Broadcasters, do you know who's benefiting from your Covid-19 schemes?

How much are schemes to help the TV and film industry during these unprecedented times of Covid-19 helping people from diverse backgrounds?

That is a genuine question.

Normally when I write a blog if I pose a question at the start it is just a rhetorical device to then explore an issue, it is a simple device to structure an argument - the answer to which I more or less know the answer to already. 

But this time it is a genuine question and a plea to everyone from the government to broadcasters to trade unions to keep diversity records of who is accessing and benefiting from all the schemes and financial support currently being rolled out. And adapt them if certain groups are missing out.

There is no doubt that there is a genuine attempt by everyone connected to the industry to help people pull through in these difficult times. Netflix and the BFI have announced a film and TV emergency relief fund. ITV have created a £500,000 fund for independent producers and I can't open Twitter without reading how Donna Taberer, the Head of Talent at the BBC is helping people in the industry (and that is literally just scratching the surface). 

I'm not saying more can't be done, and I support BECTU, politicians and other organisations for highlighting where the support is lacking and how some of the government policies to help freelancers are failing TV and film professionals. But it would be churlish not to acknowledge some of the efforts being made.

However, at the same time as praising the work that is being done I am reminded of an important life lesson my mother taught me.

My mother (now retired) was a manager of Willesden Citizen Advice Bureau (CAB) in North London for over fifteen years (NB: For readers outside the UK, CABs are best described as charitable organisations which do a mix of social and paralegal work). A large part of her work was helping people to access the benefits they were entitled to - for instance to claim unemployment and housing benefits.

Willesden is in the borough of Brent which in the last UK census was the most racially diverse borough in the country. What my mother found was that even though in theory the benefits were universal, and could be claimed irrespective of race or gender, who actually claim them varied widely. For various reasons, often people from the most disadvantaged groups were the least likely to claim what was theirs by right.

And so she taught me that having a welfare system that was equal in theory to all was not enough, you had to actively identify which groups were accessing them and actively help the others not doing so. 

While my mother's homespun wisdom served the people of Brent well, and provided me with an early political education, more recently there has been new strand of economics which supports my mother's experience.

Nudge theory is the economic theory that people make choices in life depending on how they are offered to them. For example, at it's simplest - you are more likely to buy food in a supermarket when it is placed on a shelf at your eye-level than food on the bottom shelf, even though in theory both are equally available.

What the economists have found is that nudge theory also plays an important role on which benefits people access and which groups of people claim them. Examples of studies of different groups not claiming what they are owed include universal free school meals, social security benefits and tax credits.

What the broadcasters and other media related organisations are fundamentally doing is creating a new welfare system for Covid-19 support. 

Most nudge economists would tell you that it would be very surprising if any welfare system is accessed equally by different groups, especially when it is first rolled out. That is not a necessarily a criticism of the different schemes - that is just a fact of life.

However what is essential is that the organisations rolling out the welfare system track who the recipients are and then either tweak the system or actively go out and target the people not benefiting.

How the UK television industry is responding to Covid-19 is admirable but it is only a first step. If we do not track and record who is benefiting it can entrench existing disadvantages and decrease diversity. 

Let's make sure, even in these difficult Covid-19 times, we keep on rising to the challenges.

Additional note: After a brief exchange with a lawyer while tracking diversity is the right thing to do, broadcasters and organisations in receipt of public funds might find its also the legal thing to do.