ICO Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan 2024-2026

ORGANISATION

• Continue to publish on our website an annual anonymous audit of our current staff and Board of Trustees (last updated May 2024) 
• By 2030, increase the diversity of people employed by the ICO and appointed to our Board of Trustees through future recruitment so that they more accurately reflect the ethnic diversity of the London region, and the number of people who consider themselves disabled, based on 2021 UK census information
• In order to achieve the above, SMT and board to research adopting a positive action model for recruitment, instead of our current ‘name anonymous’ recruitment process
• Commit resources to analyse data about who currently applies for ICO jobs, who gets an interview and how we can improve our appeal to a wider pool of applicants (if necessary)
• Investigate Disability Confident employer scheme and if ICO meets the criteria. If not, understand what we need to do to meet the criteria and commit resources to achieve this status by 2026
• Arrange to meet and discuss our plans with other organisations who are doing parallel work on their EDI policy and share ideas
• Develop a disability action plan for the organisation

Current staff and Board

• Carry out an anonymous staff satisfaction survey, with results to be analysed and shared at staff / Board meetings later in 2024. Once the results are available for discussion, further actions can be defined, including relating to staff development and organisational culture (see Nov 2024 update)
• In 2024 publish data on our gender pay gap / difference between lowest and highest salaries (see Nov 2024 update)
• Marketing team to add a reminder to the weekly staff newsletter about our Medicash/EAP/Wellbeing support (internal comms)

ICO working with freelancers

• Send an anonymous survey to all freelancers we work with (at end of projects) so we know what their experience is like and where we can improve. Marketing team to regularly remind other teams to use the feedback form when working with freelancers (in staff meeting discussions and weekly newsletter) (see Nov 2024 update)
• Responses to be reviewed and actions discussed by EDI Working Group quarterly (and questions reviewed annually, in particular what question we ask to measure socioeconomic background)
• Publish this topline data about how freelancers rate working with the ICO on our website when we receive 50 responses to protect anonymity (update annually) 
• Continue to prioritise paying all freelancers promptly

Communications

• To better highlight the work of others: marketing team to review current resources and resources from other organisations (such as Inclusive Cinema’s Dismantling Structural Racism in your Cinema) & identify new resources that we could produce or our resources that could be updated (e.g. developing deaf audiences & developing visually impaired audiences guides) 
• We have audited our website language and updated out-of-date language and terms. Next we commit to carefully considering the language level of our written content online: The marketing team to create an updated ICO style guide for writing copy (for website, social media, newsletters etc.) which includes language-level guidance, info on accessibility best practice, as well as our writing/grammar style (internal style guide completed July 2024)
• Once style guidelines complete, if funding can be sourced, marketing team to look at training for team and relevant colleagues on accessible copy writing 
• Marketing team commit to maintaining oversight on written materials and ensuring accessibility standards are adopted across all ICO work 
• Marketing team to investigate if there are simple things we can do at low cost to improve accessibility of website – e.g. adding a toolbar that allows users to adjust font size etc. 
• Marketing team to produce a new social media strategy, one of the central points of which will be to highlight the anti-racism work of others, as well as initiatives and programming that showcases films of diverse origin and topic. Marketing team to provide training for social media posting for wider teams where there is interest
• Marketing team should aim to grow and diversify our list of designer contacts, so that we aren’t trying to find someone quickly at the start of a project (database in progress)
• The marketing team produced a new blog strategy last year, this included an increase in blog fees to 19p per word following a review of industry rates. In fortnightly All Staff meeting add regular discussions of people we’re aware of that are doing relevant good work and might be suitable to write a blog to bring in knowledge from across the organisation’s projects 
  

Influencing

• In 2025/26 collect exhibition workforce employment data, analyse and publish as a follow up to information collected in 2022
• Marketing team to lead an all staff discussion about how we are involved in events such as Black History Month and International Women’s Day, which will feed into new social media strategy
• We believe our social media voice is quite well-established but we can be clearer about organisational content vs content from individual staff members. Marketing team to provide training for social media posting for wider teams. We want staff to be able to use the ICO social channels at events but there should be consistency in style and use of accessibility tools (this will include the production of the new style guide, as mentioned above). During events/festivals, if comfortable, staff members to identify themselves in posts to make it feel more personal and so that audiences know who is speaking 
• Where possible add a Living Wage and/or Disability Confident Employer badge to roles featured on our jobs board which meet certain criteria 
• Hold a new staff discussion about terminology we want to use and how this should evolve, in particular the previously agreed term ‘Black, Asian and ethnically diverse’. Marketing team to produce a guide which explains the terms that we use, for internal use
  

