Modern Slavery Statement

The Royal College of Art aims to achieve international standards of excellence in the postgraduate and pre- /mid-professional education of artists and designers and related practitioners. It aims to achieve these through the quality of its teaching, research and practice and through its relationship with the institutions, industries and technologies associated with the disciplines of art and design.

In 2021/22 the College educated 2418 students and employed 498 permanent staff, supplemented by over 800 visiting lecturers, at our campuses in Kensington, Battersea and White City. In 2021/22, we had a total annual income of £85.5m.

This statement is made pursuant to Section 54(i) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes the RCA’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31 July 2022.

Modern Slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights. It takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person’s liberty by another in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain.

The RCA is committed to improving its practices to combat slavery and human trafficking and this statement sets out the steps the RCA is taking to minimise modern slavery risk.

In the past year, the RCA has continued to mitigate the risk of modern slavery in directly employed staff through robust HR recruitment and candidate selection policies and checks.

Temporary agency staff are only recruited through established and accredited sources who provide assurance to the College regarding the rights and welfare of their candidates and employees as well as the appropriate checks.

RCA has also a whistleblowing policy through which staff can raise any concerns on modern slavery.

Although the risk of students being subject to modern slavery or human trafficking through direct contact with the College are extremely low, they may become aware of such instances.

To support students, RCA has in place easily accessible and well-publicised safeguarding channels through which students can obtain assistance, support and advice.

We spend circa £25m a year on goods and services; the main categories being building works, facilities such as cleaning and security, teaching equipment and ICT.

During the year, RCA has maintained its commitment to responsible procurement and to purchasing goods and services. In doing so we support the UK Government’s National Action Plan to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

RCA procures goods, services and works from a wide range of suppliers across a number of categories, similar to other organisations in the education sector, some of which are considered to present a significant risk of modern slavery. To mitigate this risk, the College is an active member of the London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC). RCA is thereby able to benefit from research and risk assessments of supply chain structures carried out by LUPC which, in high risk areas, includes due diligence procedures. In addition, through its membership of LUPC, RCA is affiliated to Electronics Watch, the mission of which is to protect the rights of workers in electronics supply chains.

RCA’s aims for 2021/22:

• Continue to raise awareness of the eLearning module available from British Universities Finance Directors Group (BUFDG) for use by RCA purchasers, in order that they have an understanding of the Modern Slavery Act.
• Ensure relevant staff receive in-house training where needs are identified.
• For the higher risk categories such as cleaning, catering, security we will encourage our service providers and their subcontractors to continually monitor and assess their obligations to their employees.

The College is committed to taking responsibility for implementing this statement and its objectives.

This statement will be reviewed and published annually.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes the College’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ended 2022. It is approved and signed on behalf of the Council.