5 Essential things to check before choosing a school cleaner

Choosing a school cleaner is an essential part of creating a safe and hygienic environment. A school cleaning team is very different from a commercial cleaning team. From scheduling to the chemicals used. There are several things you need to check to ensure that you have an effective and safe school cleaning program.

Background checks for cleaning staff

Ask your local school cleaning service on how they recruit school cleaners. Ensure that the staff working at schools have a clean police record and are safe to work around children. Ask for evidence of these checks and what happens when relief staff are needed at short notice.

COVID-Safety

Does your current school cleaner have a COVID-19 safety cleaning plan? Are touchpoint cleaned more regularly? Are masks and other PPE being worn during the shifts? Ask your cleaner for their COVID processes and procedures. Check these and compare with government guidelines so that you can give parents, students and teachers peace of mind.

Environmental Initiatives

Reducing our carbon footprint and maximising recycling waste streams are becoming more of a priority. When choosing a school cleaner, remember to ask some environmental questions. Does your school cleaner have a green or environmental plan in place? If you aren’t sure, ask to meet your cleaning providers each month. Use this time to explore ways to minimise the negative impact on the environment. A positive environmental message also engages students to live in a more environmentally friendly way.

Chemical safety

You may expect your school cleaners to use hospital-grade cleaning chemicals and strong bleaches to maintain a COVID-safe environment. However, these chemicals cannot be used in schools. There needs to a balance between effective disinfectant and the safety to students at the school. Ask for a list of chemicals your cleaner uses and keep an inventory of chemicals on-site at the school.

Specialist school cleaning

As mentioned at the beginning of this post a general commercial cleaner will not make an effective school cleaner. Look for a local cleaning service who has experience in cleaning schools and ask for two things. One, ask for references for schools who already receive a cleaning service. Two, ask your cleaning service what the key difference are between office and school cleaning. They should be able to quickly tell you the differences such as areas to focus on. Pay attention to the frequency of cleaning, police check and the chemicals intending to be used.

Addressing the checklist above will ensure you have confidence. Confidence that you are employing a school cleaning team that will add value to your school. A highly skilled school cleaning team to provide a happy, clean and COVID-Safe educational environment every day.