How to win public sector cleaning contracts

The market today

Read live from published award and tender notices; the same figures, with every open tender listed, are on the cleaning tenders page. A contract awarded to several suppliers at once counts once.

Who buys cleaning

Office, school, hospital and specialist cleaning is bought by councils, schools and academy trusts, NHS bodies, universities and colleges, housing associations and central government. The cleaning tenders page names the buyers that awarded the most cleaning contracts in the last year, and the suppliers that won them.

Schools and academy trusts are worth particular attention: many run their own cleaning tenders, often for a single site, and they appear alongside councils on the national portals. Read where public sector tenders are published for the full list of places to look.

Start where you can win

• Contracts close to where you already work, so supervision and cover are realistic.
• A size you can mobilise without stretching: the median contract above is a guide, not a target.
• Single sites before multi-site frameworks, unless you can staff every site in a lot from day one.
• Contracts coming up for renewal: a cleaning contract that ends next year is usually re-tendered three to six months before. The cleaning page lists them with who holds each one now.

What buyers ask for

Requirements must be proportionate to the contract, so a small single-site contract should ask for less than a regional framework. Expect some of these:

• Health and safety competence. Often evidenced through an SSIP member scheme; see what SSIP is and which scheme to join. Need help? See specialists for health and safety accreditation.
• COSHH. Cleaning chemicals are substances hazardous to health, and HSE says the regulations require employers to “plan, manage and monitor the substances hazardous to health”. Have your COSHH assessments ready to share.
• Insurance. Employer's liability (a legal minimum of £5 million), public liability and sometimes more; see insurance levels for public contracts.
• Safeguarding on school and care sites. The tender's safeguarding section says what checks staff need before working on site. Read it before you price, because checks take time and cost money.
• A method statement describing how you will deliver: frequencies, staffing, supervision, quality checks and how you handle absence. Our free method statement templates cover both the tender answer and work on site.
• Social value. Many buyers score it; for a cleaning contract it can include fair pay, local jobs and greener products. See social value.

TUPE: the staff may come with the contract

When a cleaning contract passes from one supplier to another, the cleaners doing the work can transfer to the new supplier on their existing terms, often under TUPE. Acas lists office cleaning among the contracts commonly covered. Ask the buyer for the anonymised staff information early, and price from their actual hours, pay and pension. The TUPE guide explains what transfers, the 28-day information rule and a worked cleaning example.

Pricing: labour is most of it

In a cleaning contract the price is mostly hours multiplied by pay. Price from the hours the specification actually needs, at the pay you will have to meet for the whole term, including:

• The National Living Wage, which usually rises each April, and any TUPE staff on higher rates.
• The real Living Wage, if the buyer asks for it or scores it: it is voluntary, set by the Living Wage Foundation, and higher than the legal minimum.
• Holiday, sickness cover, supervision, materials, equipment and travel between sites.

A price that only works if nothing goes wrong is a loss in waiting. How to price a public sector tender has current rates, how price is scored and what happens to an abnormally low price.