Founded in 2012, Creative Access is the UK's leading diversity, equity and inclusion social enterprise. Creative Access combines practical career access and support interventions that help people from historically under-represented groups to thrive with progressive recruitment, training and consultancy for employers. As part of their mission to see a day when the UK’s creative economy will truly reflect and represent society, Creative Access partners with companies to develop programmes that address specific EDI challenges. One of these partnerships is with McCann Health London, an advertising agency specialising in healthcare. Together, they launched the IGNITE programme in 2020, aimed at providing entry-level opportunities for those who can’t enter the advertising industry through traditional routes.
So far, Creative Access has placed 25 interns at McCann Health London, many of whom have converted to full-time roles. Not only has this positive action scheme opened doors for underrepresented talent, but it has also significantly impacted McCann Health London's bottom line. This demonstrates what Laura Turner-Blake, Director of Access at Creative Access highlights as the important balance between both the moral and business cases of addressing equity and diversity.
We interviewed Laura to learn more about Creative Access’s ambitions, how the organisation reaches its target audiences and what she believes to be the main risks of not addressing EDI. We also learn more about Creative Access’s partnership with McCann Health London, the key learnings from the IGNITE programme and how the impact is being measured.
Can you tell us more about how EDI is embedded in the Creative Access wider strategy?
I'll speak to our mission to break down the barriers faced by people from historically underrepresented groups in accessing careers and thriving in the creative industries. It's a strategic mission. It's not just about supporting talent from underrepresented groups to get a foot in the door or an internship. It's thinking holistically about all the other support mechanisms that are needed for individuals to thrive in their careers and support more inclusive workplaces. That's key because there's a lot of activity at entry level, but we know that support isn't in place once people progress into organisations.
For example, Creative Access offers two programmes of training, networking and support for individuals who are either just starting out or already progressing further in their careers. These are specifically designed by and for people from under-represented groups in the creative industries.
People who have received support from Creative Access are more likely to report working in a supportive and inclusive culture (73% versus 59%) and 61% participating in our programmes made progress in their careers in the last 12 months compared to only 37% of those who had not.
Can you give us a summary of how Creative Access is working with McCann Health London?
We support McCann Health London with an end-to-end recruitment service that feeds into their IGNITE programme. Creative Access creates a bespoke campaign which includes writing up the opportunity in an inclusive and accessible format, marketing roles via our candidate database and network of youth and arts organisations, plus amplifying the opportunities across social media platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. Our specialist recruitment team manages hundreds of applications, including checking eligibility for Positive Action schemes. We review all applications and portfolios by hand and pre-screen candidates to shortlist the strongest talent with the most potential to benefit. The recruitment team uses rigorous scoring criteria looking at a growth mindset, interest in the organisation and sector, motivation for the specific opportunity, transferable skills along with proactive interests related to the opportunity. We support candidates from CV to application, to interview. We also handle rejections and employability support for unsuccessful candidates.
Once the successful candidate has been appointed, we then enrol them on the Springboard programme. This is an 18-month programme of training, networking and wellbeing support for people starting out on their creative careers. We start with an induction, which covers topics such as goal-setting, personal branding, and navigating being a minority in the workplace. We also set up buddy groups and run monthly masterclasses at leading creative organisations. We also run training with experts around neurodiversity and mental health in the workplace. It's wrap-around support to complement their enriching workplace training. We also offer support for the line manager of the new starter. We run inclusive line management training with an EDI specialist so that they feel as supported as possible too.
If an individual secures a permanent role at the company, we enrol them onto Thrive, which is a 12-month career development programme of training, networking and support especially designed for individuals at mid-level in their careers. If they're not able to stay at the company after their Ignite placement, we support them with transitioning, consolidating the experience and supporting them with the next steps.
What were some of the main motivations behind the IGNITE programme?
Often employers will come to us with a specific challenge or issue they're facing in terms of EDI and we will seek to address that through different initiatives. With the McCann Health London example, we knew running regular internships or recruitment runs for internships would be an effective way to increase diverse representation at their specific company. Working in partnership helps to forge careers for people who might otherwise never have known about healthcare marketing.
I think the motivations come back to the benefit of diversity in an organisation and the benefits of having a range of experiences, diversity of thought, different ideas and different references, all feeding into creative thinking. It's then that you get much better, richer creative output. A diverse creative team can help to contribute fresh ideas and considerations; it’s also critical to future business success!
