Creative Freelance Champion - Terms of reference
The Creative Freelance Champion will advocate for creative freelancers within government, representing them and building understanding of their needs.
Introduction
In the Creative Industries Sector Plan, published in June 2025, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committed to appoint a Creative Freelance Champion.
The Creative Freelance Champion will advocate for creative freelancers within government, representing them and building understanding of their needs. The Champion will be a member of a refreshed Creative Industries Council (CIC). The Champion complements industry’s work, strongly supported by government, to deliver the Good Work Review Action Plan including its focus on supporting self-employed creators.
Freelancer is not a defined employment status, and can mean a range of engagement styles. Therefore, the Freelance Champion will work to represent those in the creative industries who work in the following ways:
- Individuals that run their own limited company providing procured services.
- Individuals that do not run a limited company but are contracted or commissioned to deliver a dedicated service on a time-limited basis (which may include the contracting of specialist skills needed to fulfil a specified function as part of a time-limited project, either throughout the life of the project or for a fixed duration within it).
- Creative practitioners that produce works in response to a dedicated commission and/or freely make work that is openly sold, performed, and/or published (which may include those who operate under an agent or umbrella organisation).
- A combination of the above.
Working arrangements
The appointment will be for an 18 month period, with an opportunity for an extension. The role requires a maximum eight days a month time commitment, allowing it to be undertaken alongside other professional commitments. Some months may require more or fewer days than others.
In the event where candidates share the role, the time commitment and fee will be split in a manner agreed between the candidates and DCMS.
Any potential conflicts of interest must be declared, and will be considered as part of the appointment process.
In the first few months of the role, the Champion will aim to identify their priorities and finalise a plan of work for the remainder of their initial 18 month tenure. This should be informed by the existing evidence base, including the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre’s Good Work Review, Arts Council England’s Cultural Freelancers Study and Creative UK’s Forging Freelance Futures report. They will be able to draw on industry expertise through the government’s arms-length bodies (ALBs) and existing networks, including the CIC’s Good Work Review working group on self-employed creators, with support from relevant officials in DCMS’ Creative Industries team. DCMS will provide an engagement budget, as well as administrative support, coordination of meetings and engagements, and access to relevant research, data and policy advice to enable effective delivery of the role.
The Champion will meet with the Minister responsible for the Creative Industries on a quarterly basis to outline progress against their initial work plan, and produce a short annual report for sharing with DCMS, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and CIC.
Remuneration
There is a £60,000 fee. In the event where candidates share the role, the fee will be split in a manner that is agreed between the candidates and DCMS.
Role and responsibilities
The Champion will be responsible for establishing strong and constructive relationships within government and across parliament to represent freelancers’ views in fora with ministers and officials, identifying areas where freelancers are underrepresented (e.g. in data collection) and driving positive interventions to support the freelance workforce.
Ongoing sector dialogue with creative freelancers is expected to help inform and position relevant policy ambitions that implicate and/or seek to support creative freelancers. They will collect the views and experiences of creative freelancers on an ongoing basis, and engage with established networks no less than once every three months.
The role will be further developed with the appointed individual. As there are a wide range of potential issues in scope, the Champion will need to prioritise a focused number of responsibilities in their work plan to ensure impact. Possible activities are outlined below.
Representation: working closely with the sector to coherently represent the experiences of freelancers within government, and improve the application of policy initiatives to this group. In practice, this could mean some of the following activities:
- Advocating for creative freelancers in relevant policy development processes and forums across departments and public bodies, including representing the interests of freelancers at some of the following:
- CIC
- Good Work Review Working Group for Self Employed Creators
- Small Business Growth Forum
- The Office of the Small Business Commissioner
- Creative Sector Skills Forum
- The Pension Commission
- Coordinating freelancers’ input to relevant government consultations and government communications.
- Represent creative freelancers at government-related and sector-specific events as well as events where the work of freelancers is pertinent.
Building understanding: Working with relevant government departments, ALBs, and the sector to improve understanding of this section of the workforce, and build awareness of key rights, responsibilities and resources amongst freelancers and their contractors. In practice, this could mean some of the following:
- Working closely with the Office for National Statistics and the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, influence data and evidence gathering on creative industries freelancers (building on work already conducted by the sector and research community, and potentially informing the application of wider policy initiatives, such as skills policy, for creative freelancers).
- Working closely with relevant ALBs, the sector (e.g. employers, trade bodies, Trade Unions), DBT, HM Revenue & Customs, DCMS and the Fair Work Agency, to improve contracting practices across the sector (helping ensure freelancers are issued with contracts that reflect the conditions within which they are being asked to operate and improving self-employed contracting practices by hirers).
- Working closely with the Intellectual Property Office to ensure greater awareness of and adherence to intellectual property laws to support better recognition of creative freelancers’ IP rights.
- Reviewing the adequacy of existing social and financial protections for freelancers, working with relevant government departments to better understand where potential gaps exist.
- Working with the sector to improve adherence to equality legislation, sexual harassment, and anti-bullying laws and standards, including the CIISA standards.
- Working with existing freelance networks to build awareness and understanding of existing resources and guidance.