ITV's Protocol For Funding Access & Inclusion On Productions
ITV is a member of the TV Access Project, a collaboration between ten of the UK's main broadcasters and streamers working towards full inclusion for Disabled people by 2030. Read more about the TV Access Project on our website.
Funding for Access on ITV productions
The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on productions to anticipate the likely needs of Disabled people and make reasonable adjustments. As a general rule, Access to Work should cover the cost of providing access and adjustments for an individual disabled worker and the production company should pay for wider accessibility across the production.
As a TAP member, ITV are committed to funding access costs on productions not covered by Access to Work, over and above the production budget.
Access Funding Contacts at ITV
Sam Tatlow MBE (Sam.Tatlow@itv.com) – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Nahrein Kemp (Nahrein.Kemp@itv.com) - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Kieran Neale (Kieran.Neale@itv.com) - Legal & Business Affairs
The Access Funding Contacts (AFCs) for ITV, will be the point of contact with whom productions can liaise regarding funding for access costs. The ITV Legal & Business Affairs team, alongside the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion team where required, will also have a mandatory, meaningful conversation with each production company at the time of budgeting, pre-stage 2 approval to scope the likely funding for access adjustments on each production.
ITV’s Application & Approval Process:
Access adjustments should be discussed with your ITV Legal & Business affairs contact at the point of commissioning.
All additional costs related to access and adjustments should be requested via an Access Funding Application (AFA) form to the AFC.
ITV will aim to turn around approval of AFAs at the same time as Stage 2 approval or, when submitted after that, within 2 weeks where possible.
ITV expect productions to account for expenditure on access and adjustments as a line of breakage outside the budget and as such any unspent access funding will be retained by ITV. Funding is made available to producers on a non-recoupable basis from sales and other production underages.
The production fee will not apply to this funding. Any overheads connected to access and adjustments should be first discussed with the commissioner / AFC before being added to an AFA.
There will be no cap or time limit on the submission of AFAs because we recognise that unexpected access costs can arise at any time on a production.
Where a co-funding arrangement is in place and we are the majority funder, we will agree who takes the lead approving and paying access requests and where the funding is coming from. However, where a production is co-funded with non-TAP members or overseas partners, whilst every effort will be made to fund access, this may not be possible.
Access To Work Funding
Access to Work covers the costs incurred providing accessibility and adjustments to a disabled worker on one contract. An application to Access to Work has to be submitted promptly once a contract of work is agreed and often takes a long time to process. An individual can also apply to Access to Work if they become disabled in the middle of a work contract and require adjustments and / or support. Although the application can only be made by the disabled person, the employer is still notified. Access to Work covers costs including, but not limited to:
Additional travel costs (e.g. paying for taxis when taking public transport isn’t accessible)
Paying for support workers during working hours (e.g. BSL interpreters)
Personal Assistants Equipment needed to make the workplace more accessible (e.g specialist chair in the office, Braille equipment etc.)
Software to provide access (e.g. screen reading software, dictation software etc.)
A contribution towards equipment needed during working hours (e.g. Access to Work may pay for 5/7ths towards a wheelchair as it’s only needed for 5 working days a week)
Coaching support in work.
If a grant is offered through the Access to Work programme, it may require a personal contribution from the applicant if the equipment can also provide benefit outside of work. This is known as the “Social and Domestic Contribution”. Access to Work funding is calculated pro rata to the number of days worked. So, if a person works three days a week, they can offer a grant of 3/7 of the equipment cost. The person is then responsible for the remainder of the cost, which is the Social and Domestic Contribution.
A Motability Access to Work Grant can reimburse the total Social and Domestic Contribution for the following items of equipment:
Manual wheelchairs;
Powered wheelchairs;
Scooters;
Vehicle adaptations.
Anyone who has received an offer from the DWP of an Access to Work grant for equipment can apply to Motability for a grant towards the full cost of any Social and Domestic Contribution for the equipment listed above. They do not need to be a Motability Scheme customer.
Budgeting For Access On A Production
As a general rule, the production should pay for the costs of providing accessibility for more than one person.
This could include:
Making casting callouts accessible (e.g. a BSL version of a flyer).
Paying for a more expensive hotel for the whole cast / crew that is more accessible.
Redesigning an established set to make it more accessible (e.g. costs incurred by Saturday Night Takeaway to make the stage accessible).
Supporting the crew to make a more accessible production (e.g. Deaf Awareness training, a Deaf consultant or training for working with Learning Disabled people).
Hiring accessible facilities for the production to enable access for disabled cast or crew (e.g. wheelchair accessible trailers or honeywagons).
Paying for access and adjustments for disabled gameshow contestants, reality TV participants, interviewees, audience members and other people participating in the production who are not employed.
Paying the employer’s contribution towards an individual’s Access to Work claim when requested by Access to Work.
Paying for adjustments or support that Access to Work won’t cover but are needed by an individual to do their job (must have evidence of applying to Access to Work first).
Where these costs cannot be accommodated by the existing production budget, production companies are expected to submit an AFA form to the broadcaster / streamer to obtain the necessary funding.
More information about the TV Access Project