has described as a dedicated production hub to support filmmakers in the UK who are taking advantage of the UK’s newly introduced Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC).

The UK government gave the much-talked-about IFTC the greenlight this morning and confirmed that the relief will be available for qualifying films starting October 30. 

Pinewood has said the new film hub will include sound stages, production offices, and workshop space tailored to support lower-budget and independent films. Productions will also have access to the wider Pinewood Studios facilities. The studio has said the facility will be serviced by 100% renewable energy sources. The hub will open next year.


Under the new credit, first-time productions with a budget of up to £15 million will be eligible for a relief of 53% on their qualifying expenditure. Films with a budget of up to £23.5 million are also eligible for the IFTC. Productions qualifying for the relief must have started principal photography on or after 1 April 2024, and only expenditure incurred on or after 1 April 2024 can be claimed. Films will also be required to pass a BFI cultural test. 


Discussing this morning’s announcement, David Conway, CEO of Pinewood Group, said: “UK film production is at the heart of Pinewood and Shepperton Studios’ DNA, and our aim with the new Pinewood Indie Film Hub is to further catalyze the independent film sector in the UK, boosting creativity and attracting further investment into the UK. In this highly competitive global market, we welcome the new IFTC and feel it is going to further consolidate the UK’s leading position in the screen industries.”