Pact Diversity

ALT Plans are moving to create an industry-wide definition of working class, as TV seeks to become more representative. CDN director Deborah Williams fed into the Social Mobility Commission’s creative industries toolkit, due next month. It will define working class based on someone's parents’ occupation when they were a teenager. The data will be given to broadcasters and indies, which may use it for diversity targets.

ALT Williams said other metrics such as whether a person used to qualify for free school meals, educational attainment and geographical location were considered for the Social Mobility toolkit but parental occupation was seen as the most universal and easiest to measure. It is also the definition used in government departments such as the DWP and Department of Health and Social Care.

ALT Williams hopes to introduce the measurement to the CDN’s Diamond reporting system in around two years, along with other measures such as faith and intersectionality. “The crux of anything is being able to collect data in a systematic way,” she added. “This is what we are looking to do.”