Requirements and vetting
School Cleaning Requirements in NSW: What to Ask a Contractor
A school cleaning arrangement fails in two places, and both are administrative rather than practical: nobody planned the holidays, and nobody was tracking a cleaner's Working with Children Check expiry. Here is what to require, and who should be carrying each burden.
- WWCC numbers and expiry dates — and who tracks them
- What a term-time specification must actually list
- The boundaries to write around laboratories and prep rooms
- Why the holiday programme is agreed a term early
Operating since 2015
One documented cleaning standard, applied site by site across Sydney and regional NSW
- Police-checked cleaners
- Vetted and inducted before they set foot on your site
- $20m public liability
- Certificates of currency issued before the first shift
- Rolling agreement, no lock-in term
- Scope and price in writing within 24 hours
What should an NSW school require of a cleaning contractor?
Start with vetting. In New South Wales the Working with Children Check is administered by the Office of the Children’s Guardian and each check carries a verifiable number, so a school should ask for the numbers and expiry dates of the specific cleaners attending, alongside a national police check register — and should establish who is responsible for tracking those expiry dates. Clean Best tracks them itself.
Then the scope, on two cycles. A term-time specification listing the nightly reset of classrooms, corridors, halls, amenities, canteens, offices and libraries, with any mid-day pass over student toilets and touchpoints written separately. And a holiday programme — carpet extraction, hard-floor stripping and sealing, high-level dusting, light fittings, window cleaning — because the break is the only window those tasks will ever get.
Finally, the boundaries. General cleaning of laboratories, art rooms, workshops and food technology rooms should be in scope; chemical storage, specimen handling and kiln areas should be explicitly excluded and left with the school’s own staff. A specification that leaves this to a cleaner’s judgement at nine in the evening is a hazard nobody asked for.
- Operating since 2015Trading continuously since 2015
- Police-checked cleanersWorkplaces, clinics, campuses, buildings and homes
- $20m public liabilityPlus workers compensation for every person on the roster
- Every site audited monthlyFindings and corrective actions issued in writing
Terms, holidays and vetting
The requirements, and who should be carrying each one
The school cleaning requirementsthat actually matter in NSW are not the ones on the tender form. A campus cleaning arrangement fails in two places, and both are administrative rather than practical. The first is that nobody planned the holidays, so the fortnight that should have carried the carpet extraction and the floor sealing evaporates into improvisation and the work rolls into the next break, and the one after that. The second is that a cleaner’s Working with Children Check expired and nobody was tracking it.
Both are solvable by writing things down and putting somebody in charge of them who is not the business manager. Every heading below is a requirement you can put to any contractor bidding for the campus, including us.
The holidays are the only window, so we plan them a term ahead
Carpet extraction, hard-floor stripping and sealing, high-level dusting, light diffusers, window cleaning and the detailed cleaning of rooms that cannot be touched during term all live in the same two-week gap. If that programme is not written, priced and agreed before the term ends, it will not happen — and every business manager reading this already knows exactly how that conversation goes in week one of the break. So we propose it a term early, with a room-by-room schedule and a fixed price.
Term time: the reset, and the mid-day pass
Classrooms, corridors and amenities are reset overnight, after the last after-school activity actually finishes — which on most campuses is considerably later than the timetable suggests once sport, music and after-school care are counted. Student toilets often need a mid-day pass as well, because a primary school bathroom at one in the afternoon bears very little resemblance to the same room at eight in the morning, and pretending otherwise is how a campus develops a reputation.
Laboratories and specialist rooms, with the boundaries written down
General cleaning of laboratories, art rooms, workshops and food technology rooms is ours: benches, floors, sinks, touchpoints and waste. Chemical storage, specimen handling, kiln areas and anything needing subject knowledge stays with school staff, and that boundary is written into the specification rather than left to a cleaner’s judgement at nine in the evening. Every science coordinator we have met has relaxed visibly at that paragraph, which suggests it is not the industry norm.
