Cleaning

Establishing services and agreeing a cleaning services plan

This section provides an overview of school actions to establish cleaning services with the service provider, including agreeing to a cleaning services plan. Establishing services is expected where there is a change to school cleaning requirements (for example, a new or closed building) or before the start of each school year.

Initial meeting

The service provider will schedule an initial meeting with the school’s office. The school representative must attend this meeting.

The initial meeting is recommended to cover:

• key staff introductions (from the service provider and school)
• the cleaning services plan
• a tour of the school facilities
• discussion of the school’s service requirements.

School representatives are recommended to read this guidance chapter before the initial meeting with the service provider.

Inducting cleaning staff

School cleaners should be welcomed as any other member of staff in a school environment. While the service provider is required to train cleaning staff to do their job, schools should assist by helping to bring them into the school community and ensure that any school based inductions for facility services is provided to the cleaners. All school cleaners will also receive a standardised Department of Education induction from their employer.

The cleaning services plan: what it is and why it is important

Service providers are responsible for supplying schools with a draft cleaning services plan, and the school representative must review and communicate any issues with their plans to their service providers in order to finalise the plan.

A cleaning services plan is an agreement between the school and the service provider that the department can help enforce and it details:

• a schedule of the expected regular cleaning tasks (schools should be guided by the department’s Cleaning standards and frequency guide (DOCX))
• access times and security arrangements
• a schedule of periodic (holiday) cleaning, including maintenance work scheduled and school holiday programs
• additional cleaning requirements
• cleaning staff rosters to identify when they will be at the school
• compliance, including details of Working with Children Checks for each cleaner
• the induction process for new cleaning staff
• non-entitled space.

The service provider will seek to understand the school’s unique cleaning needs, such as chemical requirements, specific employee induction requirements, access times for cleaning services and any additional cleaning services required by the school. Schools can determine individual arrangements that work in their unique school environments. The minimum standard in the Cleaning standards and frequency guide (DOCX) must be met, but outside of that, schools have some flexibility in tailoring the cleaning to suit their needs.

The cleaning services plan as an accountability tool

An agreed cleaning services plan provides an important accountability tool – alongside the Cleaning standards and frequency guide (DOCX) – to receive and monitor consistent cleaning and standards from the provider. Agreeing to the plan provides both the school and the department with a written agreement on how the standards are applied to the school’s environment. It can be used to hold the service provider accountable for access times, security arrangements, and more.

School cleaning providers must comply with health and safety legislation, and with all school policies. This includes securing Working with Children Checks for all school cleaners.

If schools have concerns about cleaners’ conduct in relation to child safety, they must take action. The required actions are set out in the Protecting Children – Reporting and Other Legal Obligations policy.

The cleaning services plan is not a contract with the service provider, as the department owns the contract. It is, however, the guiding document for delivering cleaning services to the school.

School representatives should assist the service provider in understanding particular requirements related to their environment including local school-based policies and procedures.

Approving the cleaning services plan

The school must take the following steps to approve their cleaning services plan:

1. Advise school council of any additional cleaning requests. The school council must be aware that regular additional cleaning services will be an added cost to the school and, if relevant and recommended by the principal, approve these costs as an ongoing requirement of the school in the cleaning services plan
2. The service provider sends the draft cleaning services plan to the school for review and approval. If there are errors, the school can advise the provider, who will update and resend it for sign-off
3. The cleaning services plan must be provided to the school and a copy must sit with the communications book and in the cleaners room as per the agreement. The school may request a copy of their cleaning services plan at any time from the service provider, or via the VSBA School Cleaning Unit.

It is recommended that the plan is reviewed during the termly review meetings to ensure that it incorporates any periodic cleaning requirements. The plan also must be reviewed in the annual review meeting, as part of assessing the school’s cleaning requirements for the upcoming year. More information on this is provided in the Monitoring and reviewing services chapter.

School facilities tour

Touring the school facilities allows the service provider (usually the area supervisor or manager) to establish an efficient cleaning service and identify any occupational health and safety risks.

The school representative and the service provider should walk the site together to ensure expectations are aligned with the cleaning scope. The tour can also help to identify discrepancies in what the school or provider has noted as cleanable area.

Third party agreements

Where a school has an agreement with a third party to use or hire facilities, the terms of the agreement must specify the cleaning responsibilities of the school and third party.

The department highly recommends building cleaning requirements into third party agreements to avoid questions with the school’s nominated cleaning provider around cleaning requirements, understanding that the routine (base) cleaning scope does not cover before/after school cleaning unless the school pays for it through an additional cleaning request.

• If an agreement states that the third party is responsible for cleaning the area, they must clean the area to the cleaning standards or the school's satisfaction.
• If an agreement states that school is responsible for cleaning the area, the service provider will assume the cleaning duties of that area. This arrangement must be captured in the cleaning services plan and raised as an additional clean.