School cleaning: term-time cleans, holiday deep cleans, safeguarding and the specification

What makes cleaning a school different from cleaning an office?

A school is packed with children all day, then empty for a short window in which everything has to be cleaned. The users are young and messy, one building holds very different rooms, and anyone working there has to fit the school's safeguarding rules.

An office clean deals with adults who mostly tidy up after themselves. A school doesn't, and that changes the job:

• Timing. Most cleaning fits between after-school clubs and lock-up, or before breakfast club. The window moves for parents' evenings, concerts and lettings.
• Mess. Glue, paint, food, mud and bodily fluids in classrooms; toilets used in heavy bursts at break and lunch.
• Mixed rooms. Early years rooms, labs, a sports hall with a specialist floor, a dining hall beside a catering kitchen, a medical room and an SEN hygiene room, each needing its own method.
• Safeguarding. Cleaners may be in the building with children, or hold the keys when nobody else is there.

The legal baseline is the same as any workplace: the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require the workplace, furniture and fittings to be kept sufficiently clean, and HSE says how often depends on the nature of the work. In a school, that includes young children, food and illness passing quickly between them.

This page describes England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own safeguarding and health protection guidance for schools.

What should be cleaned daily in term time, and what waits for the holidays?

Term time is for the routine clean: toilets, floors, bins, touch points, desks and spills. Holidays are for work that needs empty rooms, such as deep cleaning washrooms, machine-cleaning floors and carpets, and high-level dusting. DfE lists a whole-school summer deep clean as a typical periodic task.

DfE's guidance on buying cleaning describes day-to-day cleaning in term time with set access hours (morning and evening duties can differ), periodic cleaning in holidays or on inset days, and emergency cleaning, such as after vandalism or a break-in, where you may need someone on call 24 hours a day.

Book the summer clean early: holiday teams are shared across many schools, and resealed floors need time to cure before furniture goes back. Agree the order with any builders on site, and leave time for a snagging walk-round before inset days.

What safeguarding checks do school cleaners need?

Keeping children safe in education 2026 says schools should make sure any contractor, or contractor's employee, working at the school has had the appropriate level of DBS check, and should set out safeguarding requirements in the contract. Cleaners whose work gives them regular contact with children need an enhanced check.

Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) is DfE statutory guidance for schools in England; the 2026 version has applied since 1 September 2026. On contractors it says:

• Schools should set out their safeguarding requirements in the contract.
• Contractors in regulated activity need an enhanced DBS check with children's barred list information. Those not in regulated activity but with an opportunity for regular contact with children need an enhanced check without the barred list. Where there's no such opportunity, the school decides whether a basic check is appropriate.
• A contractor with no checks should never work unsupervised; the school decides the level of supervision.
• For self-employed cleaners, the school should obtain the check or see the certificate.
• Schools should check contractors' identity on arrival.

The right level depends on what each cleaner does and when: an evening cleaner in an empty building is in a different position from a daytime cleaner moving around among pupils. Agree levels with your designated safeguarding lead and write them into the contract.

Do contract cleaners go on the single central record?

KCSIE says a school's single central record must cover all staff, including agency and third-party supply staff. Contractors aren't in that list, but schools may record any other information they think relevant. Cleaners employed directly by the school are staff and go on it. A multi-academy trust must keep a record covering every academy.

KCSIE also says schools should have procedures for concerns or allegations about anyone working there, including contractors, with lower-level concerns handled through the low-level concerns policy. The contract should require the contractor to co-operate and to remove a cleaner from your site if asked.

Who should hold the keys and alarm codes, and what about cleaners working alone?

Decide in writing who locks up, who sets the alarm and who holds the master key, as DfE's buying guidance suggests. Evening cleaners often work alone, and HSE says employers must manage the risks before anyone works alone.

• Keys and fobs: a signed register, named holders only, and a process when a cleaner leaves or loses a key.
• Alarm codes: individual codes where your system allows, changed when staff change.
• Lock-up: a check sheet for windows, doors, gates and lights.
• Out of hours: who the cleaner calls about a flood, broken window or intruder.
• Lettings: who cleans and locks up after evening hire.

HSE lists cleaners as an example of lone workers. The duty sits with the cleaners' employer, so ask a contractor how lone staff check in and what happens if they don't. If you employ cleaners directly, the risk assessment is yours.

How should different areas of a school be cleaned?

Write a schedule for each type of area, because classrooms, toilets, sports halls and early years rooms need different methods and frequencies. UKHSA recommends colour-coded equipment, with separate kit for kitchens, toilets, classrooms and offices.

UKHSA says colour coding isn't a legal requirement but is good practice: for example red for toilets, yellow for basins and sinks, blue for general areas, green for kitchens. Reusable equipment should be disinfected after each use.

