Training and the development of skills are crucial to the delivery of a quality service.
In addition to enabling people to carry out their roles effectively, they also facilitate entry into the organisation, thereby reducing staff turnover, promote a sense of being valued to the recipient and can foster a team ethic. Consultations and comparisons with cleaning organisations from the public and private sectors reveal that investment in training and development is a high priority. Many of the organisations have achieved the IiP standard and as one private company states in its promotional literature ‘We provide everyone with a real opportunity to develop their potential and progress within the organisation. We are committed to providing a learning framework to help access the right training solution’.
The ELBs’ service provides a wide range of training to staff including induction, accredited skills, refresher, child protection and customer service. However, the review has revealed concerns about the absence of consistent delivery of training across the education sector, especially in schools outside of the boards’ arrangements.
From the surveys, 437 staff provided a wealth of information on their training, which is detailed in Table 15.
Table 15: Staff Training
Type of Training Provided to Cleaners (%)
Satisfaction with Training (%)
Care of Cleaning Equipment 80.8 86.5
Child Protection Awareness 58.3 80.2
Cleaning Standards 24.9 63.0
Cleaning Techniques 71.9 84.1
COSHH 61.5 80.8
Customer Care 29.9 68.8
Disposal of Cleaning Materials 72.3 85.2
Fire Drill & Evacuation 57.5 83.3
First Aid 33.8 70.4
Health & Safety Awareness 68.0 85.4
Induction 72.5 83.2
Wearing Protective Clothing 69.2 83.4
Source: CMSU
From the results in Table 15, it is evident that there are many gaps in the provision of essential training for operational staff. Looking at the figures for cleaning standards, first aid and customer care and then comparing those to the returns for care of cleaning equipment and disposal of materials, there are clear inconsistencies in the application of training. This is an area that would undoubtedly be better addressed through a single service and is another unique selling point of a single provider.
With fewer than three quarters of staff receiving induction training, this may be a contributing factor to the difficulties experienced in turnover of people.
The low number of staff trained in cleaning standards only emphasises the need to establish a quality standard and then to train all staff accordingly. The decision to adopt BICS as the quality standard for the single service will be a key driver in offering career development and employment opportunities for cleaning staff.
Only slightly more than half of people have received child protection awareness training and this supports the picture from the school visits. There is a degree of confusion as to where responsibility lies for delivering this training, particularly to ELB cleaning staff. In many instances the school perceives it is the responsibility of the board and vice versa. This confusion leaves many staff without the necessary knowledge of how to respond in certain situations. Nearly all school principals (99.5%) believe that cleaners need to be fully aware of child protection issues.
Similar to a number of external cleaning organisations, such as Liverpool and South Lanarkshire, some ELBs have established dedicated centres of excellence for training cleaning staff and building supervisors, where operational and health and safety training can be delivered in a purpose built environment. These facilities, which in some instances have become accredited centres, are key assets in the drive to raise standards but they can create problems of access for remote part-time staff.
Therefore, it is necessary to deliver training through a combination of school and centre-based provision. The centres are also valuable resources for generating additional income through training the workforces of other organisations. Training on cleaning techniques, for example, is provided by one board for cleaners from the public and private sectors.
The role of building supervisors in cleaning has been described earlier in the report, in that their behaviour and standards impact on key areas such as staff morale, health and safety, productivity, quality and customer care. Clearly, it is in the best interests of the Cleaning Service to ensure the maximum contribution of building supervisors and to fully involve them in training and development programmes. These programmes should include cleaning techniques and standards, health and safety, use and care of equipment and monitoring. In many aspects this training is delivered by ELBs and some of the organisations have developed specific programmes to incorporate training on supervision, caretaking, maintenance and security.
BELB has produced a training and development prospectus, detailing courses available. These include Health and Safety Induction, Cleaning Proficiency Certificate, Cleaning Supervisor’s Skills Certificate and NVQ Level 2 in Caretaking.
Many boards, such as NEELB and WELB, deploy a dedicated training budget to ensure investment in staff. Training is such an important aspect of service delivery that a specific training budget, based on overall expenditure, should be set aside.
Maintaining records of training is important to the service and to the individual and these are used extensively by ELBs and other organisations. Midlothian Council, for example, has produced a record document that is updated as each person successfully attends training. A further extension of this idea is the ‘Pathway Card’, created by BICS and the Cleaning and Support Services Association to encourage personal development in the industry. Belbclean is a verifying centre for this scheme. The
card is effectively a ‘cleaner’s passport’ that contains the skills, qualifications and experience of the individual and is effectively an electronic CV.
It is acknowledged that the service benefits from development of its people and, in this respect, investment in areas such as Return to Learn, lifelong learning, literacy and numeracy programmes to establish a baseline can produce significant long-term dividends to both service and staff.
The Public Service Commission in NI has published a guiding principle on capacity building for staff. This document recommends adopting a capacity building strategy.
A similar approach has been adopted in the health sector and has brought wide-ranging benefits in relation to reducing turnover, improving morale and increasing motivation. A similar recommendation was made in BELB’s Best Value Review of Behaviour Support ‘Behaviour in a Learning City’, which proposed a whole school approach to staff development.
Recent years have seen an increase of non-English speaking nationals working in the service and it is likely that this trend will continue over the longer-term. This has created difficulties in communications and training and should be addressed strategically.
To optimise the benefits of training and development, a career progression path should be available. In the case of cleaning this could offer prospects for operational staff to attain cleaning site supervisor, area supervisor and management posts.
To measure the investment in training and development, the service needs to establish a suitable MPI. This would demonstrate the degree of investment in the most important aspect of the service: its people.
Of course, training and development of staff is crucial to any successful service, but cleaners also need a number of core skills and competencies to enable them to carry out their work effectively. These skills and competencies include reliability, integrity, flexibility, courtesy, ability to work in a team and a range of interpersonal skills.
From the extensive work undertaken for this review, it is apparent that these qualities are displayed in abundance throughout the staff.
6.6 HEALTH AND SAFETY
As shown in table 15, training and awareness is a major aspect of promoting health and safety for staff and customers. Training involves:
• Health and safety awareness
• Fire drill and evacuation procedures
• First aid
• Safe use of cleaning equipment
• Safe use and disposal of cleaning materials/COSHH
• Skin care
• Wearing of protective clothing
• Use of warning signs and prevention of slips, trip and falls
• Manual handling
From the survey feedback, clearly there are areas for further development to ensure that all staff access essential training. People correctly trained in these aspects help to create a safer environment for customers, visitors and themselves.
Relevant information for managers and staff can be attained from a variety of sources.
The Health and Safety Executive supplies advice and guidance leaflets on a variety of topics specific to cleaning, including:
• Manual handling
• Slips
• Work equipment
• Dermatitis
• Hand arm vibration
• Working with chemicals
• Risk assessment
Further information can also be obtained from the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (www.hseni.gov.uk).