Off target

An afternoon trawling round the BBC Jobs site - hoping for a first sight of the DG job spec - reveals a total of 106 vacancies for which the BBC is prepared to consider external candidates. This is includes a new chunk of 35 opportunities for the awkwardly-named "Extendee" role. This is the BBC's Disability Scheme, offering six month placements around the Corporation, from Breakfast to Newsnight, from Comedy to Religion, from Finance to Factual - all in the hope that it might lead to permanent employment.

This may well be linked to a minute from the BBC Trust Meeting on January 19 this year, when the Executive was asked to supply the reasons for a fall in the number of disabled staff.  In 2009, the BBC set a target of 5.5% across all staff to be reached in 2012, with a new goal of 4.5% of senior management.  By June 2011, the all staff figure stood at 3.8%