ACTIVITIES

Distribution

• Team to produce a prospectus of what the ICO distribution focuses on, which references our past work with specific under represented audiences, to help us better articulate our impact and vision
• Commit to including at least 30% work from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse filmmakers (especially films with Black writers, directors or producers in their creative team) in all our curated multi-film tour packages
• Prioritise Black, Asian and ethnically diverse filmmakers and disabled filmmakers for our director retrospective tours and single title releases.  Put together a list of underrepresented filmmakers we’d like to see showcased
• Using the model we developed with Cinema Africa! and Maona Arts on the 2024 tour of Mapantsula, we commit to these new actions: advertise widely that we can take on this partnership work, create a target list of organisations that we could partner with that are doing work with the audiences we seek (including beyond film) and expand the existing work with Cinema Africa and Maona to build on the achievements to date
• We want to stop looking at this from a project-based perspective and move to an audience perspective – commitment to holding an internal discussion about which areas of audience need are most lacking so ICO’s interventions can be most valuable – this will inform focus of future strategy
• At a minimum, ensure descriptive subtitles are available on a touring project title, with aspirations towards audio description  

Programming

• ICO programming team will write up and share key findings from the 2023-24 Programming Charter pilot phase, but we will not be continuing this work in the same format.  Our ambition is to provide a bespoke service to cinemas, so we need to re-think how we can use our power and influence to programme a more diverse range of films without undermining this key principle of how we work with cinemas. We will focus our efforts on specific audience development work with each venue, which better responds to the current market and needs of venues, speaking to their individual audience development areas and aims in a more tailored way, and also factors in how to make these spaces more welcoming to unfamiliar audiences (rather than just putting on different films).  Specific ambitions to be set per venue and compiled anonymously to share learning more widely.
• Continue to advocate for our venues with distributors for Q&A talent appearances at our venues, more financial marketing support direct to venues for specific titles, and a flexible screening approach, making it easier for venues to support a wider range of titles. We acknowledge that this area of the market has changed since 2020, and there are now many more organisations specifically working in this space effectively – e.g. MilkTea, T A P E Collective, etc.  and we will look to work in partnership with these organisations where there is mutual benefit
• We will commit staff time to research additional funding to create a resource sharing information about UK rights and materials availability for films made by Black creatives. The aim is to create a more curator-friendly resource guide rather than a comprehensive database 
• We will track access file availability on all titles in the release calendar. One member of staff will ask all distributors about descriptive subtitles and audio description, collate the information, send it to all venues ahead of the month, and also publish the list so that it’s easily accessible

Training

• The independent film exhibition workforce is still far from reflective of our society but the funding landscape for training has shifted dramatically.  We commit to a comprehensive review of the FEDS model / future ambitions and priorities by the end of 2025, 10 years on from beginning this work. We commit to continuing to support our Co-creation Committee and to involve them in any new iteration of the FEDS scheme. In addition, we will review how best we can support freelance careers and those who work outside the traditional cinema model
• When publicising our training courses whenever possible we will ensure we give information upfront about venues we use and accessibility as we appreciate this might influence whether someone applies for the course or not.  We will budget for access costs and support in all training courses
• We already collect access needs information from all training applicants but we will ensure we add this key question to speaker briefings to make sure we don’t make assumptions about access needs
• Invite more Black, Asian and ethnically diverse speakers, as well as those who identify as disabled, onto our courses and champion their work, as well as actively seeking to widen this pool of experts, including from outside film
• While we have changed some of our training application processes to widen access, including holding informal online information sessions, video applications and introducing payment plans, we know there is more work to be done. We commit to researching how other organisations can inspire us in this area to see what else we could add in

