IS THE BBC'S NEW DIVERSITY STRUCTURE WORKING? - Part 1 ethnic diversity

Just under two years ago the BBC radically restructured not only its diversity departments but how diversity reported into the overall structure of the organisation. 

The corporation appointed June Sarpong to the newly created post of Director of Creative Diversity on a part time basis, Anne Foster was appointed Head of Workforce Diversity, and four months after these appointments Miranda Wayland was made Head of Creative Diversity, reporting directly to Sarpong.

Possibly, most importantly, despite the Director of Creative Diversity being a part time role, within the management structure the position sat on the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is the highest management board at the BBC, and it was the first time that diversity had a seat at the top table.

Yesterday the BBC published its annual report, with details on its diversity behind the camera and onscreen. And so the question has to be:

Is the new structure working?

First a disclaimer - so far I have only gone through the corporation’s ethnicity figures, and so this blog post will just examine progress (or lack thereof) in this area, I will do separate posts specifically looking at disability, socio-economic diversity, gender, and other forms of diversity in the next few days. Also I have primarily focused on "BAME", "Asian", and "Black" diversity as, for the most part, the figures for other types of ethnicities are not desegregated.  

PLUS ÇA CHANGE, PLUS C’EST LA MÊME CHOSE

First the big headline: Despite the major restructure there has effectively been no major changes - positive or negative. 

Between 2019/20 and 2020/21 the total number of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people working at the BBC increased from 15.7% to 15.9%. If you drill down into those overall numbers the proportion of the Asian workforce has stayed the same at 6.7% across both years and Black representation has marginally decreased from 3.5% to 3.4%. 

All the possible increases and decreases are within the margin of error, meaning that there has effectively been no change.

ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN DEPARTMENT MAKING PROGRAMMES GOES DOWN

It is of course important to remember that the reason why BBC’s diversity is combed over by so many (including politicians) is because it is a media organisation, and so while the overall number is important the figures that are most important are the diversity numbers of the people actually making the content and with editorial power.

Here, there are some worrying signs.

The department that makes the TV and radio programmes is a sub-division of BBC Studios. This sub-division saw Black Asian and minority ethnic representation fall from 11.1% in 2019/20 to 10% in 2020/21. The percentage of Black staff also fell by almost a fifth from 2.4%  to 2.0%, and the proportion of Asian staff also fell by almost a fifth from 3.4% to 2.8%.

Numbers going down is never a good sign, but in many ways it is the numbers from the Nations and Regions which might be even more worrying for the corporation.

These numbers have stayed relatively flat year-on-year: 5.9% for Black, Asian and ethnic minority representation in both years. And a slight decrease of 0.1 percentage points for both Asian representation (2.7% fell to 2.6%) and Black representation (1.2% to 1.1%).

The reason why these numbers are concerning is the fact that as the BBC continues to push more productions outside of London it is now very clear that the ethnicity numbers in no way reflect the parts of the country they are moving to. 

The BBC has shifted productions to Manchester with a non-White population of 33%, Cardiff has a non-White population of 15%, Glasgow has a non-White population of 11%, Bristol has a non-White population of 16% and Birmingham with a non-White population of 42%. 

Unless the corporation can find a way to turn around its out of London diversity figures there is an obvious fear that any increased regional push will see a decrease in ethnic diversity.

NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS REPRESENTATION STAYS STATIC

News and current affairs deserves a special mention in any analysis in the BBC’s diversity figures, and especially when trying to judge the effectiveness of the BBC’s new structure.

BBC news has come under considerable criticism over the last two years for both its employment practices and its editorial decisions. Just before the new diversity structure was announced the BBC made a very public U-turn over its decision that Naga Munchetty had broken its impartiality rules when discussing her experience of racism in regards to a tweet by President Trump. In 2020 the BBC then made another U-turn after defending a reporter's use of the N-word being aired at breakfast time. It still stands by its decision to ban its journalists from attending Black Lives Matter protests or showing any public signs of support for #BLM (even as the England football team continues to take the knee on the pitch). And in a management restructure it effectively demoted its highest Black member of staff  (Kamal Ahmed) who then left the corporation a few months later.

