Welcome to the CIISA Standards

We are delighted to be unveiling the CIISA Standards, a framework that sets out the minimum standards of behaviour expected across the creative industries to ensure safe and inclusive working environments. The Standards have been crafted with great care and consideration through detailed and extensive collaboration with key bodies in the film, television, theatre and music sectors, including our wonderfully supportive Standards Advisory Committee.

Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC, Chair of CIISA Board

Safe Working Environments

In the context of the CIISA Standards, a safe working environment is one where:

Individuals

regardless of their role, seniority or employment status – know what a safe working environment looks like and act accordingly. They understand the behaviours that are harmful and unacceptable in the working environment, including sexual misconduct and other forms of harassment and bullying, and ways in which to prevent them.

Senior Leaders

set a culture where the welfare of the whole workforce, regardless of seniority or employment status, is protected and respected. They take measures to prevent harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying and other harmful behaviour, and to safeguard the wellbeing of their workforce.

Managers

set the tone by promoting and embedding a culture where the welfare of the workforce is protected and respected.

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Inclusive Working Environments

In the context of the CIISA Standards, an inclusive working environment is one where:

Individuals

regardless of their role, seniority or employment status – know what discriminatory behaviour, including harassment, looks like. They understand that this behaviour is not acceptable and act accordingly.

Senior Leaders

promote a culture of inclusivity, treating people fairly and equitably, valuing everyone’s differences, and empowering and enabling each member of their workforce to thrive, regardless of seniority or employment status. They take meaningful preventative measures to ensure that their workforce do not face discrimination or disadvantage in the working environment.
Managers

Managers

set the tone by promoting and embedding a culture of inclusivity, treating people fairly, valuing everyone’s differences, and empowering and enabling each member of their workforce to thrive.

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Open & Accountable Reporting Mechanisms

Open and accountable reporting mechanisms are ones where:

Individuals

regardless of their role, seniority or employment status – know they have the right to report harmful behaviour, to the entity that contracted them in the first instance whenever possible, they know the procedures for doing so and are confident to use them.

Senior Leaders

take responsibility for ensuring their workforce is empowered to raise concerns in a safe setting (and anonymised if requested by the person raising a concern) and know the process for doing so. They recognise their accountability as Senior Leaders and take ownership of addressing concerns and resolving them appropriately. Dealing early with misbehaviour can prevent escalation to even more serious issues.

Managers

foster a culture of speaking up, where no-one is victimised, retaliated against, ostracised or belittled for asking questions, challenging the status quo or pursuing their rights or the rights of others.

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Responsive Learning Culture

A responsive learning culture is one where:

Individuals

regardless of their role, seniority or employment status – are able to provide and receive feedback around their experience of harmful behaviour and, where appropriate, understand how their experiences may contribute to positive change in the future.

Senior Leaders

embed a culture of continuous improvement and monitoring progress. They ensure that action is taken to learn from concerns raised, the impact of these concerns, how they were dealt with, and the impact of any actions taken to deal with them.

Managers

take on board learnings and apply them to their work.

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CIISA Standards Advisory Commitee

CIISA is grateful for the support of the Standards Advisory Committee in the development of the CIISA Standards. The organisations represented on the Committee are:

Association of British Orchestras
Attitude is Everything
BAFTA
BBC
Bectu
Black Lives in Music
CIISA (Chair)
The Film and TV Charity
Freelancers Make Theatre Work
Help Musicians
ITV
Musicians’ Union
National Theatre
Pact
The Production Guild of Great Britain
Royal Exchange Theatre
Royal Shakespeare Company
Sony Music
TV Industry Human Rights Forum
Warner Bros. Discovery

How can organisations, productions or projects use the CIISA Standards?

Organisations, productions or projects can assess their existing policies and procedures against, or create new ones aligned with, the CIISA Standards to ensure that they are embedding the right behaviours, and that their workforce know what is expected of them. Through consistently meeting the Standards, organisations, productions and projects will ensure they are promoting the behaviours and culture within their organisation, production or project that enable their workforce to thrive.

Download the CIISA Standards [PDF 754 KB]

Download the  CIISA Standard Easy Read [PDF 6.6 MB]

This report captures the responses to the public consultation on the CIISA Standards and explains what we have done in response to the feedback.

Download Consultation Report: You said, we did. [PDF 365 KB]

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Contact Details

For general enquiries: info@ciisa.org.uk

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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.

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