Seetha Kumar, the chief executive of Creative Skillset and a former senior BBC executive, has criticised the lack of non-white staff in top roles at the corporation and called for targets for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff levels to be written into the next royal charter.
Kumar, who spent 15 years working at the BBC in numerous TV and digital roles between 1996 and 2010, criticised the corporation for failing to have any non-white executives in its top management roles.
“Why is it after so many years we still do not have a person from a BAME [background] who is part of the executive board? I don’t mean non-executive directors, and no one from a position of what I call real power or authority in terms of a [channel] controller or genre commissioner,” she said, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Media Show.
Kumar said she has spoken to Labour MP David Lammy, who introduced a parliamentary debate about diversity at the BBC that will take place on Thursday, and her opinion was that the corporation should lead the way in the UK, with BAME targets made part of the next royal charter.
“I think targets are a good thing,” she said. “Why can’t the BBC truly set the bar to represent the nation? It is an aspiration and it is important. I think it could be a good thing to do [to have targets in the charter]. It does feel appropriate and timely when talking about the charter … to ask what we need to do to truly reflect our nation. The BBC represents the bar. In the industry overall there is recognition we do need to effect systemic change. That is why this conversation tomorrow is really important.”
In March, it was revealed that the BBC is struggling to meet its own targets on increasing the diversity of its workforce, with just 12.2% coming from a BAME background.
The BBC’s target is for 14.2% of its workforce to come from BAME backgrounds by 2017. Across the UK, 12.9% of residents identify themselves as non-white, according to the 2011 census.
The BBC says that when BBC Worldwide is included its diversity rate is 13.1%.
“We have already set ourselves stretching diversity targets and are making good progress towards them,” said a BBC spokesman. “We are proud the proportion of black, Asian and other ethnic minorities in our workforce is at an all-time high of 13.1% and BBC leaders from these backgrounds has increased from 6.1% in 2011 to 9.2% in 2015.”
Kumar said she believes there is more intention than she has ever seen at the BBC to address BAME representation.
“When I first joined I did not detect the intention that there is now,” she said. “What the BBC has done over the years is announce a lot of initiatives and focused on entry level [staff]. I found it was missing what I called progression and retention [of BAME staff]. You need exemplars. When I joined I did not see a single [BAME] person. I did not believe I could survive. I want those coming up behind me to believe they can do it.”
The BBC said that it is taking steps to address the development of BAME staff into senior positions.
“We have potential future leaders working alongside the director general and other executives at the very top of the BBC as part of our senior leadership development programme,” said the spokesman. “Alongside this we have a mentoring scheme specifically designed for mid-level employees and are running an assistant commissioner programme to widen the range of our commissioning talent.”