Vetting the campus does not have to administer
Every cleaner holds a current Working with Children Check verified against the register, plus a national police check. We track the expiry dates. A school should not be spending its own administrative capacity chasing eleven WWCC renewals from a contractor, and the moment that responsibility drifts back to the campus is the moment somebody eventually misses one.
Multi-campus groups
A junior school and a senior campus are different buildings with different risks, so each gets its own specification. What they share is the vetting register, the insurance, the audit cycle, the account manager and the invoice — and one monthly report that puts the campuses side by side, which is the only practical way a group business manager can tell which site is quietly slipping.
What it costs to find out
A supervisor walks the campus at no charge, including the outdoor areas and the rooms nobody mentions until the second visit. Within 24 hours you have a term-time specification, a holiday programme proposal and a fixed price for both. Most schools change at a term break, which is the least disruptive option and the one we would recommend even if it delayed the start.
Call 1300 494 983 and tell us when the last activity finishes.
Holiday programmes
The two weeks that decide what the campus looks like all year
A school term is a poor environment for periodic cleaning. Rooms are occupied, floors cannot be closed for drying, and access to anything above head height is limited by the fact that children are underneath it. Everything of consequence has to happen in the breaks.
So the holiday programme is written a term in advance with a room-by-room schedule and a price, and it is treated as a commitment rather than an aspiration. If we cannot complete the programme in the window, we say so before the term ends, when the school still has time to make a decision about it.
- Room-by-room holiday schedule proposed a full term ahead
- Carpet extraction, floor stripping and sealing, high-level dusting
- Window cleaning and light diffusers while rooms are empty
- Priced separately from the term-time scope, never bundled invisibly
The written specification
What a school specification usually covers
A typical term-time scope for a Sydney campus. Yours is written from the walkthrough, and the holiday programme is proposed alongside it.
- Reset classrooms: desks, chairs, whiteboards, floors, bins and touchpoints
- Clean corridors, lockers, stairwells and circulation areas
- Sanitise student toilets and restock consumables, with a mid-day pass where needed
- Clean staff rooms, offices, meeting rooms and staff amenities
- Clean the canteen and food areas to a commercial kitchen standard
- General clean of laboratories, art rooms and workshops within the written boundaries
- Clean the library, hall and assembly spaces on the agreed cycle
- Disinfect high-touch points: door handles, hand rails, taps, bubblers and switches
- Vacuum and mop all hard floors and carpet across teaching and admin areas
- Empty and remove all waste and recycling to the collection point
- Sweep covered outdoor areas, walkways and the canteen surrounds
- Report damage, graffiti and maintenance faults to the business manager
Chemical storage, specimen handling and kiln areas remain with school staff. Carpet extraction, hard-floor sealing, high-level dusting and window cleaning are scheduled into the holiday programme and priced separately.
Commercials
How a school cleaning price is built
We price the classroom count, the specialist rooms, the amenities, the canteen, the outdoor areas and the real finishing time of the campus — plus a separately priced holiday programme.
Small campus
Primary schools and small independent campuses with classrooms, a hall, an office block and amenities.
- Nightly classroom, corridor and amenities reset
- Mid-day pass on student toilets where the campus needs it
- WWCC-cleared cleaners, expiry dates tracked by us
- Holiday programme planned a term in advance
Fixed figure, issued in writing before anyone starts.
Full school
Larger schools with specialist rooms, laboratories, a canteen, gymnasium and extensive outdoor areas.
- Full nightly clean rostered around after-school activities
- Canteen and food areas to a commercial kitchen standard
- Laboratories and specialist rooms with written boundaries
- Monthly supervisor audit against the specification
Fixed figure, issued in writing before anyone starts.
Campus group
Multi-campus schools and college groups that need one standard, one vetting register and comparable reporting.
- A specification per campus, one agreement across the group
- Consolidated WWCC and police check register
- Holiday programmes planned and priced together
- One account manager, one consolidated invoice
Fixed figure, issued in writing before anyone starts.
Site inspection at no charge, then a written scope and price inside 24 hours.
