The Film and TV Charity

Home » Features » In Focus » The Film and TV Charity

The Film and TV Charity

BY: Helen Parkinson

As the cost-of-living crisis tightens its jaws on an industry already grappling with mental health and bullying woes, having access to a support network is more important than ever. Step forward the Film and TV Charity, making a stand for the marginalised and aiming to improve life on set.

‘78% [of respondents] say that work intensity has negatively affected their mental health.’

‘51% of respondents say that culture and values are having a negative impact on mental health.’

‘The majority of respondents (57%) have experienced bullying, sexual harassment, racial harassment or discrimination, or other forms of harassment or discrimination in the past year.’

Makes for tough reading, doesn’t it?

In spring 2022, the second Looking Glass Report – the Film and TV Charity’s landmark survey into working conditions and culture in the film and TV industry – was released, and the findings were shocking. What’s even more alarming, however, is that such statements might not come as a surprise to those in the workforce.

“What was most upsetting about the survey was in some of the qualitative answers we received,” recalls the charity’s CEO Alex Pumfrey. “People talked about feeling as though they weren’t valued by the industry and so they were replaceable – I think that’s really sad. We’re the most people-focused industry where everything runs on talent, so the idea that we’ve got to a point where we aren’t holding those people at the centre of the way we work is bad, in my point of view.”

Pumfrey joined the Film and TV Charity in 2018 following stints with Channel 4 and Digital UK, and the Looking Glass Survey has been one of her major initiatives since joining. Created in 1924 as the Cinematograph Trade Benevolent Fund, the charity’s founding aim of ‘caring for its own’ remains at its heart, although Pumfrey’s tenure has brought an increased focus on improving overall working culture, including mental health and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“The story about Harvey Weinstein broke two weeks after I joined,” she says. “In one sense it was incredibly frustrating because it felt like just the sort of thing we should be able to respond to, and to be able to support all of those women who’d suffered – not just at the hands of Weinstein, but the many more like him around the industry. We weren’t ready to, but it spurred the creation of the Support Line and the Whole Picture Programme [which flowed from the results of the Looking Glass Survey] for better mental health.”

The Survey, developed in conjunction with the Work Foundation and Lancaster University, allowed the charity to “move beyond anecdote”, as Pumfrey explains. “It provided this amazing resource of evidence, and now we always try to operate in ways that are evidence-based.”

Key to the charity’s support network is the Film and TV Charity Support Line, launched in April 2018. It provides a free, confidential, 24/7 listening ear – a service unique to the industry. Available via phone, live chat, and email (there’s also a British Sign Language service available), the Support Line can offer advice about everything from career development to mental health, bullying and financial worries, helping those working behind the scenes in the industry feel less isolated.

As well as helping on an individual level, Pumfrey’s team is helping companies do their bit to help their workforce amid the production boom. The Whole Picture Toolkit, created by the charity and a series of industry partners, is a step-by-step guide to improving mental wellbeing at whatever stage of production. The Toolkit is being piloted with 22 different productions at a range of budget levels and genres.

“There’s everything from sports, with ITV around the Qatar World Cup and the snooker championship, through to high-end TV dramas to factual and indie films,” notes Pumfrey. “What we see from the early evidence is that it’s incredibly valuable.”

She explains that productions can pick and choose which resources from the toolkit they use. “For some productions, it might be as simple as there being a wellbeing memo at the start of production, and meeting with the cast and crew to set out what culture and behaviour is expected on that production. For others, it might be something much more comprehensive and include wellbeing officers on set.

“There’s a template we use internally at the charity called the Working Well With Me guide that people can fill in to talk about any access needs they might have, any adaptations they might need, anything that might be particularly triggering for them in terms of content that they’d like their line manager or colleagues to be aware of.”

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are also focal points for the charity. It is ringfencing 30% of its grants for Black and Global Majority groups; supporting colleagues of colour through its Impact Partnership Programme, more details of which are coming soon; and setting internal diversity targets including 30% of staff being from Black and Global Majority groups.

In October 2022, the Sir Horace Ové CBE grant was announced – supporting Black and Global Majority talents working behind the scenes in the industry with £500 towards costs such as childcare, transport, memberships, equipment, or development courses. Named after the influential Black director, the grant has recently opened for applications and is hoped to make a real difference to this underserved community.

As the industry awaits the results of the third Looking Glass Survey this spring with bated breath, the Film and TV Charity continues to turn anecdotes into action in its mission to improve life on set.