CSSA publishes Driver Safety factsheet

The CSSA has published a new health and safety factsheet aimed at improving the safety of drivers in the cleaning and support services sector.

Overall, driving a vehicle is almost certainly the most dangerous thing that a cleaning employee will do in his or her working life. To put things into perspective, work related driving incidents account for over 20 deaths and 250 serious injuries every week. Every year there are over 3000 fatalities on the road in the UK. Of these, around 600 deaths are...

Pennington calls for better facilities in school toilets

Professor Hugh Pennington has called for local authorities to set up a programme of audits to ensure that all schools have adequate toilet  and hand washing facilities. The recommendation comes in his report into the September 2005 outbreak of E. coli in Wales and has been welcomed by hygiene consultant Mike Burton.

Professor Pennington’s report acknowledges the vital role that good hand hygiene and appropriate school toilet facilities play in preventing the spread of infection. Yet many...

Beware the hidden dangers

New Corporate Member - Albany Washroom Services - is on a mission to raise standards in Britain’s loos. The headline sponsor for this year’s Loo of the Year awards has launched a new video designed to highlight the hidden dangers that lurk in washrooms.

The three minute video uses brightly coloured paints to demonstrate how cross contamination occurs in a washroom. It shows how poorly trained cleaners can exacerbate the problem by using the wrong cleaning materials.

Mike Burton, MD of Albany,...

Hygiene Group launch bespoke training programme

Birmingham-based Hygiene Group has launched a bespoke training programme for its supervisory staff which is believed to be unique in the industry.

Tailored to the needs of Hygiene Group and its clients’ businesses, the Supervisory Academy course content is based around standards which are validated across the industry. Rather than taking an external accreditation and then making the course fit into that, Hygiene Group has developed a course model and then gained accreditation for it, with the...

A second gold for Mitie

MITIE is celebrating winning a Gold RoSPA Occupational Health & Safety Award in its cleaning and environmental business for the second year in a row.

The RoSPA awards aren’t just about reducing the number of accidents and cases of ill-health at work but also help to ensure that businesses have good health and safety systems in place. By entering the awards, a business reinforces how seriously it takes health and safety and that it can clearly demonstrate its achievement to a high level.

This...

Cleaning businesses ready for new environmental laws?

Businesses in the sewage, waste and cleansing sector are at risk of prosecution and fines if they fail to comply with new environmental legislation which is expected to come into force during 2009.

Many businesses operating in the sector in England and Wales have only a matter of months to make any necessary changes to bring themselves in line with new regulations on waste controls and environmental damage. However, research from environmental guidance website NetRegs.gov.uk shows that a...