Discrimination against working-class people in the creative fields should be illegal, according to a new, Greater Manchester-led report on employment in the cultural sector.
Class Ceiling, a report led by Nazir Afzal, the chancellor of the University of Manchester, chair of the Lowry arts venue in Salford and a former chief prosecutor and Avis Gilmore, the former deputy general secretary of the National Education Union found that more than 50% of working class respondents in the sector told the survey they had experienced harassment or bias due to their social background.
The report, which was launched at an event at Manchester’s Whitworth Art Gallery this morning, follows calls for better opportunities for working-class creatives, including from award-winning Derbyshire scriptwriter James Graham (Sherwood, Dear England), Mancunian comic Jason Manford and actors including Salford’s Benedict Wong (MCU) and Christopher Eccleston (28 Days Later, Doctor Who).
Describing his own career progression following graduation from drama school in Salford, Wong told Chris Newbould for The National News in 2022: “The real heartbreak was that I couldn’t get employed in Manchester. It genuinely broke my heart to have to leave Manchester, which I love, and go to London because there was no work for me in Manchester. That shouldn’t be the case, and it has to change.”
Echoing Wong’s sentiments in The Guardian the following year, Eccleston said: “If you grow up in the North West, you don’t feel culture and the arts belong to you. You don’t believe if you come from a council estate you can be an actor, a poet or a painter.”
Afzal and his fellow report authors joined calls from the TUC union and the Co-op for socioeconomic background to become the 10th protected characteristic, external, under the 2010 Equalities Act.
The review, which surveyed people mainly based in or from Greater Manchester, although not exclusively, said: “Britain’s creative industries shape how the country sees itself.”
It claimed that access to such industries remains unequal, adding: “Entry routes still depend on who you know. Early roles still pay too little to live on. Progression still favours those who can absorb risk. Many people leave before their careers begin.”
The survey received 300 responses from working-class creatives, ranging from BAFTA and Emmy award winners to teenage artists, as part of a project supported by the University of Manchester, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Co-op.
Several musicians spoke about being offered “exposure” instead of payment. One respondent echoed a familiar sentiment on social media that “exposure doesn’t pay the bills.”
The report found only 44% of respondents earned enough to make a living, with many forced to take second jobs.
Some also reported being described as “thick” because of their accent and claimed their predicted grades had been lowered because of where they lived.
One respondent said a fellow arts school student shouted “poor” in their face: “I was laughed at for my accent, I was judged for not wearing designer clothing, I was mocked for not going to a private school,” they added. “It is almost comical how cliched the experience truly was. My fellow students thought ‘the North’ was amusing.”
The report outlines 21 recommendations, with one of its leading proposals being that class should become a protected characteristic, in the same way that characteristics such as race, sex and religion are. Afzal added that Greater Manchester has led the way with such changes before, and should be prepared to do so again for class representation in the sector.
“When Sophie Lancaster was killed, Greater Manchester Police broke new ground by offering people from alternative subcultures hate crime protection – and other police forces eventually followed suit,” he said. “This was the right thing to do and we need to be equally bold. Because we are not going to break down barriers that are crushing creativity until we build an arts sector that treats class as a core inclusion issue.”
The report also highlighted the lack of apprenticeships in the arts, through which working-class creatives can enter the industry, with only 0.5% of new apprenticeships in the creative sector.
As a result of the survey, the Manchester-based Co-op is spearheading support for 200 new arts and creative apprenticeships in the area.
Claire Costello, the chief people and inclusion officer at Co-op, told The Guardian: “Our Co-op believes everyone, whatever their background, should be able to access opportunities in the arts and creative sector throughout Greater Manchester.
“Apprenticeships can provide a stepping stone for future careers. That’s why Co-op is encouraging Greater Manchester employers to share unspent apprenticeship levy funds to raise £3m over three years to support 200 new apprenticeships in the arts and creative sector throughout Greater Manchester.”
Other recommendations in the report include the creation of a “Class Champion”, a role that would be appointed by the mayor to act as a representative for class issues, making it mandatory for all roles in the sector to be advertised publicly in order to combat cronyism, and increasing the number of artistic and creative programmes in schools so that young people are consistently exposed to the arts and have the opportunity to pursue them academically throughout their education.
Afzal concluded that the review should “spread power beyond London,” after many respondents echoed Wong’s experience of having to to move to the capital to develop an arts career, adding: “We are not going to break down barriers that are crushing creativity until we build an arts sector that treats class as a core inclusion issue.”
Image: Nizal Afzal speaking at Salford University, courtesy Salford University press office.
