The Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority
Upholding and improving standards of behaviour across the creative industries

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"We believe that the establishment of an independent body to uphold and improve behaviour across the creative industries, a Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA), is an essential next step in creating safe working environments that will benefit the whole production community."
Dame Heather Rabbatts, Chair, Time’s Up UK and Barbara Broccoli CBE, EON Productions
We will provide accountability and advice to the creative industries
“For anyone to fulfil their creative potential there cannot be fear or disrespect of any kind. We are all entitled to work in safe, respectful spaces where dignity for all is upheld. I believe CIISA is an important step in helping to achieve this.”
Keira Knightley OBE
“No one should go to work fearful of harassment, bullying and abuse. For anyone to have their voice and reach their full potential, where we work must be safe and respectful. I believe CIISA is an important step in helping to achieve this.”
Naomie Harris
"With CIISA we have a very real opportunity to change the way creatives are treated in our country, by supporting this you are making history."
Rebecca Ferguson, Singer songwriter
Our overarching goal is the prevention of harm. We aspire for our dynamic creative industries to also be the safest.
"Britain‘s Cultural Industries are the envy of the world, but our Sector’s internal culture can be much less enviable. Music welcomes CIISA and the much needed accountability it would bring.”
Crispin Hunt, Artist, Songwriter & Producer, PRS Writer Director, director and former chair at The Ivor’s Academy.
As proud partners of CIISA, the theatre sector welcomes this opportunity to show its commitment to tackling bullying and harassment once and for all. We look forward to working with our members to support the development of this much-needed organisation in the coming months.”
Claire Walker and Hannah Essex, Co-Chief Executives of SOLT and UK Theatre
“Everyone deserves a workplace in which they can feel safe and thrive. The proposal for a Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) is a significant and essential intervention to help us achieve that, and for building confidence for those working right across the UK’s creative industries. CIISA is a great example of a UK innovation that should become be a model to inspire global change for the betterment of all of us.”
Lord David Puttnam - Film Director and Chair, Atticus Education
“As producers who have worked in the industry for a long time, we feel that CIISA can offer us something that is currently missing. A place to go when we need advice about disputes or more serious issues that arise on set. Producers want to be able to deal with these issues, but we can be exposed without additional support and expertise. We also want to see a safer workplace environment for all our colleagues now and for future generations coming though. We’ve got to improve the lived experience for people on the ground and that requires having consequences for those whose behaviour falls short and fairness and due process for everyone if allegations are raised against them”
Nadine Marsh Edwards and Amanda Jenks - Greenacre Films
“Bullying, harassment and discrimination are an everyday experience for deaf, disabled and neurodiverse people. Unhealthy work environments exacerbate these risks due to historic low levels of opportunity for disabled people in the creative industries. So I warmly welcome the establishment of a Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority and the promise of new and consistent protections for everyone.”
Andrew Miller, MBE - UK Arts Access Champion

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Upholding and improving standards of behaviour across the creative industries.
Working together to go live in 2025 contingent on industry funding.

The Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority

Upholding and improving standards of behaviour across the creative industries

Our overarching goal is the prevention of harm. We aspire for dynamic creative industries to also be the safest.

We will provide accountability and advice to the creative industries..

Have you come here to find help. Click Here

Working together to go live in 2025 contingent on industry funding.

CIISA is scheduled to go live in2025 contingent on industry funding. To keep up to date with our progress please sign up to the newsletter.

Our Purpose & Vision

The purpose of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) is to uphold and improve standards of behaviour across the creative industries and to prevent and tackle all forms of bullying and harassment, including bullying and harassment of a discriminatory nature.

Following a significant period of discussion with the creative industries, we are now in the next stages of development for CIISA.

In our first iteration, CIISA will support the film, TV, theatre and music industries.

We are heartened by the positive groundswell of support for our initial proposition and are working through more detailed proposals together with a range of experts and our legal advisors ready to share with the creative industries in summer 2023.

CIISA’s vision is to create consistently safe and inclusive workplaces for creative industry professionals through pro-active interventions and advice, providing a single place of accountability where behaviours of concern can be reported and investigated, and building capability to prevent and tackle bullying and harassment and bullying and harassment of a discriminatory nature.

