Cleaning in schools is not the way it used to be

In the mid-twentieth century, around sixty years ago, cleaning a school usually meant making it smell of disinfectant with liberal applications of carbolic wherever those in charge thought infection might be lurking, sweeping up the detritus of the previous day and polishing oak parquet floors.  The disinfectant tended to be concentrated in the lavatories, and was only occasionally used in the areas where school dinners were cooked and served, probably because the smell of carbolic was even worse than the smell of the meals.  The sharp odour of wax polish pervaded everything. Prevailing domestic standards of cleanliness were usually the guiding light of school cleaners, since they were rarely professional contract cleaners, but more commonly ladies living locally to the school, who were more ready to adapt to special needs arising from the school’s programme of events than a cleaning contractor working to a regular weekly schedule.

Changing priorities

Priorities have changed more than a little, and the focus has shifted from polished and shiny to infection-free and safe.  Schools in the early years of the twenty-first century, even the older schools, have few parquet floors needing polishing and more plastics-based hard yet flexible non-slip safety surfaces.  Cleaning regimes take much more account of the mechanisms of transmission of both viral and bacterial pathogens, understood following numerous research programmes undertaken over the years. The emphasis now tends to be on mechanical scrubbing to remove dirt and infection from floors, systematic cleaning of all frequently touched surfaces to neutralise deposits of pathogens left by unwashed hands and untidily blown noses, and some mechanised polishing and burnishing, to maintain appearances. 

To give cleaners a better chance of maintaining near-asepsis, students and staff are extensively trained in hand hygiene to try and minimise the spread of infection.  Where a school has a kitchen where food is actually prepared, the staff must be trained in food safety.  In canteens and dining rooms, much more extensive precautions are taken against infections on surfaces than was once the case.

Avoiding blame

Cleaning teams also have to be much more vigilant than they once were about avoidable hazards.  Schools have to be extremely careful to avoid getting blamed for accidents, so cleaning teams cannot afford to leave floors wet after cleaning, or to use equipment with trailing power leads if there are staff or students still in the building when cleaning is carried out.

We talked to Gordon McVean, Sales and Marketing Director at floor-cleaning manufacturer Truvox International, about the purchasing patterns for school cleaning, whether by major contractors or by the schools themselves.  Some 60% of the UK’s educational establishments are cleaned by in-house cleaners, engaged either by the school or by its local authority, possibly because in-house cleaners are more likely than contractors to accept providing extra work or flexible cover to support the school’s special needs and events. 

Gordon McVean makes the point that cleaning equipment purchasers’ concerns about musculo-skeletal injuries and possible compensation claims make the weight of floor-cleaning machines,  their balance when lifted and the ease with which they can be manipulated into lifts or up stairs major issues when buying.

“Certainly, the three sizes of Truvox Multiwash rotary scrubbing machines are popular machines in education, mainly because of their cost-efficiency, but also because they are easy and safe to move around” he said.

Chris Ryan, Group Manager of Cleaning Services for Staffordshire County Council, explained that it was primarily the simplicity of using the Truvox Multiwash scrubber on notoriously labour-intensive safety flooring that prompted the council’s initial purchase for cleaning Staffordshire schools and that it was the effectiveness and reliability of the Multiwash design that encouraged the council to buy more.

“We had trialled various alternative contra-rotating machines, which we found not to be as easy to use or as effective as the Multiwash” Ryan said.  “For our school cleaning services the Multiwash is the most user-friendly, easy to maintain and cost-effective multi-purpose machine available.”

The Truvox Multiwash washes, mops, scrubs and dries on both hard and soft floor coverings in a single pass and leaves floors ready to walk on in minutes – essential for health and safety compliance.  It is extremely effective on ‘difficult’ floors like non-slip safety floors, low pile carpets, entrance matting and escalators.  Easy to use and manoeuvre, the Multiwash has quickly interchangeable brushes, with a range of different brushes available, and easily accessible and removable tanks to make filling, emptying and cleaning straightforward.

Manoeuvrability vital

Manoeuvrability is also very important to schools, especially where older buildings have had to be adapted to handle a much larger number of students and where there are areas in which furniture and equipment are in closer proximity than would once have been the case.  The recently launched Truvox Orbis Battery Scrubber is ideal in these circumstances.

A compact scrubber dryer for small or middle sized areas, capable of work in confined spaces and narrow passages, the Orbis Battery Scrubber Dryer is powered by two minimum-maintenance rechargeable 12V Gel batteries.  The compact machine is particularly useful to contract cleaners because the battery power frees them from the need to gain access to power points to be able to do their work, and it is ideally suited to daytime cleaning because there is no trailing power lead to cause a hazard.  Although compact, the Orbis Battery Scrubber has a 17-litre solution tank with adjustable solution flow and a removable and easily emptied 26-litre dirty water tank, probably the largest capacity on the market for a scrubber drier of this size.

Increasingly, school cleaning purchasers are thinking green when buying cleaning materials and sustainable when specifying how their cleaning is done.  Health and Safety is paramount, but buying machines that use less energy is becoming a major issue.  With the environmental lobby in hot pursuit, no school or cleaner would dare do otherwise.  So it is essential to keep up with latest developments in floor-maintenance equipment and cleaning materials and with the latest areas of concern among school managers and parents.

Vacs with HEPA filtration

One of these issues that concern parents is that of childhood asthma.  There are around 1.1 million children in the UK who have asthma, and the number appears to be increasing.  One of the major triggers for asthma is dust mite, and a high standard of HEPA filtration greatly reduces the likelihood of dust mite and other allergens being discharged by a vacuum cleaner as it is used

The latest range of Truvox vacuum cleaners, introduced in 2010, provides a high standard of HEPA filtration.  The compact and manoeuvrable Truvox Valet Upright Vac is ideally suited to use in schools and wherever there are large areas of carpet and plenty of people to make them dirty.  Its 3-stage filtration includes a HEPA 10 filter to keep airborne particulate to a minimum.

Similarly, the Valet Tub Vac, a compact lightweight tub vacuum with that essential manoeuvrability needed for education and office environments has a powerful 1400-watt motor and 4-stage filtration including a HEPA 10 filter. The Valet Tub Vac retains all dust of 0.3 micron or larger and has a 5-litre dust capacity. 

Take a look at www.truvox.com or email truvox@truvox.com for more information and a demonstration.