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Clean slate for 2008
This hails a return to an annual cleaning conference for the industry, following a gap this year from one that had been run to date by BICSc and supported by BCC. Key to the conference will be common themes that apply to all sectors from contractors and machinery manufacturers to environmental cleansing and facilities managers. There is certainly a will in the industry to get things right; to constantly mould and evolve into an even more widely recognised professional sector.
Another development is the news that Asset Skills, along with UK Skills, is launching the first skills challenge for the cleaning industry. UK Team Challenge is a new competition aimed at cleaning staff. The event will take place in October 2007, across the UK, with the winning team then representing the UK in the Euroskills Competition in Rotterdam in 2008.
This is a marvellous way of encouraging increased skills as well as team work for cleaning workers, plus a chance for the UK to show the rest of Europe how well they scrub up. The Cleaning & Hygiene Suppliers’ Association (CHSA) has developed a scheme entitled Beat The Cheats to counter the cleaning product manufacturer culprits who are falling short of what is advertised, eg by failing to provide the quoted length of toilet rolls; by using inferior polythene in refuse sacks or putting less yarn in to mop heads.
The campaign has seen manufacturing standard accreditation schemes put in place by CHSA members and customers. This initiative has the backing of Government and Trading Standards. CHSA would urge those procuring business cleaning supplies to check whether it has been manufactured by members of the accreditation schemes in order to be assured of quality.
Much work is going on behind the scenes of the Pathway Card scheme, currently run by BICSc, CSSA and Asset Skills (supported by BCC), including the offer by CSSA to its members to purchase cards at the rate of £10. This offer ran until the end of July but is just one of the many plans of the Pathway consortium to expand the scheme in many areas.
31 July saw another deadline in the industry – for entrants of the Loo of the Year Awards, run by the British Toilet Association and sponsored by the British Cleaning Council. The awards’ scheme is growing in popularity, thanks in no small part to the stalwart efforts of Richard Chisnell and his team whose campaign grabbed the attention of the TV media in programmes such as the BBC’s One Life series.
This year’s final will be taking place at Birmingham’s National Motorcycling Museum on 5 December. ABCD has released a programme of its next Netshop day taking place on 3 October this year at Haigh Hall in Wigan. One of the key speakers will be presenting on the hot topic of the environment and sustainability: carbon monitoring and in particular green procurement for cleaning departments.
Other key areas of interest will be demonstrated in workshops on cleaning careers for exoffenders and training staff where English is not their first language.
These are some of the subjects that will be explored at this biannual event for local authority cleaners, which is a frequent sell out.
BCC members are:
- Asset Skills
- Association of Building Cleaning DSPs (ABCD)
- British Association for Chemical Specialities (BACS)
- British Association for Cleaning in Higher Education (BACHE)
- British Carpet Technical Centre – Cleaning & Maintenance Research and Services Organisation (BCTC-CAMRASO)
- British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc)
- British Toilet Association (BTA)
- Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM)
- Cleaning & Hygiene Suppliers’ Association (CHSA)
- Cleaning & Support Services Association (CSSA)
- ENCAMS
- Federation of Window Cleaners (FWC)
- Industrial Cleaning Machine Manufacturers’ Association (ICMMA)
- Keep Wales Tidy (KWT)
- National Carpet Cleaners Association (NCCA)
- National Association of Wheeled Bin Washers (NAWBW)
- UK Cleaning Products Industry Association (UKCPI)
- UK Housekeepers Association (UKHA)
- Worshipful Company of Environmental Cleaners
Article By Eibhlin O’Somachain.
Communications & Marketing Manager
British Cleaning Council.
For further information on BCC and its members:
Web: www.britishcleaningcouncil.org
Tel: 01562 851129
E.mail: info@britishcleaningcouncil.org
