By Áine Allardyce
A new immersive safety training programme developed at the University of Glasgow aims to enhance safety culture across the UK’s screen industries by offering a next-generation approach to crew training.
Set Ready Safety has been piloted at Film City Glasgow and is led by Dr Lisa Kelly, Senior Lecturer in Film & Television Studies, and supported by Entrepreneurial Lead Samuel Conway. Designed in collaboration with film and TV professionals, safety experts, and psychologists, the programme uses experiential learning methods to help film and TV productions develop proactive, sustainable safety behaviours.
Dr Kelly, explains: “Set Ready Safety emerged from my research investigating changing production practices, talent development and working conditions for crews across the UK’s screen sectors.
“As these conversations unfolded, a pattern became clear: traditional safety training, often online, static, and compliance-based, was not translating into cultural change. Freelancers were falling through the cracks, and existing systems did not reflect the complexity or pace of real-world production. These insights gave birth to the idea of training people for safety the same way we train them to perform in a fully immersive model that mirrors a working set.
“While traditional safety training has played an essential role in raising awareness, Set Ready Safety builds on those foundations by introducing a new, emotionally engaging and hands-on training experience.”
Participants take part in immersive simulations featuring professional actors, scripted on-set scenarios, and digital backdrops that recreate typical working conditions. These are followed by facilitated workshops where trainees analyse what went wrong, reflect on behavioural drivers, and then step into the scenes themselves to apply what they’ve learned.
The approach draws on best practice from sectors such as construction, healthcare, and energy, where immersive, multi-sensory training has been shown to improve knowledge retention and leadership confidence. By shifting the emphasis from compliance to culture, Set Ready Safety aims to empower all crew members, not just managers, to take ownership of safety and wellbeing on set.
Freddie Flintoff’s 2022 accident while filming Top Gear, alongside a BECTU and Mark Milsome Foundation survey in which 75% of crew reported having felt unsafe at work, has underscored the need to evolve how safety is communicated and learned across the industry.
Samuel Conway, Entrepreneurial Lead, said: “The opportunity here isn’t just about better training, it’s about transforming industry culture. We’re applying proven behavioural psychology and immersive learning methods from sectors like healthcare and construction, where they’ve already made a measurable difference. Our goal is to embed a new safety mindset across production teams, starting from day one.”
Jules Hussey, Co-founder of the CallIt! app, which helps create a safer and fairer place of work, and who was among the first to try the Set Ready Safety pilot programme, said: “As TV and Film budgets decrease and the pressures on freelancers increases, safety so often falls by the wayside and lives continue to be put at risk. The Mark Milsome Foundation has forged the path in safety training and the University of Glasgow immersive, multi-sensory experience takes safety awareness one step further and makes it ‘up close and personal’. This is a powerful tool for change and another example of how the creative industries can learn to be better from other sectors.”
Other feedback from a participant who was part of the pilot programme launch said: “The script was brilliant, and so realistic, and I overheard so many people talk of how easily they learned as a result.” While another participant said: “To see these recognisable moments culminate into the inevitable on-set accident in real time, was a powerful reality check that we shouldn’t let these individual incidents go by and everybody should be more empowered to say no and call out bad practice.”
The programme is backed by several University of Glasgow funding initiatives, including the Knowledge Exchange Impact Acceleration Account and Creative Launch Fund, in partnership with Glasgow School of Art and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
A national roll-out is planned for 2026, with longer-term ambitions for a training base at Film City Glasgow. Set Ready Safety will also explore additional modules focused on mental health and wellbeing, inclusive leadership and education, and accessible working practices across the screen industries.
Pictures by Tim Anger