The process
How a campus changes cleaning contractors
Four steps, ideally timed to a term break — the least disruptive changeover available and the one we would recommend even if it delays the start.
- 01
Tell us about the campus
Call 1300 494 983 with the classroom count, the specialist rooms, whether there is a canteen, and when the last after-school activity actually finishes.
- 02
Walk the grounds
A supervisor walks the campus — classrooms, corridors, amenities, canteen, hall, laboratories and the outdoor areas nobody mentions until later.
- 03
Specification, holidays and price
Within 24 hours you receive the term-time specification, the holiday programme proposal and a fixed price for both.
- 04
Verify, induct, audit
Every cleaner's WWCC is verified, the crew is inducted on the campus, and a supervisor audits the school monthly against the specification.
FAQ
What campuses ask before appointing a cleaning contractor
What business managers, facilities coordinators and campus group operations leads settle before a changeover.
What vetting should a school require of a cleaning contractor?
Ask for Working with Children Check numbers and expiry dates for the specific people attending, plus the national police check register. In New South Wales the check is administered by the Office of the Children's Guardian and each one has a verifiable number, so a contractor unwilling to provide them is answering the question by not answering it. Clean Best requires a current check for every cleaner rostered to a campus, and tracks the expiry dates itself rather than leaving that burden with the school.
How is a school clean structured around the school day?
The main clean runs after the last activity finishes, which on most campuses is later than people expect once sport, music and after-school care are counted. Classrooms, corridors and amenities are reset overnight. Toilets and high-touch points often get a mid-day pass as well, because a primary school bathroom at 1pm is a very different place from the same room at 8am.
What happens during school holidays?
The holidays are when the real work gets done, and a school cleaning contractor that treats them as downtime is wasting the only window it will ever get. Holiday programmes are planned a term ahead: carpet extraction, hard-floor stripping and sealing, high-level dusting, light fittings, window cleaning and detailed cleaning of rooms that cannot be touched in term time. The programme is priced and agreed before the term ends.
Can you clean a multi-campus school or a college group?
Yes. Each campus gets its own specification, because a junior school with forty classrooms and a senior campus with science laboratories and a gymnasium are different buildings with different risks. The vetting, insurance, audit cycle, account manager and invoice are shared across the group, and the monthly report puts the campuses side by side so the business manager can see which one is drifting.
Do you clean science laboratories and specialist rooms?
General cleaning of laboratories, art rooms, workshops and food technology rooms is included, but the boundaries are written down. Benches, floors, sinks, touchpoints and waste are ours. Chemical storage, specimen handling, kiln areas and anything requiring subject-specific knowledge stay with the school's staff, because a cleaner improvising in a prep room is a hazard nobody asked for and no specification should permit.
How do you handle canteens and food areas?
To the same standard as any commercial kitchen: benches, sinks, splashbacks, appliance exteriors, floors, waste and touchpoints, with the frequency set by how the canteen actually operates rather than how often somebody thinks it is used. Deep cleaning of extraction, ovens and cool rooms runs as a scheduled programme, usually in the holidays, and is quoted separately.
What about vandalism, graffiti and spills during term?
They are reported and, where they are within the specification, dealt with. Graffiti removal, biohazard spills and anything requiring specialist chemicals or equipment are priced as call-out work rather than absorbed silently, because a school deserves to know what its incidents actually cost. Everything is photographed and logged so the business manager has a record for the next budget conversation.
How quickly can a campus change cleaning contractors?
Most schools change at a term break, which is by far the least disruptive option and gives us the inspection window we need. Mid-term changeovers are possible: allow about a fortnight from the first call to a fully inducted crew, and the WWCC verification for every cleaner is not a step we will shorten for anybody, regardless of the start date.
Keep reading
The rest of the due diligence
What a contractor should be able to evidence in each setting, and the documents to ask every one of them for.
Ask for the WWCC register before you ask for a price
Free campus walkthrough, then a term-time specification, a holiday programme and a fixed price within 24 hours. Call 1300 494 983.