Mission statement
To professionalise how freelance roles in the UK screen industries are advertised, assessed and filled so that by the end of 2026 recruitment is visibly fairer, clearer and more inclusive for all.
"It's not often that freelance workers can be in the room discussing opportunities to address the broader challenges facing the workforce. It is a privilege to speak, and to highlight how so many of us are struggling to navigate paths into employment, whilst gaining a broader insight in how industry change is impacting how TV is made, and how this affects companies who commission and produce."
Our approach to date
In the first phase, we have focused on understanding how recruitment currently works in the TV industry.
We have concentrated on three key areas of recruitment that underpin the freelancer experience, drawing on freelancer lived-experience, industry data, broadcaster / production company insight, and national survey evidence.
Combining the information, we have developed an understand of recruitment that centres freelancers and acknowledges the perspective of production companies operating under significant time and resource pressures.
Our findings confirm a fragmented and opaque system. Although pockets of good practice exist, the absence of shared standards undermines trust, leaving freelancers facing barriers at every stage of the hiring process.
1. Advertising / how freelancers find work - the visibility, clarity and reach of job opportunities.
- Advertising is inconsistent and difficult to navigate.
- Freelancers are pushed towards informal networks that exclude many and increase insecurity.
2. Discrimination and representation - how bias, exclusion and structural inequity appear in recruitment.
- Informal and short-notice hiring restricts access for under-represented groups and reinforces bias.
- The understanding and application of reasonable adjustments remains uneven.
3. Hiring practices (end-to-end) - from job design/selection to onboarding and exit interviews / feedback.
- Hiring practices vary widely, with poor communication and ghosting frequent.
- Limited feedback and weak development pathways restrict career progression .
Drawing on freelancer feedback, industry data, broadcaster and production company insight, and national survey evidence, we have examined recruitment from both the freelancer perspective and that of production companies operating under significant time and resource pressures.
Our findings confirm a fragmented and opaque system. Advertising is inconsistent and difficult to navigate, pushing freelancers towards informal networks that exclude many and increase insecurity. Informal and short-notice hiring reinforces bias and restricts access for under-represented groups, while understanding and application of reasonable adjustments remains uneven. Hiring practices vary widely, with poor communication, ghosting, limited feedback and weak progression pathways.
Although pockets of good practice exist, the absence of shared standards undermines trust, leaving freelancers facing barriers at every stage of the hiring process.
Next steps: outcomes and measures of success
In 2026, we will begin to deliver an agreed set of practical solutions.
These will focus on:
- Standardising advertising, selection, communication, feedback and onboarding.
- Improving communication with freelancers through clearer timelines, fewer instances of ghosting and more meaningful feedback.
- Better supporting disabled freelancers, under-represented groups, and regional talent.
- Providing training, tools and guidance for those hiring in fast turnaround, pressurised environments.
Some of our objectives allow for ‘quick win solutions’, whilst others will require further development, discussion and investment. Where our work has relevance to other working groups, we will collaborate to achieve them.
Our ambition is that by the end of the year we will have delivered a range of tangible, workable improvements to freelance hiring across the industry.