Cleaning in public sector buildings

Delivering cleaning services in public sector buildings comes with unique complexities, from listed heritage sites to tight budgets and diverse facilities. Through a collaboration with ASSIST FM, BICSc has helped empower cleaning professionals across Scotland with a pioneering training scholarship, as Denise Hanson commercial director at BICSc explains

Cleaning in public sector buildings has always been an area fraught with complications. The buildings themselves can pose unique challenges, as some often have heritage features and may even hold listed status. The breadth of building types that a public sector contract services is generally far broader than in the commercial sector. For example, it’s common for the public sector to encompass educational buildings, offices, and public housing, perhaps even care homes and sheltered accommodation. In commercial terms, each of these would be a sector in its own right, generally with a specialised team for the type of contract!     

If you add to this the ever-tightening purse strings, then this is truly a challenging area.

Training

The past year provided an opportunity for BICSc to work with ASSIST FM, they are the voice of Scottish Local Authority FM services, representing 32 local authorities across the Scottish nation.     

ASSIST FM had previously organised a scholarship for their catering division and was keen to replicate the success of this for the cleaning service teams.     

Working closely with their management team, BICSc developed a suite of courses that allowed the candidates to work at their own pace to completion. This tailored range of online courses provided information on environmental issues, how to buy ethical and efficient products, where robotics may fit, or not, the science of cleaning, how to carry out meaningful building inspections, the methods to work out cleaning hours from a set of building plans and also having decided on the number of hours what other factors need to be costed to deliver a full cleaning service. Basically, the fundamentals of successful cleaning service delivery.

The team were supported with additional support from We Are Extraordinary Training with two days of face-to-face leadership sessions.     

Last December marked a proud moment for ASSIST FM as they celebrated the achievements of the first 18 scholars to successfully undertake the Cleaning Scholarship, each one of these scholars representing a different Scottish Local Authority. This first cohort was made possible by the contributions from the suppliers including Unico, Bunzl plc, Arrow County Supplies, Instock Group, Alliance and GMC Corsehill. It was lovely to see representatives from these companies at the awards ceremony for the scholars, this gave them a chance to see just what their commitment had helped to develop.     

I think the most rewarding part of developing this Scholarship was the feedback and enthusiasm of the scholars, who ranged from experienced managers to up-and-coming supervisors. Some examples are as follows.     

“I will use the skills I have learned from this course to help the staff I support clean more efficiently with the proper cleaning equipment appropriate for the job in the area they clean with the knowledge I have gained.”     

“This session will have a big impact on my performance for the better, especially the environmental section.”     

“I found this module very interesting in the science behind the cleaning, things I may not have thought of before, for example, the difference in pH levels makes a difference with the chemicals that are being used.”     

“I have learned so much more on the science of cleaning and why certain products work well in specific circumstances. The costing exercise was a major eye opener as I was used to looking from a staffing basis and it is the majority of the cost but to look at the logistics, the chemical costs machinery gives me a whole round picture.”     

“Calculating and costing part of the training will help me in the future to correctly prepare cleaning contracts. Great practical part with all tips on how to measure buildings and plan workload. The greenwashing part will have an impact on choosing cleaning products in the future.”

Training benefits

The benefits of training for the operatives, supervisors, and managers who are challenged to deliver cleaning services to their public sector portfolio cannot be highlighted enough. There are several unique challenges that this sector faces, and the key staff need all the help and support that a robust training programme can deliver to successfully meet these.

I am thrilled with the commitment that ASSIST FM are clearly demonstrating to their local authorities cleaning divisions and I look forward to meeting the scholars who have signed up for this year’s programme. I believe the benefits that the individual authorities found are shown by the number of candidates they had who wanted to take up the scholarship, with some councils running interview sessions to see who would get the contested place. Scotland is truly leading the way with its innovative programmes, investing in their staff so that they can offer the best possible services to their customers.

www.bics.org.uk