Kent and East Sussex review

The impact of the South East Review in Kent and East Sussex has been discussed.

Laura Dalgleish, HRLP South East, gave a presentation on the creation of the new South East region on 21 March 2000.

£5.5 millions had been approved by the Board of Governors for new programmes and services. The aim was to be on air in February 2001.

Brighton would share its premises and reporters with the south region. Weekly and half hour current affairs programmes would be made in Southampton. Approximately 40 new jobs would be created at Tunbridge Wells. Some of the existing staff from Radio Kent had expressed an interest and the new posts would be boarded.

Management had been looking at what other broadcasters did, at converging skills and changing technologies. There was a multiskilling model which the BBC wanted to test at Tunbridge Wells. An analytical process would examine all tasks and put them through an evaluation to see which tasks could be converged. Only changes which were of value to the BBC would be considered.

Mike Fieldsend confirmed that the Resources Operations Manager would report directly to the HRLP. Work was in progress with PSE and Broadcast English regions on (i) convergence - what would the new technology facilitate for multiskilling and what could be preserved as traditional draft roles; and (ii) integration - when jobs did convergence, how would they be best managed?

Multiskilling would be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.