BTSR guidebook ~ Training & skills self-evaluation

BBC College of Journalism - Safeguarding Trust

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Date: August 2008
Contact: Vin Ray, Alex Gerlis
Telephone: 020 8752 7375

The BBC College of Journalism was established in 2006 on behalf of all BBC journalists and runs a range of programmes in a variety of forms: face to face, online learning and events. The “CoJo” website sets out to be the world’s leading website on the craft and practice of journalism.

On 18th July 2007 the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, announced a series of measures that he had agreed with the BBC Trust in response to a number of serious breaches of editorial trust in BBC programmes. In his message to BBC staff Mark Thompson said:

“All 16,500 programme and content staff will attend a new mandatory training programme, Safeguarding Trust, from the autumn. It will emphasise the absolute imperative to understand and comply with all of the BBC’s values and editorial standards.”

The BBC College of Journalism was tasked with developing and organising this training and ensuring its delivery and completion. We brought together a working party of Senior Programme Makers from across the BBC to design the course. This process lasted from mid-July to the start of the course in November. There were a number of key issues to resolve. For instance, should we use real or hypothetical examples? The former would have more impact, but in the heightened climate it would be more difficult to gain clearance. Another issue that needed addressing was whether to have one pan-BBC course, or versions relevant to different areas. In the end we decided to base the course around real examples - but concentrating on cases that epitomised the dilemma over where the dividing line between (acceptable) artifice and (unacceptable) deception falls. There were eight different versions of the course: each one used a pan-BBC beginning and end, with a middle section focused on a specific division (for News, Nations & Regions, Vision, Audio & Music, Sport, Global, Marketing, Communications & Audiences and Future Media & Technology).

The high production standards helped to ensure maximum credibility among delegates, who we knew would arrive with a fair degree of scepticism. The course was produced in an embedded PowerPoint format, which left little to chance - the idea being that a Facilitator just needed to click through and so could concentrate on the content rather than worry about the technology.

We used a Facilitator model for the delivery of the course: over 200 senior staff from around the BBC were recruited to deliver the course in their areas. This was essential for both logistical reasons and to ensure that the workshops had maximum credibility and impact. During October Facilitators were trained and the course piloted.

We also carried out an extensive evaluation of the course with 15,031 of the delegates. There was a notably high response rate of 46% (6,946).

The survey found:

The workshop phase of Safeguarding Trust is now over, although we do run ad hoc sessions if there is the demand. The requirement for Safeguarding Trust training is now met by a highly sophisticated online course. This course is divided into eight interactive modules, each of which takes around forty-five minutes to complete:

Importantly, this online training is available both on the BBC’s intranet site and on an external website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/safeguardingtrust/interactive/index.shtml

The course is heavily promoted outside the BBC, including on the Skillset website. It has been and remains the BBC’s intention to share Safeguarding Trust training with the wider broadcast industry.

Over 20,000 people outside the BBC have completed the online Safeguarding Trust modules.

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