Screening Days

• Commit to showing at Screening Days events at least 30% films from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse creative teams which may include showing more feature films that are not within the current new release schedule or shorts packages
• Add survey questions to subsequent Autumn and Spring events as to how many exhibitors went on to show films from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse creative teams to demonstrate the value of Screening Days as an outlet for these titles
• Discuss ways to help exhibitors find new pathways to audiences for Black, Asian and ethnically diverse creative teams in all our events (e.g. case studies on individual titles, talent intros)
• We have undertaken a comprehensive review of the current Screening Days format and marketing and adaptations we can make to encourage more Black, Asian and ethnically diverse attendees and new discussions and have implemented the advisory group and open calls for ideas. This will continue to be a rolling discussion. We get comprehensive feedback from those who attend but we would like to inform our work further by holding a focus group for non-attenders to better understand those not attending
• Produce survey for non-attenders, delivered in channels where non-attenders will see, to understand their main criteria for not attending Screening Days and address these concerns in future events
• Ask for short paid focus group-style responses from first timers (especially those who receive bursary support) to help understand the specific experience of people who don’t regularly attend
• Develop accessibility criteria for the event with external access consultant to help guide assessment of venues and assist planning process
• We will continue to produce new descriptive subtitles (for D/deaf and Hard of Hearing people) for the event where time allows, with ambitions that distributors will use these materials in their wider distribution plans in reaching all audiences that can use
• In line with the accessibility criteria for the event, build an accessibility plan for Screening Days including potential for increased budget

FILM HUB SOUTH EAST

Exhibitors 

• Building from a benchmark of 27%, we will aim to work with more organisations with Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse leadership, as well as those organisations led by disabled people. We will establish a way to collect the relevant information so that we can measure progress
• We will undertake a mapping exercise of exhibitors in the South East to encourage new membership from organisations with Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse leadership, as well as those organisations led by disabled people
• Before open calls for FHSE funding launch our processes will ensure that we: proactively arrange meetings with organisations we know to be led by and/or reaching underrepresented groups and encourage similar groups to approach us, with a view to prioritising them
• We will also: host an event to answer questions, explain or give examples of what we are and are not looking for in the application, ensure the website and any other documents relating to the opportunity comply with internal accessibility guidance, and provide support and guidance on individual applications
• We are still carefully considering our strategy for collaboration and seeking partners in the region for mutually beneficial partnership opportunities that are meaningful and not just for short-term or one-off projects.  In order to ensure our approach to collaboration centres on the partner and their priorities we aim to operate co-creation models and incorporate viable methods of working with organisations outside of open fund opportunities. We can also look at how other Hubs approach the same
• There’s the potential for stimulating new film activity in the region with organisations we know to be led by and/or reaching underrepresented groups, through skills development and/or fostering new relationships with cinemas. We commit to researching how this might best work. We would like to speak to established groups and gain an improved understanding of how we can best offer support, how they would like their relationships with venues to be, with our response tailored to their ambitions

Young People

• We will ensure all of our events for young people are affordable, with the option available for financial support to attend
• We will support at least two young people aged 16-25 who are deaf to get a work experience trainee placement (see Nov 2024 update)

Filmmakers

• We will work with Carousel and TAPE to deliver a lab focused on learning disabled filmmaking talent as well as an event for young people with Autism about how to get into the film industry
• We will produce a short guide for applicants who are neurodivergent on the application and interview process for NETWORK funding. We will work with relevant and expert partners to produce this
• We will aim for 50% of our ‘Future Producers Programme’ participants to identify as working class to address a lack of representation of people who identify as working class in film production
• We will aim for 100% of our ‘Outline’ script lab participants to be Black, Asian or ethnically diverse to address a lack of representation of people who are Black, Asian or ethnically diverse in script writing (see Nov 2024 update)
• We will review who our workshops and events are reaching each year, and create targeted interventions the following year to address any underrepresentation. We are ambitious for the films and individuals that we support to reflect the people who live and work in the South East
• For any funded opportunities specific to the Hub in 2025-26 we will do the following to support applicants with their application: host an event to answer questions, explain or give examples of what we are and are not looking for in the application, ensure the website and any other documents relating to the opportunity complies with internal accessibility guidance and provide support and guidance on individual applications