These appointments are the result of a commitment made in the Creative Industries Sector Plan last year. 

Lindsay Bennett Ford, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the SoA, said: 

“These are appointments we have long been calling for. We welcome the Freelance Champions at a time when there are serious challenges to the viability of making a living from creative work. We already know that many authors work on a freelance basis and, as a result, face shrinking incomes, red tape around tax, and challenges dealing with AI.  We look forward to working with the Champions to provide insights into authors’ livelihoods and working conditions.”  

The Freelance Champion appointees are both freelancers themselves with over 40 years of combined experience. Leila D’Aronville is the founder of the North-East Cultural Freelancers, a network supporting freelancers and small organisations across the North-East of England. Lizzie Crump is one of the Co-Directors of What Next? the UK’s largest free-to-access network for arts and culture, and she has worked in cultural policy for many years. 

The appointees will sit on the Creative Industries Council, a joint industry and government forum that represents and gives voice to the UK’s creative industries. Their work aims to address the findings of the Good Work Review, a major review into working conditions across sectors that highlighted issues of unpaid work, limited opportunities for professional development, and difficult working environments. This sits alongside high levels of job satisfaction, flexibility, and autonomy.  

Dave O’Brien, Professor of Cultural and Creative Industries at the University of Manchester, who joins the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on an academic secondment, will be providing research support.  

Of the 2.6 million people working in the UK’s creative industries, self-employed freelancers represent over 28%, almost double the rate for the wider economy.