Balancing Children and Work in the Audio Visual Industries
"When my second child was born, I was back at work within twenty four hours. I was directing a show. I didn't have any choice."
This mother's experiences are representative of the pressures on family life faced by fathers and mothers in the TV and film industries.
Skillset's report Balancing Children and Work in the Audio Visual Industries is the first study that goes beyond anecdote to explore the impact that working in TV and film has on the decision to start a family, to balance work and home responsibilities, and to stay in or return to the industries.
The cost of childcare, the unstable nature of freelance work, long hours, and regular periods working away from home all present challenges to parenthood for the TV and film workforce. Above all, employers call for such a high level of commitment that there is hardly any of the flexibility which workers in other industries take for granted.
Beyond the impact on people's lives, there is also a potentially large impact on the industries themselves. Highly valuable skills are being lost at considerable cost to the industries as members of the workforce are obliged to prioritise family life over their careers.
Read more about the results of the study and the recommendations arising from it in this downloadable summary:
Balancing Children and Work in the Audio Visual Industries (2008)
And for more information, please contact Catherine Godward at catherineg@skillset.org or on 020 7713 9828.
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