The ScreenSkills Production Safety Passport (PSP) was developed to ensure the safety of a production and its workforce. Launched with the backing of industry partners BBC, ITV, BECTU and First Option, in the past year Sky, Netflix, Apple and Disney have joined the PSP steering group, acknowledging the importance of the scheme and supporting the improvement in standards across the industry.
Designed to improve safety among crew and management, the PSP is a scheme administered by ScreenSkills that ensures those working on production have access to quality training, providing freelancers with a certificate that is valid for five years and allowing them to move from job to job without needing to retake their health and safety training.
The number of PSP endorsed courses has risen to 30 across 15 providers, compared with 10 PSP courses and seven providers at the beginning of 2022, with over 46,000 industry professionals currently holding a valid PSP certificate.
A new survey carried out by ScreenSkills underlines the importance of the PSP to HoDs and production managers responsible for managing risk on production. It was conducted to gauge awareness and the importance of the initiative among those who work across film, high-end television and unscripted TV.
The survey, carried out between 15 January and 19 March, reached 180 unique respondents whose jobs ranged from make-up artists to script supervisors to production coordinators.
The results showed that 91% of HoDs said that the passport initiative was important, with nearly two thirds (63%) saying that it’s extremely or very important. Of freelancers who took the survey, 71% were aware of the PSP and 74% thought that it was important that they’re able to demonstrate that they have a recognised PSP-endorsed qualification, with nearly a third (32%) saying that this is extremely important.
In addition, there are strong levels of satisfaction for the PSP training with 95% of respondents who have undertaken the training were either extremely satisfied or very satisfied with the initiative.
The research did reveal that only 30% of freelancers were asked for certification on their most recent production. This echoes the findings of the Mark Milsome Foundation and BECTU survey from November 2023, that the majority of respondents were not asked for proof of health and safety training. Following these findings, a priority for the Production Safety Passport Group will be to further stress the importance of demonstrating proof of health and safety training when working on production, using the flexible PSP system.
Philippa Miles, Co-Chair of Production Safety Group, and Martin Roberts, Rep Education Officer, BECTU, said: “The Production Safety Passport Scheme has been a massive step forwards for safety training within the film and TV industry. It clearly sets out three core courses that people should complete, depending on their role; a short awareness course for all crew, a risk management course for those managing people and risk (HoDs/PMs/ADs etc.), and a focussed safety leadership course for production leaders. We encourage anyone within the film and tv industry to complete the relevant PSP course for your role and for employers to encourage and support their production crews to complete the course.”
The PSP scheme steering group aim to collaborate on industry health and safety training to achieve a consistent approach to quality training and raise awareness of the production safety passport.
The positive feedback was reflected in the responses from those working at production companies and training providers who have seen the impact of the scheme.
Miranda Floy, Operations Manager, Lookout Point, said: “The PSP scheme is invaluable, saving time and money for busy production teams, reducing time lost on producers and HODs repeating the same training on each project.”
The Production Safety Passport (PSP) scheme of industry-recognised health and safety training has been running since 2010 and is currently separate from the recently launched ScreenSkills Training Passport pilot, a digital record for production staff and freelancers of approved training, working together with BBC Studios, ITV Studios and Sky.
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Find out more about the Production Safety Passport