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Cleaning of schools - learning from the mistakes of the pandemic
12th of September 2022 Article by Ian Ansermo
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, school children from aged 2-11 had one of the highest rates of infection of any age group. So were cleaning and hygiene standards within schools paying a contributing part and what lessons can now be learned to create a new hygiene culture?
Ian Ansermoz, head of operations for Fidelis Group which specialises in schools cleaning, writes for ECJ.
During the height of the pandemic, school children aged 2-11 had the highest rate of infection of any age group in the UK. This begs the question of whether the current cleaning and hygiene standards within schools played a contributing part in that and what needs to change now that tests aren’t readily available.
Evidently, schools weren’t sufficiently prepared to deal with this sort of breakout and did not have the experience or support to contain the virus successfully. Moving forward, cleaning standards and infection prevention control in educational settings need to be improved to ensure we can better protect students and staff in the event of another pandemic.
Setting a new standard
In order to prepare for and preempt the impact of another potential virus, processes need to be put in place to safeguard students and staff before infection transmission is too high. While reactive deep cleans and fogging are proven to be an effective way of eliminating viruses and reducing the spread of germs in schools, they are simply not enough to deal with new infectious viruses such as Covid-19 that spread rapidly.
Schools should use the most recent pandemic as a learning curve and must rigorously scrutinise the quality of their current cleaning routine to pinpoint improvement areas. Furthermore, with hand hygiene being one of the most important exercises to protect people from the virus, a new culture needs to be embedded to ensure hygiene standards are met.
Precautionary sanitisation and high-touch surfaces
The pandemic has highlighted that end-of-the-day deep cleaning at schools is not sufficient to stop the spread of a virus. As a result, more cleaning companies are offering precautionary sanitation services. This is becoming an increasingly popular way for schools to offer reassurance to parents, staff and children.
This service comes in the form of additional labour provided by an external cleaning company, on top of the regular end-of-day deep cleans. Operatives conduct regular sweeps of the school premises acting as a housekeeper, sanitising high-touch points and high-risk areas periodically throughout the day during school lunch breaks and class changeovers. Regular cleaning like this offers more robust protection against viruses and bacteria that linger on surfaces.
Young children are prone to germs that stem from colds, influenza, pneumonia, and other illnesses. Therefore adopting an enhanced cleaning regime provides a more effective layer of protection for staff and students. In the majority of cases, this will be sufficient and will help eliminate infection routes to entry.
If schools intend to take these precautionary sanitisation measures without the use of an external provider, it’s important these high-touch surfaces are cleaned twice a day and at the end of the day. Before disinfecting any surface, you should clean it with detergent or warm water. Without cleaning the surface beforehand, there may still be dirt and grime which can reduce the ability of disinfectants to kill germs.
It’s hard to tell exactly how long Covid-19 can live on surfaces. This varies depending on the amount of contaminated body fluid, the type of surface, the temperature and humidity - these are all factors that determine how long the virus survives. However, using the correct cleaning and disinfection routine will kill them.
High quality, child-friendly cleaning products
It’s often easy to think that because you are using a harsh cleaning chemical you are keeping the germs at bay, but the reality is that the products themselves may not be safe, especially in schools with young children. They commonly contain hazardous material and chemicals that are dangerous for the body and are often used without protection. In fact, there is potential for these products to add to the germ problem caused by the pandemic.
Using neutral cleaning products is the best way to promote a safe environment for students and staff. Not only do they provide short-term protection against colds and other regular viruses, but to long-term health as well. The chemicals used in harsh cleaning products can sometimes be harmful to human health and to the environment. By investing in neutral cleaning products you can avoid this and also improve the school’s environmental impact.
Creating a new culture
School children are often not aware of hygiene standards and making them responsible for their own hygiene is not an effective way to meet expectations. It’s very important for schools to establish a culture of hygiene that becomes embedded into the everyday routine of the students. Moving forward, creating this culture needs to be a priority in order to educate school children on the importance of hygiene best practices, such as washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
These may seem like generic steps to follow that you would expect to be common knowledge, however many schools are yet to reinforce them. Schools can get ahead and preempt another virus by fully embedding these practices into their school culture and learning from the mistakes of the pandemic.
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