Our commitment to anti-racism

CIISA will be an anti-racist organisation, consciously inclusive and representative at all levels, including its governance. CIISA will have an anti-discrimination committee as part of its governance model. CIISA will ensure that any investigation panels, mediation and advice services are intersectional and that all teams are trained and aware of the intersection of racism, bulling and harassment. CIISA will be a primary advocate of its strategic partner Black Lives in Music; who will also provide check and challenge accountability to CIISA and advocate for Black Lives in Music’s internationally recognised Anti-Racism Code to be widely adopted. On issues that relate to employment discrimination and systemic discrimination, CIISA will work closely with the EHRC

Five reasons why the creative industries need CIISA

1

Need

CIISA responds to the clearly identified need for better workplace safety and prevention from harm within the creative industries.

2

Professional advice

CIISA addresses the void for freelancers and employers who need professional and immediate triage advice.

3

Future-proofing the talent pipeline

CIISA will help to retain our experienced colleagues and support inward investment by making the UK not just the most dynamic place to make creative content but also the safest.

4

A circuit breaker delivering return on investment

preventative investment over reactive cost.

5

Fairness and due process

CIISA will address the void between cancel culture and no or little accountability for appropriate standards of behaviour with structures and processes governed by evidence-based decisions, fairness to all parties and transparent processes.

Our Guiding Principles

We do not replace existing legal due process or HR complaints functions; rather we address a void – the creative industries is one of the only sectors that does not have an independent place to report poor standards of behaviour.
We will investigate without fear or favour and are able to do so – as funding for CIISA will be drawn from a separate entity. The identity of funders will be unknown to those working within the new organisation.
By virtue of our existence, CIISA has both a preventative and pro-active role in tackling bullying and harassment.
You cannot raise standards without tackling discrimination – CIISA has embedded anti-discrimination measures into the heart of its proposed governance model.

How creative contents is made, is of equal significance to the creative contents itself. We understand that in any creative content process, conflicts can arise, and that it can be productive. We welcome only healthy conflict and will seek to decrease unproductive conflict across the creative industries with the overriding goal of prevention of harm.
Despite great work that has been done on recent years the status quo is not enough for our talented workforce – an alternative and additional approach is necessary, to meet the needs of our future workforce.

What we will do

Services: Mediation, investigations, early and alternative dispute resolution, immediate advice, support navigating the criminal justice system.
Data and insight: Insight and trends from our data and sharing cross-sector expertise.
Influence and advocacy: Working with expert partners on issues such as establishing a legal definition of bullying, preventing the of misuse of NDAs, advocating for better advice and protections for freelancers, promoting inclusivity such as wider adoption of the Anti-Racism Code, which is being developed by Black Lives in Music who are key partners and in principle supporters of CIISA.

Support navigating the criminal justice system: In some cases, CIISA will recommend that further action is taken given the seriousness of the concerns brought forward. CIISA will give professional support to individuals who are taking their concerns to the police or through the criminal justice system.

Our Structure

CIISA will be a strategic standards authority, not a statutory regulator. CIISA will be a company limited by guarantee funded by a voluntary banded subscription model.
We will not duplicate existing HR or legal processes; we will address a void. The creative industries are one of the only sectors that does not have a formal place to report inappropriate behaviours.

Alongside our legal advisors at Fieldfisher, we have an experienced set-up team working with the interim CEO to develop our proposals. In addition, we have King’s Counsel and further advice from leading legal experts in the field covering the following key specialist areas: GDPR, defamation and jurisdiction.

Our Approach

We will be publishing our consultation document in the autumn, which will set out the following:

How services will be accessed and provided.
What the proposed governance and organisational structure will be.
What the cost of CIISA will be.
How it will make a difference across all sectors, for individuals and for organisations and member bodies.
Where it will be based and CIISA’s jurisdiction.
How investigations will be conducted within defamation and GDPR law.

How will CIISA tackle discrimination?

It is impossible to drive up standards without tackling discrimination.CIISA will be an intersectional organisation, understanding that bullying and harassment can be discriminatory in its nature. CIISA is also aware that bullying and harassment disproportionately impacts people from under-represented groups.
The EHRC has the statutory mandate to investigate discrimination, so CIISA will work closely with them on any issues arising from its investigations, such as employment discrimination.
CIISA will also advocate for robust anti-discrimination measures to be taken across the creative industries as part of its advocacy and influencing role and has embedded anti-discrimination measures into the heart of its proposed governance model.

