BBC Birmingham: On track to become BBC's centre for skills and talent

Published in Broadcast Magazine today, Joe Godwin writes about the BBC Academy's move to Birmingham and the continuing plan to add the BBC's centre for skills and talent to the already thriving Drama Village in the Midlands.

A story in Broadcast last week stated that BBC’s plan to transform Birmingham into a creative talent hub has been “dealt a blow” as some colleagues are not able relocate.

As Mark Twain might have said, reports of the derailment of our plans are exaggerated. In fact - wrong! We’re on track to make BBC Birmingham the BBC's centre for skills and talent when The BBC Academy moves here later this year. The result of some staff deciding they’re not able to make the move will ultimately mean more employment opportunities for people in the region. And we will have people in post by the end of the year.

Having a presence in the Midlands is really important to the BBC, so over the past year we’ve been implementing a series of initiatives which are all designed to reinvigorate our investment and activity in the area.

It’s by design that we’re moving HR specialist teams alongside the globally renowned BBC Academy as they will work in partnership in finding and nurturing future talent. This will bring real economic benefits to the city and the region to ensure BBC Birmingham becomes a strong, vibrant and sustainable base for the BBC.

Moving these additional 200 roles to Birmingham is part of a wider strategy that now has over 50 per cent of the BBC located outside of London. This is bringing us closer to our audiences and is also positive for the City’s economy. Our efforts here will also help to deliver the £1.5 billion annual savings across the BBC by 2017, allowing us to put in more money in to the programmes audiences love.

Birmingham’s already the home to plenty of BBC productions; The Archers and Home Front on R4, BBC Asian Network and specialist music programmes from BBC Radio 2 including The Organist Entertains and Listen to the Band. Our Drama Village in Selly Oak makes Father Brown which has just been broadcast on BBC One, Doctors which continues to delight audiences, as well as the third series of WPC 56, and our latest drama commission for BBC One, The Coroner. A total of 120 hours of TV drama is produced a year from BBC Birmingham.

I want to build on Birmingham’s reputation as a centre of excellence for broadcasting so I am already working with commissioners and controllers to celebrate our network TV and radio drama story more, which in turn can increase the opportunities for in house and indie commissions from Birmingham. We’re also planning to refocus the public space at our Mailbox HQ in the city centre, so that Licence Fee payers feel connected to the BBC, and see just how much the BBC is doing in the Midlands. We’ve established our Digital Innovation Unit in Fazeley, which will play a significant part in innovation for, amongst others, BBC Three.

We’re committed to the Midlands and are building on the foundations we have here. We’ve made huge strides in the past year and we’re not going to stop. Our approach is one of building a solid base, generating activity, building confidence and inspiring self-sustaining growth from that.

Joe Godwin is Director, BBC Academy and BBC Birmingham.