• Classrooms: agree what staff do first (chairs up, surfaces clear) so cleaners aren't paid to tidy.
• Toilets: UKHSA asks for liquid soap, warm water, paper towels and toilet paper in every cubicle. Decide who restocks during the day.
• Dining hall and kitchen: DfE lists the catering kitchen as a common exclusion because the caterer cleans it. Write down where the caterer's responsibility stops: servery, tables, floor. Ductwork is separate: see kitchen extract cleaning.
• Sports hall: DfE notes specialist floors may need specific treatments. Follow the flooring supplier's advice.
• Early years: UKHSA says changing mats should be wiped with soapy water or mild detergent after each use and at the end of the day. Standalone nursery cleaning will get its own guide.
• SEN hygiene and medical rooms: an agreed routine, and clear rules on sharps and clinical waste, which cleaners shouldn't handle unless trained.

DfE also lists external windows, doors, litter picking and wet and dry waste as things to cover.

What does UKHSA say about cleaning in schools and during outbreaks?

UKHSA says detergent and water is normally enough, and that a comprehensive cleaning contract includes daily, weekly and periodic schedules. In an outbreak, your UKHSA health protection team may recommend enhanced or more frequent cleaning, so agree in advance how the contractor would provide it.

UKHSA's Health protection in children and young people's settings, including education also says:

• Schedules should describe the tasks, how often, and who does them.
• Cleaning staff should be trained and have suitable PPE, such as household gloves and aprons.
• Schools should plan for situations needing extra cleaning, such as an outbreak.
• Regularly clean and disinfect areas in contact with food, dirt or bodily fluids.

For spills of blood, vomit, faeces or urine, UKHSA says to clean immediately wearing PPE, with a product that combines detergent and disinfectant and works against bacteria and viruses, using disposable cloths, and to keep a spillage kit. Most spills happen in the school day, so decide who deals with them.

How should cleaning chemicals be stored in a school?

DfE says cleaning products and chemicals must be labelled and stored in line with COSHH. In a school that means a locked store pupils can't reach, trolleys never left unattended, and safety data sheets kept on site.

COSHH requires employers to plan, manage and monitor hazardous substances, which includes many corrosive or irritant cleaning products. Ask for:

• a lockable chemical store agreed with the site manager;
• trolleys kept with daytime cleaners, never left in corridors;
• products only in labelled containers, never drinks bottles;
• COSHH assessments and safety data sheets on site;
• floors dry before pupils arrive: HSE says most slips happen on wet or contaminated floors.

What should a school cleaning specification include?

List every area with its tasks and frequency, access hours, term-time and holiday weeks, periodic and emergency cleaning, exclusions, who supplies what, safeguarding and key-holding rules, and how quality will be checked.

A trust buying for several academies can use one specification with a schedule per site. For how contractors turn a specification into a price, see office cleaning costs: the method is the same, though school hours and holiday work change the numbers.

How can a school check its cleaning is being done properly?

Nominate one member of staff to monitor cleaning, as UKHSA suggests, inspect regularly against the specification, and give staff an easy way to report problems. Agree in the contract what happens when standards slip.

1. Name a monitor, usually the site or school business manager.
2. Walk the building: a quick morning check of toilets, dining hall and early years, and a scored joint inspection with the contractor's supervisor each half term.
3. Make reporting easy: a shared log so staff can report a missed room the same day.
4. Check hours: ask how cleaners record time on site. Fewer hours than you pay for is a common hidden problem.
5. Review each term and agree actions in writing.

How do schools and academy trusts buy cleaning services?

Follow your school's procurement rules: your own, your trust's or your local authority's. DfE describes three routes: a framework, your own procurement, or in-house cleaning. Above the public procurement threshold, you must use a framework or run your own tender.

In a maintained school the buyer is usually the school business manager, within local authority rules. In academies it may be the school or a multi-academy trust's estates team buying for several sites. If the lifetime value of the contract is over the threshold in the Procurement Act 2023, DfE says to use a framework or run your own procurement with a tender on the Central Digital Platform. DfE reviews a range of frameworks.

DfE suggests starting a new contract at the start of an academic or financial year, or after Christmas or Easter, allowing time for governors or trustees to decide, and gives two years with an option to extend for one as an example contract length.

Switching contractor: TUPE and pensions

Moving cleaning to a new contractor, or in-house, is a service provision change. GOV.UK's own example is a cleaner whose employer switches to an outside cleaning company: they're likely to be protected by TUPE and transfer on the same terms. The outgoing employer must give the new one information about them at least four weeks before the transfer. DfE adds that when you give notice you should ask for transferring staff's pay, terms and pension details, and check whether the Local Government Pension Scheme applies. Those details affect every bidder's price.

Related guides

School cleaning: frequently asked questions

Sources

We checked the facts on this page against these sources on 12 November 2026:

• Keeping children safe in education 2026, DfE (GOV.UK)
• Buying for schools: cleaning services, DfE (GOV.UK)
• Preventing and controlling infections in children and young people's settings, UKHSA (GOV.UK)
• Lone working: protect those working alone, HSE
• COSHH: the law, HSE
• Transfers and takeovers (TUPE), GOV.UK

This guide is general information for UK organisations, not legal, health and safety, infection control or employment advice. Business Cleaning Hub is an independent guide. We don't provide cleaning services ourselves. If you ask us to, we'll put you in touch with one commercial cleaning company from our partners that covers your area.

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