Safeguarding first
Keeping Children Safe in Education is the statutory guidance every school in England follows. It sets out the checks a school must make on anyone working on the site, including contractors.
The rule turns on whether the work is regulated activity. Regulated activity with children includes unsupervised work at a school that is carried out regularly, which the guidance defines as frequently, meaning once a week or more, or intensively, meaning on four or more days in a thirty-day period or overnight. A cleaner who works every afternoon while pupils are still on site, and who could be alone with a child, is likely to fall inside it. A contractor engaged in regulated activity must have an enhanced DBS check with barred list information.
A contractor whose work gives regular contact with children but does not amount to regulated activity needs an enhanced DBS check without the barred list. A one-off deep clean in the summer holidays when the building is empty is a lower risk and the school may decide a lower level of check is proportionate. The school makes that decision after its own risk assessment. It is not the contractor's call.
Two further rules apply whatever the level. A contractor on whom no checks have been obtained must never work unsupervised or in regulated activity. And when the checks are done by the contractor's employer or an agency, the school must obtain written confirmation that they were completed and record it, with the date, on its single central record. The school should also check identity on arrival.
A contractor who understands this brings the paperwork to the first meeting. Names, DBS certificate numbers and dates for every operative who will attend, the written confirmation for the single central record, a safeguarding induction for the team, and an undertaking that no substitute cleaner is sent without the same checks.
Premises standards
The School Premises (England) Regulations 2012 set minimum standards for maintained schools. They require suitable toilet and washing facilities for pupils, separate for boys and girls aged eight and over, with handwashing in or next to every toilet. The Department for Education's Advice on Standards for School Premises explains how schools meet them. Academies and independent schools have equivalent requirements through their own regulations.
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 apply to schools as workplaces. Regulation 9 puts the same sufficiently-clean duty on a school's rooms, furniture and fittings as on any other workplace, with waste kept to proper bins.
For nurseries, the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework requires providers to keep the premises in a clean and hygienic condition, with an adequate number of toilets and basins and suitable hygienic facilities for changing children in nappies. Ofsted inspects against it. A cleaning standard that affects the suitability of the environment can pull an inspection grade down.
The term-time routine
The daily clean fits between the end of the school day and lock-up, or before the site opens in the morning. In a primary school it covers classrooms, corridors, halls, staff areas and toilets every day. In a secondary school the same, with science labs, art rooms, design and technology workshops and changing rooms added.
Toilets are the area heads hear about most. They are cleaned and restocked every day without exception, with a mid-day check where the specification allows. Colour coded equipment keeps toilet cloths and mops away from classrooms and dining areas.
Classrooms get bins emptied, desks and tables wiped, floors vacuumed or mopped, sinks cleaned and whiteboards wiped only if the teacher has left them clear. Touch points, door handles, push plates, light switches and handrails, are on the daily list. Dining halls are cleaned after every service and the floor is mopped or scrubbed daily. Early years rooms add nappy changing areas, sleep areas and toys on a schedule agreed with the setting manager.
Products are chosen for a building full of children. Low-odour, correctly diluted, stored in a locked cupboard the pupils cannot reach, with COSHH assessments and safety data sheets on site.
Holiday deep cleans
The daily team cannot strip a floor or extract a carpet while the school is in use. Those tasks are grouped into holiday visits, usually at Easter, summer and Christmas, with the summer visit doing the heaviest work.
A summer deep clean typically includes hard floors in halls, corridors and classrooms machine scrubbed or stripped and resealed, carpets extracted, dining hall and kitchen surfaces degreased, toilets descaled and grout cleaned, walls and high-level ledges washed, furniture moved and cleaned behind, radiators, vents and light diffusers dusted, and internal glazing cleaned. The visit ends with every room reset and checked before staff return.
Deep cleans are the natural time for the periodic tasks any building needs, so the school specification should list them with a frequency rather than leaving them to be quoted each year.
What heads and bursars ask for
Who exactly will be on site, and what checks do they hold. A named team with checks the school can record beats a rota of strangers.
What happens if the regular cleaner is off. The answer should be a named, checked deputy, not an agency temp.
How the work is inspected. A supervisor's signed inspection, weekly for toilets and monthly for the whole building, that the site manager can see.
Term-time or year-round. Both are normal. Term-time contracts cover the teaching weeks with holiday deep cleans priced separately. Year-round contracts suit schools with lettings, summer schools or a large site team.
Events. Open evenings, parents' evenings and exams need the building presentable at a different time. A contract should say how those visits are arranged.
Insurance and method statements. Public and employer's liability certificates, risk assessments and method statements for the site, and a COSHH file.
How Commercial Cleaning London delivers it
Commercial Cleaning London takes on schools and nurseries across London on these terms. Operatives are DBS checked to the level the school's risk assessment requires, with written confirmation for the single central record supplied before the first visit. The contract commits us to the same team every day, with a named and checked deputy for absence. A written specification covers the term-time routine and the holiday deep cleans, room by room. A supervisor inspects toilets weekly and the whole site monthly, signs the record and shares it with the site manager.