29.02.2024

The last two years have been difficult for many people associated with S4C, and in 2023 the non-executive members of the Board commissioned Capital Law to undertake an independent fact-finding process into the culture and work environment at S4C in response to serious concerns raised by the BECTU union. The non-executive members subsequently took some hard decisions in response to the evidence presented.

The Capital Law Report raised serious issues and some of these still require attention.

We are committed to ensuring that S4C is a place where our colleagues feel respected, supported, and motivated to perform at their best. We are acutely aware that significant work is required to restore confidence and trust in S4C as an organisation amongst our staff and our stakeholders in the creative sector.

Our programme of work has been developed in consultation with stakeholders, including members of staff and the BECTU union. It is based around four themes: leadership, culture, HR policies and procedures, and governance. We outline further detail on each theme below.

The Unitary Board will be ultimately responsible for the Action Plan, with a standing item at every Board meeting to report on progress against individual actions. Progress against the Action Plan will also be shared with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as part of existing quarterly meeting arrangements.

The effectiveness of steps being taken as part of the Action Plan will be considered in the context of various feedback mechanisms, including: pulse surveys of S4C staff, feedback gathered through the quarterly meetings of the Staff Forum (which is shared with the Management Team and the Board), and annual meetings between BECTU and the Board.

We are striving to restore trust and confidence amongst our staff, who play a vital role in the future success of S4C. Leadership built on integrity, accountability, cooperation and open communication is key to building a positive future.

The Unitary Board is committed to appointing a new permanent Chief Executive as soon as reasonably practical who can help restore an ambitious S4C with a renewed focus on collaboration and the well-being of our colleagues. They will be responsible and accountable to the Board for delivering our strategy and laying the foundations for S4C's continued success.

To ensure continued progress in the short term, the Board is working to appoint an Interim Chief Executive. Further information on this appointment will follow.

We also expect an announcement imminently regarding an interim Chair, who will commence in that role when the term of the current Chairman ends on 31 March 2024. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will launch an open process to appoint a new permanent Chair of S4C consistent with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

We must ensure that S4C staff feel the utmost confidence that any concerns they may raise will be dealt with, and one of our priorities moving forward is ensuring a culture of open communication to that end.

Working closely with the S4C Management Team, a programme will be implemented to ensure positive cultural change wherever needed within the organisation.

We will review S4C's purpose and values, with input from S4C staff at all levels of the organisation. We will also look at how we communicate our primary objectives to enable clearer communication of our strategy. This will ensure that staff feel ownership of the organisation's values, understand our corporate strategy and their role in delivering it.

A new Internal Communications plan will be developed to improve information flows, the relationship between various teams, and to bolster the voices of our colleagues across all levels of the organisation.

We intend to implement a training programme for managers across the organisation which will focus on leadership, effective management, and managing change positively. All members of staff will receive external training focussed on building resilience and dealing with change.

The Management Team will be accountable to the Unitary Board for delivering this programme for cultural change, and regular monitoring and feedback mechanisms and processes will be put in place to provide a better indication of staff morale and the programme's success.

The Unitary Board will also review the Code of Practice which applies to all Board members to ensure it conforms to the highest standards and expectations, and aligns with S4C's values.

We are clear that a positive organisational culture and effective HR policies must go hand-in-hand.

We are reviewing our HR policies – including on whistleblowing, grievances, and respect in the workplace – to ensure that they correspond to best practice.

We want staff to feel comfortable to raise any concerns and confident that they will be dealt with appropriately. We will strive to re-establish trust between staff, managers and the HR department and will conduct an external review of HR functions and procedures, to ensure that they align with best practice.

We will develop new policies where needed, including a suitable policy on how S4C is to respond to complaints against non-executive members of the Board.

As part of our efforts to ensure that our governance arrangements conform with best practice, we will commission an external review of governance effectiveness. We expect this to consider internal governance arrangements – including the Board and its committees, the Management Team, and other internal decision-making groups – and to particularly review whether there is appropriate accountability and communication between levels of internal governance.

We expect the outcome of this review to lead to revisions to our Standing Orders and will also therefore take this opportunity to benchmark our Standing Orders, reviewing best practice at comparable organisations.

Forthcoming legislation in the form of the Media Bill will also require amendments to our Standing Orders. While the S4C Authority has been operating as a Shadow Unitary Board on an administrative basis since 2018, we welcome the statutory certainty that the provisions of the Media Bill will provide with respect to S4C's governance arrangements.