A licence to clean?

In today’s society to achieve the title ‘doctor’ or ‘nurse’ an individual is required to receive formal education and training to ensure they are competent in their roles. The same expectations apply to almost every sector in today’s society, including the fast food industry; for example McDonalds have a range of nationally‑recognised qualifications available to their staff. However one industry in particular continues to remain largely unregulated – the cleaning industry.

Although it is often overlooked, without the cleaning industry we would face many issues including the spread of infection and diseases. The pharmaceutical industry has gone a long way over the years to establish drugs to fight infectious diseases such as Tuberculosis, but without the cleaning industry’s innovations and workforce to aid infection control we would not live in a society with clean water, clean hospitals and clean communities. With figures produced by The Health Protection Agency towards the end of last year reporting an 83 per cent increase in cases of norovirus on the same period in 2011, infection control is still a prevalent concern within our society.

With this in mind it may come as a surprise that some cleaning operatives who are on
the frontline ensuring safe and clean hospitals and care facilities may not have received any accredited training on how to clean effectively and safely. As patients, we trust in the medical profession to ensure that all doctors and nurses have the relevant accredited training and experiences when treating patients. However it is often assumed that cleaning skills are common sense, thus accredited training is not deemed a necessity.

Training to be safe
Since its establishment over 50 years ago, The British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc) has continued its campaign to raise awareness of the necessity of accredited training and standards for the cleaning industry. Over the years the Institute has heard of many stories of cleaning operatives being given heavy machinery and ride-on cleaning machines without accredited training resulting in injury and property damage; on more than one occasion there have been reports of operatives driving ride-on machines off train platforms onto the train tracks. However, in addition to specific training for the use of heavy duty machinery, it is essential that all cleaning operatives receive accredited training in skills such as chemical competence when preparing cleaning solutions to ensure health and safety while performing cleaning duties.

For the average household cleaning, the majority of us rely on shop brought cleaning materials, however for a cleaning operative often the chemicals will be purchased direct from a manufacturer in a concentrated form and are required to be diluted on site. Without accredited training a cleaning operative cannot be expected to know how to prepare chemicals in a safe manor to ensure the correct quantities and dilution are used. For the untrained operative they may not understand the health and safety consequences of using chemicals, for example they may believe that by using an extra dose of chemical while cleaning may allow for quicker cleaning or that there is a higher chance of removing germs and bacteria. However in reality, the operative may be causing long term health risks for themselves and the users of the building.

Furthermore, without initial accredited training a cleaning operative will not have been trained in how to clean effectively and safely. For individuals outside of the industry who only think about cleaning at a weekend when it’s time to do the dreaded housework it may seem an obscure concept that individuals need accredited training on how to clean because after all we know how to clean our own homes right?

In some ways this is true, but in fact it may be that while you are cleaning your own home you are spreading the dirt and bacteria as opposed to removing it. 

Colour coding
When dealing with a building with a large public access, such as a hospital where the risk factor is dramatically increased, it is essential that all cleaning operatives are trained to an accredited standard. Thus providing cleaning operatives with the essential knowledge and skills to allow them to implement colour coding and best practices such as ‘from clean to dirty’ to minimise the risk of cross-infection.

In essence to clean ‘from clean to dirty’ ensures that cleaning operatives always clean the cleanest area of the environment first, gradually working through to the solid areas of the environment. In essence you would never clean the toilet of a washroom and then continue to clean the hand basin before cleaning the floor and door handle as you would spread germs from the toilet to all of the other areas of the washroom. Within a high risk environment such as a hospital this is crucial that cleaning operatives clean ‘from clean to dirty’ to ensure there are minimal risks of cross infection. To illustrate, when entering a hospital ward individuals are typically asked to wash their hands to ensure they do not pass on any infections to patients within the ward, however if a cleaning operative cleaned the basin first before cleaning the rest of the ward this would increase the chance of the spread of an infection.

Colour codes
In addition to ensuring all cleaning operatives clean ‘from clean to dirty’, operatives are trained to use materials in accordance to the recommended colour code for materials and equipment. The BICSc colour code recommends the use of red materials for general washrooms and bathrooms, red and white materials for higher risk sanitary appliances, blue for general low risk areas, green for general food and bar use, yellow for clinical areas, and white for site specific or specialist. Through colour coding operatives will aid in the fight against cross infection by using the correct colour-coded materials and equipment within the correct designated areas, thus protecting the patient, staff, the general public and themselves. However without the accredited training a cleaning operative may not be aware of the importance of the colour coding.

Last year BICSc introduced the first Licence to Practice for the cleaning industry, which ensures that a cleaning operative is competent in the necessary initial level skills to perform their role as a cleaning operative, including chemical competence and the safe use and storage of equipment and materials. To gain a Licence to Practice a cleaning operative must complete the three mandatory units of the CPSS qualification – Chemical Competence, Equipment Safe Use and Care, and Storage of Equipment and Materials. Through the Licence to Practice, we can begin to regulate what remains to be a largely unregulated industry. The Institute believes that every operative should have a Licence to Practice to ensure they are competent in their role and are compliant both with BICSc accredited standards and health and safety requirements.

FURTHER INFORMATION
To find out more information about BICSc training please visit www.bics.org.uk