Under pressure from well known commentators such as Lenny Henry and its own non-executive director Samir Shah, the BBC recently announced it was launching a mentoring scheme to improve the number of ethnic minorities it hired at senior management level.

In a piece in the in-house magazine Ariel, the corporation has announced that 90 employees will join the programme in the next three years. Half will be from ethnic minorities, 18 will be disabled and the remaining 27 posts will be open to anyone.

Steve Kelly, the director of BBC People, said: “Because the BBC believes change is not going to happen any other way it has made the conscious decision … to create and sustain a pool of diverse talent with the credibility, confidence and competence to move into senior management roles.”

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