Covid-19 Risk Assessment

As an employer and institution which is open to the public, the Royal Academy of Arts (“RA”) is required to meet certain obligations to ensure the health and safety of its employees and visitors. The new risks posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and its effects on the RA’s operations, require us to revisit previous health & safety risk assessments, particularly as we reopen our doors to the public and return additional staff to site. We are aware of the specific guidance in this area, including that issued by the government in the context of reopening of tourism and visitor attractions.[1] That guidance is clear that relevant organisations must share the results of risk assessments with their workforce, and consider publishing the results on their websites. This document sets out the steps we have taken to comply with our obligations, and is made available on our website in accordance with the relevant guidance.

The measures detailed in this document are necessarily specific to the RA’s operations and our re-opening plans. Things will change and the RA as an organisation will need to adapt to those changes. No measures we implement can, at this time, completely eliminate the risk of transmission of Covid-19. We will follow Government guidance, but will not hesitate to put in additional measures where we consider these better protect the health, safety and welfare of our staff, as well as the visiting public. We will also want to monitor how effective risk mitigation measures are in practice, and whether these need to change. We will therefore review and update this document regularly.

Process: what the RA has done
In order to arrive at this risk assessment, we have:
+Followed the museum specific government guidance on reducing risk of coronavirus
+ Managers completed individual risk assessments of their specific area of work
+ Spoken directly to individual staff about wellbeing and potential return to work

Structure of Risk Assessment
The risk assessment the RA has carried out focuses on one specific, overall risk – this being the transmission of Covid-19 at the RA’s premises or as a direct consequence of its work. We have then examined the specific hazards we have identified in our operations and in turn proposed measures to mitigate the risks these hazards present – known as ‘controls’.

Given the degree of change required on site to mitigate the new risk presented by the coronavirus pandemic, we intend to review this risk assessment weekly in the initial phases of reopening and update it as required.