Creative England seeks board members

The organisation, with a remit to support film, television, games and digital industries is due to be up and running by Oct 1, despite having only film related money on the table.

The non-executive board will have overall responsibility for the development of Creative England, the new UK body which has been brought in to replace the existing regional screen agencies.

In what has been a fairly fractious process to date, Creative England’s chair John Newbigin set up a “shadow board” at the end of 2010 to oversee the formation of Creative England, consisting of the chairs of South West Screen, Screen West Midlands, Vision and Media (the regional agencies based in the three proposed “hub” cities of Creative England, Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester) along with the chair of Screen South.

However he faced criticism that the board did not reflect the needs of all the whole country and especially the eastern side of the UK which led to him setting up a new Establishment Board in June, consisting of the chairs of the existing regional agencies, headed up by South West Screen’s CEO Caroline Norbury.

The new national board will replace the establishment board when Creative England becomes fully operational, which is due to be at the beginning of October. However many in the regions are still unclear as to the structure and duties of the Creative England, or how the existing regional agencies will fit into the new body.

Creative England has revealed that it will also establish three advisory boards on a regional basis for the North, Centre and South of England, with adverts going out for those posts shortly. However these three boards will be on an advisory basis only.

“We’re looking for a dozen exceptional individuals who not only have a deep understanding of film, TV, games and other digital media industries, but can also speak with real authority for the regions of England,” said John Newbigin, chair of Creative England.

But despite Creative England’s remit to support the television, games and digital industries as well as film, the only money currently on the table is for film related activities in the form of £2.5m grant in aid funding and £2m of BFI lottery funding.

The deadline for board member applications is September 9, with interviews due to take place the week commencing September 19.

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