Last updated: September 2021
Trinity Laban is a forward-thinking, contemporary and world-class Higher Education Institution with a vision to redefine the conservatoire for the 21st century. At the leading edge of music and dance training, it provides specialist education of the highest quality, which reflects the increasingly collaborative world of artistic practice and supports the lifelong career development of students and professional performing artists.
The Conservatoire is committed to acquiring goods and services for its Students and Staff without causing harm to others and remains committed to supporting the UK Government’s National Action Plan to implement the UN Guiding principles on Business and Human Rights.
This Statement is designed to satisfy the requirements of Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, by informing members, students, staff and the public about the Conservatoire and its policy towards modern slavery, human trafficking, forced and bonded labour and labour violations in its supply chains.
The Conservatoire is a member of the London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC), a non-profit professional collaborative buying organisation. The Conservatoire accesses LUPC framework agreements for goods and services when viable to do so and ensures the values and commitment to sustainable and ethically responsible procurement stated within the terms and conditions of the Framework Agreement are implemented as part of the Call-Off Contract.
For further information on LUPC’s Modern Slavery Statement and Responsible Procurement can be found on their website, please follow the attached link LUPC’s commitment | LUPC
Policies
In 2017, LUPC introduced a Responsible Procurement Policy and Strategy prepared by LUPC Responsible Procurement Advisory Group. The Policy continues to be at the forefront of the business and the Strategy sets out a programme of projects and actions, aiming to address risks of human rights abuses.
The Responsible Procurement Policy was updated in September 2020:
LUPC Responsible Procurement Policy 2020 -Final Approved1.pdf
The Conservatoire has a specific policy for Public Interest Disclosure (“whistleblowing”). Download a copy of our whistleblowing policy in PDF format.
Risk assessment
Our Spend Categories
LUPC member supply chains mainly fall under these “super categories”:
- Professional services – i.e.: recruitment agency staff
- ICT Equipment and Services
- Estates & Construction
- Facilities Management services such as cleaning, catering and security guarding
The Conservatoire deems the corresponding source countries to be as follows:
- ICT Equipment – East Asia, China, India, Eastern Europe, Mexico
- Cleaning – UK
- Catering – UK
- Security – UK
- Recruitment agencies – UK
The LUPC has focussed its resources on these high-risk categories. LUPC came to this conclusion through assessing the risks associated to the production countries, their own research on products and production methods, including working conditions and supply chain structures and their continuous engagement with their partners and suppliers.
Due diligence
Continued Support for Electronics Watch
The LUPC continues to be an affiliate of and work closely with the NGO Electronics Watch, the collaborative organisation monitoring global electronics supply chains. Since March 2018, LUPC extended its affiliation to all its full members.
Embedding Responsible Procurement into Tendering and Contracts
Each contract let by the Conservatoire has responsible procurement principles embedded in the tender process as part of the elevation criteria.
Training
The senior procurement managers continue to enhance their professional development in particular through undergoing the LUPC Modern Slavery e training module and CIPS e-learning on ethical procurement.
Purchasing Goals for 2021
In the year ahead, we will continue our strategy to combat human rights abuses in our supply chains with these key goals:
- Further analysis of the commodity spend categories. The spend to be mapped against the HE Sector’s new Risk Analysis Tool to show the level of risk for a variety of sustainability measures including modern slavery.
- Access higher education framework agreements for goods and services wherever deemed appropriate
- Make available to staff the LUPC’s e-learning topics on Protecting Human Rights in the Supply Chain.
Approved by the Principal’s Management Group, September 2021