Introduction
Cleaners and housekeepers are the forgotten workers in the workplace when it comes to health and safety. Whether cleaners work in customer’s homes, care homes, offices, factories, or hospitals, they are the frontline workers for ensuring day-to-day hazards in the workplace are reduced as far as is reasonably practicable.
Think about the roles cleaners carry out on a routine basis? Cleaning isn’t just for appearance. Cleaning has a critical and equally important role in ensuring the health and safety for all people, including customers.
The work cleaners do often ensure key surfaces like hi-touch surfaces and food preparation worksurfaces are not just clean but hygienically clean, thus reducing the risk of an infection spreading. Cleaners will interact with surfaces and items as they clean and carry out their tasks, more than anyone else in the organisation. So, it is very likely they will notice hazards first, if they don’t, the next person could be your staff or customers. Not only that, but the very nature of the work cleaners do is physical demanding, where it is very common to see musculoskeletal disorders across a significant number of the workforce.
Ideal For:
Cleaners employed in all industries
Employed and self-employed domestic cleaners
Housekeepers in care and residential homes
Cleaning supervisors
Choose the best training delivery option for you
On-Site
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- One day course with half day option
- Option to include additional cleaner training modules
- 12 months support for delegates and organisation
- Optional follow-up training assessement
- From £475 per session of up to 10 delegates
Distance Learning
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- Cost effective
- Study worldwide
- 12 months support for delegates
- Fully printable course materials
- Online assessment
Customised Learning
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- Fully customised delegate workbooks
- Study worldwide
- 12 months support for delegates and organisation
- Fully printable course materials
- Optional online or onsite assessment
Key Learning Skills
A good understanding of the law and responsibilities
Knowledge of specific cleaning hazards and risks
Demonstrate safe working cleaning practices
Demonstrate safety and hazard awareness in the workplace and adoption of risk-based thinking in working practices
Knowledge and understanding of continuous improvement for safer working practices
Knowledge of required PPE to use
The ability to work safely with electrical and non-electrical cleaning equipment
Comprehensive knowledge in in the safe use, handling and storing of detergents and cleaning products (practical COSHH to full COSHH training)
The skills to spot potentially unsafe conditions in working practices, working environment, equipment and situations
Training Overview
Understand the risks to reduce costly accidents
Structure
The training service we provide is divided into 5 modules for cleaners and housekeepers and an additional module designed for supervisors, team leaders or cleaners promoted with oversight over one or more cleaning staff. All these modules can be combined in any way you wish to create a custom course. A course can be further customised to your specific working environment (hot, cold, noisy) and to your specific equipment, including any in-place and process (CIP) equipment, or procedures.
Modules
Summary
UK Health and Safety Law
For UK-based organisations and individuals, this module establishes a firm understanding of the UK legal structure that underpins all health and safety. For non-UK organisations and individuals, this module can be skipped as the remaining content is applicable in all countries. This module covers the following topics:
Law and legal responsibilities
UK Key statistics for workplace injuries
Employer and Employee legal responsibilities
Physical Hazards
Cleaning is a highly physical job. Cleaners are routinely and repetitively required to lift and transport relatively heavy and bulky items, items like mop buckets, waste bags and cleaning machinery (buffers, scrubber-driers, vacuum cleaners, carpet cleaners, etc). Cleaners also required to perform repetitive physical tasks like mopping and vacuum cleaning that can cause muscle strain and other chronic injuries.
This module focuses on all aspects of physical cleaning work, and covers the following topics:
Detailed look at musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and injuries in cleaners
Safe manual handling
Situations and consequences of poor working practices
Safe working practices for manual cleaning activities (using trigger spray bottles, using cloths, hand buckets, floor mopping, etc)
Visual checks on electrically powered and battery powered equipment
Safe storage practices
Chemical Hazards (COSHH Training)
Cleaners routinely use irritant and corrosive chemicals that pose a risk to themselves and others. This module covers COSHH training that demonstrates to cleaners the risks posed by cleaning chemicals, and the safe use and handling of all types cleaning chemicals for contract and routine cleaning. This module covers the following topics:
Short term (acute) and long term (chronic) effects of exposure to cleaning chemicals
Exposure routes by cleaning activity
Understanding dilution and the consequences of poor dilution practice
Identifying key usage and safety information from all sources (product labels, chemical safety data sheets, etc)
Identifying appropriate working practices to reduce risk (including trigger spray bottles, hi-level work, descaling and degreasing tasks)
Biological Hazards
Cleaning plays an incredibly important role in controlling and preventing the spread of an infection. Therefore, by the very nature of the job, cleaners are routinely exposed to surfaces that carry a risk of contamination, but at the same cleaners are required to reduce the risk of a spread of infection to others from these same surfaces.
Beyond infection control in routine cleaning, cleaners are asked to clean up after bodily fluids spills. This cleaning activity places the cleaner at significant risk from contracting pathogenic infections, including HIV and Hepatitis from blood. This module looks at the specific handling, cleaning and decontamination procedures required to return an area back to use. This module covers the following topics:
Specific exposure routes
Use and understanding of colour-coded cleaning equipment
Infection control in routine cleaning
Specific pathogenic infections
PPE and waste handling equipment
‘Search and Clear’ procedures for potentially hidden Sharps
Handling procedures for Sharps, blood and non-blood contaminated items
Clean up and disinfection procedures
Essential Health and Safety Principles (supplementary resource)
This course is supplemented with essential principles that provide of a foundational understanding of risks and hazards and the consequences of poor working practices. This has such a profound impact on safety, not just for the cleaner but also for everyone. This is an important resource that covers all the basic health and safety requirements for safe working, and covers the following topics:
Understanding hazards and risks
Understanding health and safety obligations
Personal hygiene, illness, handwashing and personal safety
Hazards to health (physical, chemical, and biological)
Health and safety consequences of poor working practices
PPE - Personal Protective Equipment
Cleaning and general site safety awareness
Emergency procedures/ First aid
Certified & Accredited
Where will this take you?
You will receive a personalised certificate (1 per user), each with a unique certification number. The certificate can be validated by simply contacting us.
You will be entitled to use the title of certified Cleaning Masterclass cleaner.