How it works
The strategic framework will form the basis of the BFI’s next 10-year National Lottery Strategy. It is made up of three key components.
- Principles. These are priorities which cut across every area of National Lottery activity. Future funds and programmes are likely to address a limited number of objectives and outcomes, but all of them must demonstrate how they address each of the principles.
Principles will help to ensure every penny of BFI National Lottery funding is working to tackle key concerns including Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, UK-wide delivery and Environmental Sustainability. - Objectives. Objectives are the major aims for the strategy period. They set out a bold vision of where we would like to see the sector in 10 years’ time. They are based on feedback from the public and the sector, as well as analysis of available evidence. We will work to deliver them through National Lottery funding over the next 10 years. The objectives help to determine a more specific set of supporting outcomes that focus on results.
- Outcomes. Outcomes are the specific changes, benefits or other impacts that need to happen in order for the objectives to be achieved. As with the objectives, they have been set in line with feedback gathered from the public and the sector as well as analysis of available evidence.
The outcomes help chart the breadth of work that must be done in order to deliver the objectives. They provide a solid starting point for structuring funds. It is expected that each fund will look to deliver against a limited number of outcomes.
The outcomes are designed to be measurable, allowing the BFI to monitor and evaluate our progress in their delivery over the next 10-years.
Principle A
Equity, diversity & inclusion
Equity, diversity and inclusion are about empowering everyone to develop a meaningful relationship with screen culture, regardless of their background or circumstance.
Representation in the UK screen sectors has long been unequal – from the stories told on screen, to the opportunities available to experience, create and work in the sector.
By making these three factors a strategic principle, we can make sure that every penny of National Lottery funding works to redress this historic imbalance. Funding can help us move toward a world in which everyone has the chance to experience, create and make a living from screen culture. This includes people of all ages, religions or beliefs, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, working class backgrounds, as well as disabled people, those with a longstanding physical or mental condition, and those identifying as D/deaf or neurodiverse. Funding can help support parity of access to the screen sectors for underrepresented groups. In this respect, we will work in line with the disability community’s mantra, “Nothing About Us Without Us”:
- Focusing on equity recognises that different people have varying access requirements and face different barriers to engaging with the screen sector, and then supports them to overcome them. Funding programmes and projects will have to consider how they work to accommodate the full spectrum of people’s needs. This will help make sure that everyone can meaningfully encounter, create and work in film and the moving image.
- Focusing on diversity will make sure programmes work to engage people from the widest possible range of backgrounds.
- Focusing on inclusion will make sure that beneficiaries of funding have quality of experience. It will ensure that projects consider how they make people feel safe and supported, and that their voice is heard, regardless of their background, characteristics or access requirements.
Principle B
UK-wide
Everyone across the UK should be able to experience and create the widest range of screen culture. They should feel the benefits from the screen sector in terms of jobs and growth too. The stories we see on screen play an important role in shaping our identity and exploring the diversity of UK life across every nation and region. We will make sure that all funded activity provides opportunities to experience, create and work in film and the moving image across the UK. All funded activity will have to demonstrate how it supports these efforts.
Every nation and region is different when it comes to the screen sector. Access to exhibition venues as well as the range of screen culture made available to audiences varies across the UK. People in urban and rural areas can face different barriers to access both in terms of physical venues and digital connectivity. Children and young people in each of the four nations have different levels of opportunity to engage with screen culture in the classroom.
Historically, film and television have been heavily concentrated in London and the South East. This means people in other parts of the UK feel less benefit from production activity in their local area, including through jobs and growth. The UK Government has recognised this imbalance of opportunity, working to redress it through its Levelling Up Agenda as we enter the strategy period.
This varied landscape means National Lottery funding must play a different role in different parts of the country. People in the local area are often best placed to understand where it is needed most. Over the course of the strategy, we will look to grow the role of local decision-makers in shaping National Lottery funding in their area. We will work to increase their role in deciding how to deliver strategic outcomes over successive funding plans.
Principle C
Environmental Sustainability
The world faces a climate and ecological emergency, and the screen sectors have a huge role to play in addressing this. We must make changes across all areas of activity – from developing and producing new works, to exhibition, to collection and preservation. This will help reduce the environmental impact of the screen sector and support wider societal efforts to reduce carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. This includes the target of reaching net zero by 2050 that has been set by UK Government as we enter the strategy period
Screen culture can shift hearts and minds on environmental sustainability. It can communicate the importance of reducing humanity’s impact on the planet, and show how we can do so. Storytelling can play a powerful role in uniting people from all backgrounds around this common cause.
We will take the ecological impact of activity into all our funding decisions, and work with partners to improve it over the next 10 years. We will seek to support approaches that result in overall benefit to the environment, rather than merely seeking to reduce harm.
We also recognise the urgency of the task at hand. Over the next 10 years, we will use our funding plans to scale requirements around environmental sustainability. We will also work with partners to develop effective support for awardees to engage with this strategic principle. This will draw on evolving best practice and will take into account the different baselines from which parts of the sector are working.