Peaky Blinders actor in childcare call

A UK campaign led by Peaky Blinders actor Charlotte Riley has called for more childcare support for parents working in the TV and film industries.

Charlotte Riley

In an open letter, the Keeping Families in Film campaign reaches out to studios, production companies and industry leaders to raise awareness of the lack of childcare within the screen industries and to take action to stop talent being lost through parenthood.

It asks for on-set childcare solutions to be made a priority, such as full nursery spaces for major productions or assistance with childcare provisions for smaller productions, and a line in every budget for childcare.

According to Raising Films’ Making It Possible report, 79% of film workers felt having children had negatively impacted their careers.

Riley, who stars in Press and Wuthering Heights, launched the campaign with her business partner Mark Radcliffe.

The duo are also behind The WonderWorks, the world’s first childcare provider for families working in TV and film that has mobile nursery facility as well as a permanent site at Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden.

Riley said: “As an industry we take pride in how well we train our teams. People work so hard in the early years of their career to hone their skills and then, just as they are starting to get established, find that they can’t sustain a career in production once they become parents. It’s time to address the inequality in our industry – we need to keep families in film.”