UK film and television training body ScreenSkills is increasing its investment in its High-End TV (HETV) Fund to £10.5m as its research indicates that the skills gap has worsened.
The 2023-2024 pot marks a slight rise on the £10.1m available in the current financial year, which itself is a marked step up from 2021-2022’s £6.7m war chest.
The fund - which is made up of contributions from the five major broadcasters on both in-house and commissioned productions, along with streamers including Acorn Media, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Netflix, Sony and Warner Media - last year supported 5,000 people to enter and progress in the industry via targeted initiatives – a near 260% increase on 2021’s figure.
As part of the expanded pot, the Trainee Finder programme will support 350 new entrants in paid production placements, up from 200 this year.
The HETV Skills Council, which includes a representative from PACT, recently agreed to increase the cap for contributions to the fund, which is the amount tax-qualifying productions pay into the fund to invest back in skills.
In 2023/24, an increase by CPI (Consumer Price Inflation) will be introduced; productions with budgets of less than £5m per episode will increase their contribution to £73,300, while productions over £5m per episode will contribute £110,500.
ScreenSkills director of the HETV Fund Kaye Elliott said that the research highlights the fact that the boom in high quality and successful productions in the UK is continuing to impact on skills.
”However, there is cause for cautious optimism. The forthcoming audio-visual expenditure credit and maintaining the qualifying tax relief threshold at £1m will mean so many of our well-loved shows continue to be made in the UK and ScreenSkills’ HETV Council has also agreed a further annual increase in its investment in training and development by increasing the caps on qualifying productions to strengthen collective investment in skills development,” she added.
Skills gap worries
The expanded fund will continue to bridge the required skills needed across the UK for HETV, as highlighted by the fund’s workforce research for 2022-2023.
The survey of 111 respondents revealed that 41% believe that the skills issue has worsened, nearly double the figure who thought the same in last year’s report. However, there was a slight decrease in the number of respondents who think the skills gap is serious or very serious - dropping from 86% to 81%.
Crew stepping up to senior roles prematurely due to the lack of available talent was highlighted as a particular concern for 87% of respondents, while 75% worried about the lack of business and management skills available; with 79% concerned about leaderships skills in particular - over double the 34% who reported the same in last year’s research.
Pay is also proving a sticking point for HETV productions. The demand for increasing levels of pay rose to 81% in this year’s report, marking a 13% year-on-year rise, while 76% reported cases of ‘show jumping’ – when crew leave a programme mid-production for a new job.
Shortages in post-production roles have notably increased since last year’s research, with demand for post-production supervisors jumping from 9% to 24% and those seeking editors rising from 9% to 27%. General shortages in art department roles were also highlighted by the data.
Training to support wider skills development, inclusion and diversity and continuing to tackle specific grade shortages were identified by respondents as areas in which the skills fund should focus further on.
Elliott said: “From training new entrants and providing ongoing career development and leadership training, the survey respondents recognise the significant impact the HETV Fund makes.”
“As HETV production in the UK continues to increase, we will use the results of this research to further invest in training and development programmes to support the UK’s production community and ensure that the UK remains a first class destination for high-end television production.”
A version of this story first appeared on Screen’s sister site Broadcast
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