This unit is about providing you with practical, straightforward advice to help you work safely and effectively. It’s about understanding the potential risks you face and learning how to manage them properly.

• Hazard vs. Risk: Understanding the difference between hazards and risks, and how to control it. You can’t be aware and prepared without understanding the basics.
• The Cleaner’s Hazard Radar: An overview of how to spot hidden dangers in the workplace (even customer’s homes) and an introduction into the most common hazards, from slips, trips and falls, to chemical, electrical, biological and manual handling hazards.

This unit is all about giving you practical guidance and techniques to minimise risks while you’re actually cleaning.

• Be Safe! Your Guide to Preventing Slips, Trips, and Falls: Slips, trips, and falls are a major cause of injury in all workplaces, and cleaning is no exception.
• Guidelines for Safe Working Practice and Preventing Work-Related Injuries: These guidelines focus on how you move and work while cleaning, helping you to avoid strains, sprains, and fatigue.
• Guidelines for Safe Manual Handling: This subunit focuses specifically on manual handling and gives you practical steps to minimise the risks associated with lifting and moving things as part of your cleaning work.
• Care & Cleaning of Cleaning Equipment: This subunit is all about giving you practical advice on how to care for and clean your equipment, preventing many of the safety and hygiene issues
• Visual Checks of Electrical Equipment (Safety First!): Damaged electrical equipment can pose serious risks of electric shock or fire, it’s absolutely vital to make visual safety checks a routine part of cleaning work.

This module covers essential workplace safety equipment all cleaners will encounter, but covers the important key point that PPE is not a substitute for safe working practices, but it’s a crucial addition to them, providing an extra layer of protection when you need it most.

Cleaning products are the workhorses of your profession. However, it’s crucial to remember that these powerful products are chemicals, and many of them, even those you use every day, pose potential hazards to your health if not handled correctly.

This unit is all about demystifying cleaning chemicals and helping you understand the risks they present. We’ll cover:

• Why it’s so important to be aware of chemical hazards, even in seemingly “mild” household cleaners.
• What makes a substance “hazardous” and the different types of hazardous cleaning substances you might encounter.
• The various ways cleaning chemicals can affect your health – from short-term irritation to long-term illnesses.
• The factors that influence your personal risk of harm from chemical exposure.
• Crucially, how to identify hazardous cleaning substances and find the information you need to use them safely.

It would seem quite obvious that physical and chemical hazards are the most important hazards to be aware of, but it’s equally important to remember that as a cleaner, you are also exposed to biological hazards – those invisible germs, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microorganisms – regardless of the type of workplace you clean. You also play a vital role in preventing the spread of infections, maintaining a healthy environment for everyone.

In this unit we will focus on:

• Understanding the nature of biological hazards in settings.
• The principles of infection control and how they apply to your work.
• Breaking down the “Chain of Infection” and how you can interrupt it.
• Essential hygiene practices, including hand washing and personal hygiene, to protect yourself and your customers from infection.
• Colour-coding equipment to prevent cross-contamination.

This unit is not about making you a first aid expert, but about equipping you with the essential knowledge to respond quickly and appropriately to common cleaning-related incidents and knowing where to find more detailed first aid information when you need it. This module covers:

• Exposure to Chemicals (Skin or Eyes)
• Exposure to Bodily Fluids (Skin or Eyes)
• General Steps After ANY Exposure Incident
• Accidental Sharps Injuries: What To Do In An Emergency

You might think, “I’m not a lone worker, there are other staff in the building,” or “The homeowner is in the garden.” But the definition is simple: Lone working is whenever you work without direct or close supervision. In this unit, we will move beyond basic cleaning safety and look at the specific skills you need to stay safe when you are the only one in the room. We will cover how to assess danger before you even step through the door, how to spot the hidden risks in routine tasks, and exactly what to do if an emergency happens.