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Our expectations

The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on productions to anticipate the likely needs of disabled workers and make reasonable adjustments. We therefore expect producers to anticipate that they will be working with on and off-screen disabled talent on their production and provide for reasonable access costs within their programme budgets. We take these costs into account when setting the level of licence fee for the programme.

As a general rule, the government Access to Work scheme should cover the cost of providing access and reasonable adjustments for disabled people in work including crew and cast members. More details about the Access to Work scheme are provided below.

We recognise that securing funding for access should not be a barrier for production companies working with deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent cast, crew and contributors, and are committed to supporting access costs that go over and above what's covered by the Access to Work scheme. The process for applying for additional ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ access funding is detailed below.

To grow our understanding of access barriers and how we as an industry can better anticipate them, we ask all our producers to detail their projected (anticipated) access requirements and costs in their programme budgets and in the Access Reporting form at the point of commission and then use the Access Reporting form to apply for any unanticipated access costs incurred after this. This information is critical for accurate access cost reporting and will help inform accessibility learning for the future. Find out more about this process and download the form below. 

Reporting access funding on our productions

• By the point of commission the producer and the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ will have engaged in a meaningful conversation on the expected access requirements for the production.
• Details of these anticipated costs should be included in the programme budget.
• Details about the anticipated access costs are also documented in the online and marked as ‘anticipated’, along with the name of the individual/s from the production responsible for delivering the access plans. This form should be completed and submitted to the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ business affairs contact at the same time as the production budget.
• This information will inform the budgeting of the programme and set the overall access funding required. The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ will set its licence fee taking into account the cost of production including the agreed access costs set out in the access reporting form, third party funding etc.
• Where additional access requirements emerge that require funding after the licence fee has been agreed these should be detailed and marked as ‘unanticipated’ in an Access Reporting form and submitted to the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ business affairs contact. There is no cap or time limit on resubmitting the form.

Complete the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Access Reporting form

The Government Access to Work scheme

The UK government should be used to cover the cost of providing access and adjustments for individual disabled workers, including production cast and crew.

Access to Work covers costs such as:

• Additional travel costs (ie paying for taxis when taking public transport isn’t accessible)
• Paying for support workers during working hours (for example, BSL interpreters)
• Personal assistants
• Equipment needed to make the workplace more accessible such as specialist chair in the office, Braille resources, etc
• Software such as screen reading software, dictation software, etc
• A contribution towards equipment needed during working hours, for example part funding the hire of a wheelchair
• Coaching support in work

Visit the UK Government’s for more information.

Applying for additional ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ access funding

We appreciate that unanticipated additional access costs may arise after a programme budget has been finalised that cannot be accommodated within the budget.

If additional unanticipated costs are incurred after the programme license fee has been set these should be discussed with the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ commissioner and business affairs contact, who may agree to provide additional ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ access funding to meet the costs.

These costs should be detailed via an , marked as ‘unanticipated’, and submitted to the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ business affairs contact so the application can be discussed.

The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ will review this and work with the production and the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Creative Diversity team with the aim of reaching a decision within ten business days.

There is no cap or time limit on resubmitting the form in recognition that unexpected access costs can arise at any time on a production.

Access funding contacts

The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Creative Diversity team can advise producers on what the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ considers to be reasonable access requirements and costs at any point in the process.

The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ point of contact for productions regarding access costs.

• Head of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Creative Diversity
• The programme business affairs manager