A pilot programme supporting people working in Wales’ screen sector with their mental health is set to benefit from additional £150,000 funding following a successful first phase, the Welsh Government has announced today (17 May 2023).
Funded through Creative Wales, the wellbeing facilitators programme is a partnership between CULT Cymru, the Creative Unions Learning Together programme and mental health and wellbeing specialists 6ft from the Spotlight CIC.
The programme has been driven and shaped by an advisory group of employers, unions and industry bodies to respond to issues and challenges that people working in the sector have raised.
In the first phase of the pilot that ran from September 2022 to March 2023, ten production companies accessed grants of up to £15,000 to place a specially trained wellbeing facilitator on their productions to promote mental health and provide wellbeing advice in the screen sector.
Feedback from back both employers and the workforce showed that the facilitators made it much easier to resolve welfare issues and helped to improve the working culture. A number of productions also reported that having a wellbeing facilitator on set helped to increase their overall productivity.
Phase 2 of the pilot will build on the lessons learnt over the last six months and enable a new cohort of production companies to benefit from the support and advice on offer with the aim of increasing wellbeing on set and improving staff retention.
As part of phase 2 of the pilot six new wellbeing facilitators from under-represented groups including people from global majority backgrounds, disabled people and the LGBTQ+ community will be trained. There are also plans to open the pilot out to other creative sectors such as music.
For further information please select the following link Further funding for wellbeing facilitators in Wales’ screen sector announced | GOV.WALES