Skills funds react to Young Audiences Content Fund closure
The Abominable Snow Baby (Channel 4)
In the wake of the disappointing announcement of the closure of The BFI Young Audiences Fund, an initiative set up three years ago to “support the creation of distinctive content for audiences up to the age of 18” Tom Box, Chair of the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund Chair Tom Box and co-chair of the Children’s TV Skills Fund Richard Bradley have released a joint statement in response:
We join our colleagues across industry in expressing disappointment at the decision to close the YAC Fund. As chairs of the skills funds responsible for developing the talent who make shows for young audiences, we are particularly concerned at the impact this will have on supporting workforce development.
The current crew shortages are well-known and the associated increase in rates is having a particular impact on smaller, lower budget productions – exactly the sort of content supported by the YAC fund.
The YAC fund was purposefully designed to support British-created content for young audiences that expressed British cultural values, and gave voice to a full range of British communities. Children’s content that expresses those perspectives, made specifically for our young people, faces strong competition from international content made for global audiences which makes the closure of the fund particularly damaging.
The YAC fund required a commitment to training as part of its funding conditions which was important in embedding skills into production planning and budgeting and encouraging sector-wide engagement with ScreenSkills on developing short- and long-term solutions to the shortages.
Ultimately any reduction in support for ideas being developed and made for young audiences is of concern, but it will also impact the Skills Funds’ ability to invest in skills and training for people making content for young audiences and to engage with those thinking about a career in this often overlooked but critically important part of the screen industries.
Announcing that the fund will close to applications on 25 February, the BFI said:
We are incredibly proud of what the BFI Young Audiences Content Fund has achieved in three years. It has given young people all over the UK the opportunity to watch and engage with original UK programming on free-to-access, regulated platforms, reflecting their lives, hopes and fears, and educating, entertaining and inspiring them.
The fund has supported the UK’s production community, enabling greater opportunity and creativity with 144 development projects, many of which have converted to broadcast commissions already, and 55 productions ranging from Teen First Dates (E4) to sustainable craft show Makeaway Takeaway (CITV) and The World According The Grandpa (Milkshake!), as well as new projects in indigenous languages such as Sol - a film on grief created for the Celtic languages Irish (TG4), Scottish Gaelic (BBC ALBA) and Welsh (S4C), with more awards still to be made in the closing weeks of the Fund. YACF backed projects have already drawn critical acclaim, won a string of awards and secured sales to countries around the word, and there are 24 projects in production still to air over the next two years.
The third and final BFI Young Audiences Fund remains open for applications until Friday 25 February 2022, 6pm.
Read more about the fund’s closure here: UK Government Scrap BFI Young Audiences Content Fund