The staff ethnic diversity numbers in news and current affairs have remained relatively static. They went up 0.2 percentage points overall from 15.7% to 15.9%, and they slightly decreased in the Black category by 0.1 percentage points from 3.5% to 3.4%, (Asian representation remained unchanged). 

The reason why news is important when trying to judge the new diversity structure is June Sarpong has made it very clear on several occasions that News and Current affairs does not come under her remit as the Director of Creative Diversity. And so for people working outside of the BBC there has always been the question as to whether BBC news purely sees diversity as an HR workforce issue under Anne Foster, and if so why does the corporation view news differently from the rest of its output?

PROGRESS IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS GOES UP AND DOWN

Representation in senior leadership positions is a relatively mixed bag. 

Outside of London it went down by over 25%, while in News and Current affairs there were marginal gains - despite the high profile departure of Kamal Ahmed. 

The biggest success story however was in the subdivision of BBC Studios which makes TV and Radio programmes. Ethnic diversity representation in senior leadership rocketed from 7.0% to 10.2%. This is an important and substantial change. The one curious detail about this is the progress was made almost exclusively in the “mixed” category, with asterisks in both the Asian and Black columns as the numbers are too low to report. This means the important progress in this area may do little to dispel the news reports in 2020 of anti-Asian racism at the BBC reported in Eastern Eye and anti-Black racism at the BBC reported in the HuffPost.

SILVERLININGS 

For me the biggest positive from the report is for the first time, for as long as I can remember, the overall retention rate for Black, Asian and minority ethnic people has improved. Non-White workers are no longer disproportionately leaving the corporation compared to their White counterparts.

This is a massive turn around. It has been an open secret for a long time that until the BBC could get a grip on retention issues then other policies to increase ethnic diversity would be the equivalent of pouring more water into a bucket with a hole in it.

However the BBC is not quite out of the woods yet when it comes to addressing its retention issues as Black staff are still more likely to leave than their other colleagues, and workers of colour in general are less likely to receive a redundancy package when they do leave.

NEVER MIND BEHIND THE CAMERA - WHAT ABOUT THE PROGRAMMES?

There is no doubt that there have been some high profile commissions by the BBC in recent months when it comes to ethnic diversity, including the Small Axe series of dramas and I May Destroy You.

However, it would appear that Black Asian and minority ethnic audiences are getting less value for their license fee than their white counterparts. 

A considerably smaller percentage of Black, Asian and minority ethnic households consume BBC TV and Radio each week than White households, 61% versus 78% when it comes to TV viewing, and the numbers for ethnic minority radio listenership are so small that they do not even register. 

What is even more worrying is the non-White households that do watch BBC TV each week watch roughly half the amount as their white counterparts (3hours 57mins a week vs.  8hours 46minutes a week).

The one glimmer of hope is the percentage of Black Asian and minority ethnic households that consume BBC Online is roughly at the same level as white households, 62% and 63% respectively.

CONCLUSION - IS THE NEW DIVERSITY STRUCTURE WORKING?

Under normal circumstances I think one would expect better results after such a radical restructure, accompanied with the high profile public commitments to diversity coming from both the outgoing and incoming Director Generals.

2020 however was far from normal.

Covid-19 has meant that organisations across the world have had to rethink their corporate strategies. 

On the plus side many will view simply standing still during these difficult times as progress.

On the negative side some of positive signs, such as higher retention rates and increased online viewing may also just be a blip due to Covid-19, as people were more concerned about job security. Also the other big news story of 2020 - Black Lives Matter - might have meant a higher consumption of online content for ethnic minorities.

Therefore I think it is still too early to say the new restructure has failed, but I do think the annual report should lead to some serious questions, because in the following year standing still will not be an option.