The Interim CIISA Team

Jen Smith

Jen Smith is Interim CEO of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) responsible for developing its remit, operating model and governance structure. Jen led the creation and publication of the screen sectors’ first ‘Set of Principles and Guidance to Prevent Bullying and Harassment and Racism’ convening over 50 cultural organisations to adopt them, in addition inspiring additional editions tailored for the Theatre and Music sectors. Jen was responsible for a host of ground-breaking initiatives whilst working at the BFI, gaining international recognition for the BFI Diversity Standards, achieving Autism Friendly Status for BFI Southbank, partnering with Changing Faces on the impactful #Iamnotyourvillain campaign and ensuring that the full range of diversity data on who the BFI funds and employs is published annually. Jen also successfully made the case for the four additional roles to become the Inclusion Department to support screen sector inclusion. Jen has worked in the creative industries for 7 years, previously holding a range of roles with the housing sector and prior to that working in Parliament. Jen is a member of the Institute of Regulation and an ACAS accredited mediator.

Dame Heather Rabbatts

Dame Heather Rabbatts’ career spans law, government, sport and media. She established the Women’s Sports Group, to create opportunities to promote, enhance and empower women’s sport. She is the Chair of both Soho Theatre and 42, a fully integrated management and production company. Some of Heather’s production credits to date include The Drifters, The Bad Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Silent Twins. Heather is also a non-executive director on the Board of Associated British Foods. In 2018 Heather became Chair of Time’s Up UK. Born out of the revelations of #MeToo, Time’s Up UK advocates to end sexual harassment, change representation, promote black equity and pay parity to achieve long term cultural change. Heather began her career as a lawyer, then a government advisor and was the youngest CEO of a Local Authority. She was the first woman and person of colour on the board of the English FA in 150 years, served on the boards of the BBC, Bank of England, the Foreign Office and the Royal Opera House and commissioned award-winning content as a senior executive at Channel 4 Television.

Caroline Norbury

Caroline Norbury OBE is the Chief Executive of Creative UK, the independent network for the UK’s Creative Industries working to support and invest in creative talent and businesses, and unite the UK’s creative industries.Caroline sits on the Creative Industries Council and chairs the Investment for Growth sub-group of the Council. She is a non-executive director of Crowdfunder, the UK’s largest rewards-based crowdfunding platform; a member of BAFTA and the Royal Society of Arts and a trustee for the PRS Foundation, a charity supporting new music and talent. Caroline is also Chairwoman of The Music Works, a charity in Gloucestershire changing the lives of young people through music. She was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to the film industry, and has recently been awarded an OBE at The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022 for her leadership and advocacy in shaping the creative sector’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Indicative Timeline 2023

Phase One
1
September 2023 - April 2024
Detailed design through co-creation.

Request for investment from all our key stakeholders. For the screen sector this request is £50k from our principal partners plus support in kind, such as HR and Business Plan expertise to move into our co-creation and detailed design phase
Phase Two
2
April 2024 - April 2025
Preparation for going live.

A collective cross industry ask of c£500k to cover phase two preparations for going live such as securing office premises and the recruitment of the senior permanent team.
Phase Three
3
April 2025 - March 2026
Year one of CIISA services are operational, our indicative costs are:

• £1.5 million screen industry contribution
• £1 million music industry contribution
• £500k theatre contribution

Our Supporters

Testimonials

Extending our thanks for the in principle support:

We are grateful to Sky, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Viacom for their generous financial and in principle support enabling us to develop our proposals.
In addition, we are grateful to Directors UK, Eon, The Production Guild, The British Film Commission, BECTU, The Film & TV Charity, BFI, BAFTA, BIFA, National Film and Television School, the Personal Managers Association, The Casting Guild, The Independent Cinema Office, Spotlight, NI Screen, and many others who have already committed their in principle support, with other conversations on-going.
SOLT and UK Theatre announced their in principle support for CIISA on behalf of the theatre sector in January 2023.
On behalf of the music sector UK Music announced their commitment in early March 2023. In addition, we are also delighted to be working closely with the Musicians Union, Help Musicians, Black Lives in Music, UK Music and LIVE.
We are pleased to have the support and expertise afforded us through the Institute of Regulation, who through their network of peer organisations are offering us expertise and scrutiny on our proposals.

Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and UK Theatre are organisations that work with and on behalf of their members to champion theatre and the performing arts. Together, they represent 500 of the UK’s leading theatre producers, venue owners and managers, performing arts centres, and 1,350 theatre professionals across the UK. Both the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre gave their support for CIISA in January 2023.

SOLT and UK Theatre are acting as a convenor for the sector in supporting our engagement with theatre, including a UK-wide CIISA working group and regular update webinars sessions with the CIISA team.

SOLT and UK Theatre are supporting our engagement with theatre, including running a UK-wide CIISA working group and regular webinar update sessions with their membership and the CIISA team. SOLT and UK Theatre will continue to act as convenor for the theatre sector during the co-creation phase of September 2023 – April 2024.

Link to testimonials here

News & Views

For all press enquiries:
press@ciisa.org.uk

CIISA appoints Baroness Helena Kennedy as its Chair

July 25, 2024

Emerald Fennell, Carey Mulligan join call for industry bodies to fund UK standards authority CIISA

June 10, 2024

Keira Knightley, Cara Delevingne Among British Stars Calling for Crackdown on Industry Harassment

June 10, 2024

Ruth Wilson and Carey Mulligan backs calls for sector body to tackle harassment

June 10, 2024

Stars Call For Extra Funding So UK Bullying & Harassment Reporting Body Can Launch On Time

June 10, 2024

Cara Delevingne, Keira Knightley and Naomie Harris Sign Open Letter Calling for Screen Industry to Support New Harassment Reporting Body

June 10, 2024

Actresses call for crackdown on bad behaviour

June 10, 2024

Actresses urge creative industries to fund bullying and harassment watchdog

June 10, 2024

Keira Knightley leads drive to fund bullying and harassment Hollywood watchdog

June 10, 2024

Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley join calls for UK creative industries anti-harassment body

June 10, 2024

They were bullied in Hollywood. Now these actresses are fighting back

June 10, 2024

Actresses unite to tell studios: Fund the bullying watchdog

June 10, 2024

Variety

March 3rd 2023

How a New Anti-Bullying and Harassment Standards Authority in the U.K. Plans to Shake Up the Industry

UK Music

March 2nd 2023

UK Music Supports New Body To Tackle Bullying And Harassment In Creative Industries

The Stage

January 18th 2023

UK Theatre and SOLT back new regulatory body for creative industries

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Contact Details

For general enquiries: info@ciisa.org.uk

For all press enquiries: press@ciisa.org.uk

Operational Privacy Notice | Website Privacy Policy | Data Protection notice

legals

The purpose of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) is to uphold and improve standards of behaviour across the creative industries.

Registered address: 22 Wycombe End, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, HP9 1NB, United Kingdom

Access Statement

Whilst CIISA is not yet a live organisation, access is at the heart of who CIISA is. CIISA is committed to preventing bullying and harassment, including that of an ableist nature. If you require any information currently on the CIISA website in an alternative format, please email info@ciisa.org.uk with your request and we will get back to you as soon as we can. We are very happy to help and welcome queries from d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people wanting to learn more about CIISA.

Consultation statement

We welcome feedback at this crucial stage in our development. If you have any questions or comments on CIISA at this stage, please contact info@ciisa.org.uk.

Sign up for updates

Sign up to receive the latest information on the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority, delivered to your inbox.

Contact Details

For general enquiries: info@ciisa.org.uk

For all press enquiries: press@ciisa.org.uk

Operational Privacy Notice | Website Privacy Policy | Data Protection notice

legals

The purpose of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) is to uphold and improve standards of behaviour across the creative industries.

Registered address: 22 Wycombe End, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, HP9 1NB, United Kingdom

Access Statement

Consultation statement

We welcome feedback at this crucial stage in our development. If you have any questions or comments on CIISA at this stage, please contact info@ciisa.org.uk.