ITV has been urged to do more to help junior staff feel safe in voicing workplace concerns and is to publish a talent ‘charter’ spelling out the behaviour it expects from presenters.
An external review of the broadcaster’s handling of its own investigation into former This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield has found no evidence of a “toxic culture” on the daytime show.
Management had no knowledge of Schofield’s presenter with a junior colleague, the review ruled. Of 48 interviewees interviewed, only one junior staff member said they had been aware of the affair since 2021 – a year after ITV’s internal probe - but did not report it.
Neither Schofield nor the unnamed 'person X' with whom he had the affair volunteered to speak to the external investigation.
Jane Mulcahy KC, who conducted the review, said that while Schofield’s “patronage assisted person X in the early days of his time at ITV,” their promotion to production secretary on a separate show was on individual merit.
Mulcahy stressed the importance of ITV and This Morning maintaining a culture that encourages people to come forward with any concerns.
Senior management is, it said, “absolutely wedded to the importance of an open culture,” but this is “still not filtering down to junior employees, many of whom remain convinced that to speak out will have a detrimental impact on their careers”.
Mulcahy made eight recommendations to ensure better future conduct. These include stepping up effort to ensure This Morning employees and daytime programming embraces itv’s ‘Speaking Up’ policy at every level.
She also called for a review of the HR structure on This Morning, centralising information on employees.
ITV chair Andy Cosslett said the review had “given ITV helpful direction as to how we can improve further, particularly around the ways in which concerns about behaviour are raised and responded to.”
The broadcaster said it was already acting on the recommendations, and had introduced a ‘personal relationships at work’ policy, in which staff are required to declare relationships with colleagues.
In line with the review’s recommendation, the company plans to “more clearly formalise” its expectations of on-screen talent working on shows made ITV by any supplier.
Cosslett also pledged to “continue to develop our efforts to give junior colleagues the confidence to speak up if they have something to raise”.
