We are throwing open the doors of the BBC more widely than ever to diverse stories and diverse storytellers.
Diversity and inclusion is a creative imperative for the BBC. We have pledged to hardwire diversity into everything we do, both internally and in the way we work with programme makers. We want the stories we tell and the people who make them to reflect the lives of all our audiences across the UK. To achieve this we must make a positive and lasting impact on diversity across the whole broadcast industry, as well as continue to prioritise this change ourselves.
To help achieve these ambitions we have committed to the following:
- Spend a minimum of £80 million per year of our overall commissioning budget across television and radio on diverse content that meets our creative diversity criteria. Crucially this investment will focus on programmes where diverse portrayal, topics and storytelling on-screen are aligned with stronger representation within the company’s leadership and senior production roles, to ensure that the stories told are authentically reflective of audiences across the UK.
- Grow off-screen representation by asking all our producers to ensure 25% of their production team are from underrepresented groups and adopt our inclusive production principles to foster an inclusive culture all our productions
- Improve the representation of Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people in Network television
Find further information about what we are doing and how we can help our producers to achieve this on the pages below.
Our ambitions and commitments
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Our diverse commissioning criteria and commitments
Criteria and definitions for our £80m a year diverse content investment -
Our inclusive production requirements
Criteria and definitions for our 25% diverse production team target -
Our disability commitments
Improving the representation of Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people
Other requirements
We require all our suppliers to have a diversity and inclusion policy in place. A template for this is available on the Creative Diversity Network website. We also expect all content makers to adhere the BBC diversity commissioning code of practice and comply with current anti-discrimination and data protection legislation. Productions must identify an individual within each production company to be responsible for delivering against their diversity objectives.
Quick reference
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Underrepresented groups
Our definitions -
Diverse company leadership criteria
Our definitions -
Diverse production leadership criteria
Our definitions
BBC resources to help producers
Partner resources
Our partnerships to support the industryContacts for further support
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Iyare Igiehon
Creative Diversity Partner, Television -
Michelle Matherson
Creative Diversity Partner, Television -
Kay Ashton
Creative Diversity Partner, Television (supporting disability) -
Stefan Gibbons-Arif
Interim Diversity and Inclusion Lead, BBC Children’s and Education
Please note the BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.
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Commissioners and ideas
Genre briefs and contacts -
Working with producers
How we commission and support -
Skills and training
Industry training and skills development