What do you believe makes the initiative with McCann Health London so successful?
I think it's the long-term commitment from the company to keep coming back to us and continue the recruitment. It's a lot like a legacy. It's not just a short-term solution to a problem. There's a long-term plan to continue placing trainees and keep them on, which has had a significant impact on the agency's bottom line with multiple accounts being one and raising the quality of work delivered.
We keep building on it too. So, recently, for instance, we ran a webinar alongside advertising to support with the application process for an internship position. It was myself, an early careers contact at McCann Health London and two of their interns, one of whom was hired through Creative Access.
A testament to the programme's success is that McCann Health London came back to us to continue and they're now recruiting through Creative Access three times a year. The pipeline of talent is consistent and they've kept on many of their interns which have become very much embedded in the makeup of the organisation.
How do you measure how your EDI activity is improving diversity and inclusion?
Specifically with McCann Health London, we regularly check in with each intern to ensure they're settled well at the organisation and that they've got all the support networks they need. Also checking that they've got good line management and a mentor on board, and they're coming to our masterclasses and exploring the further training available through Creative Access. Beyond that, we issue regular feedback forms for both the line manager and the intern to assess how they are getting on.
More broadly, we measure the impact of our work through our regular Thrive survey, which is a big call out to our community. Our Thrive Report is then where we track the impact we're having on an annual basis as well as findings from our community in terms of their optimism of career prospects in the future and so on. This is published externally so people can see the direct impact of the work we're doing.
How do you reach your target groups to ensure that they're able to engage?
We have an outreach function and a community of individuals interested in creative careers that has been nurtured over 10 years. We have 60,000 active users per month on our jobs board and over 100,000 registered candidates on our database. So, out of those 100,000 registered candidates, a high majority are from underrepresented backgrounds—around 80%.
We also do a lot of event promotion across our website, social channels and WhatsApp groups with 120,000 followers collectively. Our outreach function involves working in partnerships with universities, colleges and community groups nationally across the UK. My team will be attending careers fairs and leading sessions on introduction to creative careers—how to secure a role through Creative Access, leading employability sessions, running insights days, taking students to an open day at ITV Studios, etc. There's a lot of activity that goes on behind the scenes to demystify roles and responsibilities in the creative sector and expose opportunities.
What is Creative Access's long-term goal?
We've just reached 1000 partners, which I'm proud to report. So, when we work with our partners, we ask all of them to commit to three key areas. One, widening the talent pool to include candidates from all backgrounds. Two, investing in staff from historically marginalised groups to progress through to senior positions. Three, creating an inclusive workplace where everyone, whatever their background, can feel valued and able to flourish. That's where our main efforts are focused on at the moment and it feeds into our long-term vision that the UK creative economy will truly reflect and represent our society.
What do you believe are the risks of not addressing EDI within the Creative Industries?
There's a moral case for EDI and there's the business case. From a moral perspective, it's something that has to be addressed in terms of a progressive society that's fair and equitable. Our creative output just won't be as exciting and rich if we're not involving everyone in the conversation of making it. In terms of the business case, if we don't make headway with EDI initiatives, then there's a huge missed opportunity. Our creative economy will suffer and we won't be a leader in creative output globally.
What are the essential elements you would say a company has to have in order to deliver an initiative like Ignite?
I think what a company needs to have in place is a genuine interest, motivation and commitment. If you're going to recruit through an organisation like Creative Access, you need to make the time and the space and secure a budget in order to enable the recruitment to happen. You also need to have your senior leadership invested in the idea, and then you need to have the potential to deliver a meaningful experience.
In order for us to run internships as positive action schemes, there needs to be a training element. So a company also needs the capacity to imagine how a new starter at your company might learn on the job. You'll need to think about what new skills can they learn through the company and set up a framework. You also need to invest the time and the capacity that's needed to induct someone really well at your organisation and continue to support and train them through their journey. To make a real difference to an early career entrant’s potential and ability to progress in the industry you need to be able to deliver a high-quality experience for the candidates so they can really thrive at your company and make a meaningful contribution. Creative Access can help with all of this or you can organise through your own HR or staff development processes.
If you’re interested in taking EDI action in your company and would like to learn more about how Creative Access can support your initiatives in areas including recruitment, candidate support and training, visit creativeaccess.org.uk.
