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BBC cuts lead to funding loss for Media Parents back-to-work scheme BBC Wales rides to the rescue for Media Parents back-to-work scheme
(about 5 hours later)
We’re all in this together. Except mothers who work in the media, apparently.We’re all in this together. Except mothers who work in the media, apparently.
The organisation Media Parents, which boasts of a “100% success rate” in getting new mothers back into work in TV, has lost a chunk of its funding as a result of government-imposed BBC cuts. When Media Parents, an organisation which boasts a “100% success rate” in getting new mothers back into work in TV, asked BBC Television to renew its (already discounted) contribution to the scheme, the answer was simply that there was no money left given the current budget squeeze.
The organisation helps new parents find flexible work and a place on its back-to-work scheme has been funded by the BBC, it said, since the programme’s inception three years ago. While BBC Wales is funding a place on the scheme for the first time this year, much of the BBC money has gone up in smoke, said its director Amy Walker. The BBC had backed the scheme since its inception three years ago, helping new parents find flexible work and funding a placement on its back to work scheme. But according to Media Parents’ Amy Walker, the usual BBC backers said simply that a “period of intense cost focus” as a result of recent government cuts meant the money would dry up.
Some of the money for the scheme is being provided by Channel 4, ITV Studios and Sky. Wall to Wall, Endemol Shine UK and the CDN are also funding it, while the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival – where Media Parents is holding a mentoring session for successful applicants – is also backing it. That would have meant one mother keen to get back to work would have been among the first casualties of the government cost-cutting, that is if it hadn’t been for the generosity of BBC Wales, which used its separate funding pot to come to the rescue.
Of course the rest of the scheme is being funded by commercial providers including Channel 4, ITV Studios, Sky, Wall to Wall and Endemol Shine UK, along with the Creative Diversity Network and the Guardian International Television Festival – where Media Parents is holding a mentoring session for successful applicants.
Parents looking to get back into media work through the scheme have until 31 July to apply.Parents looking to get back into media work through the scheme have until 31 July to apply.
A BBC spokesman said: “Far from cutting our funding for Media Parents, the BBC continues to support the scheme and our financial contribution has in fact increased since last year”.