Early Learning Centres Day Care OOSH
EARLY LEARNING CLEANING
Managing the cleaning and safety projects for Early Learning Centres, Day care Centres and OOSH centres requires meeting legal compliance, effective cleaning, safety and image presentation objectives. Cleaning has a mix of both effective cleaning, and choices on environmental or cost objectives. Little children are vulnerable and greater care is required in setting cleaning and safety outcomes for Early Learning and Child Care centres. In addition, our community sees significant staff rotation in the workforce so cleaning protocols and selection of cleaning products needs to be structured and as logical and simple as practical to ensure continuous high standards of cleaning and safety.
The fundamental objectives in setting cleaning protocols and product selection are safety from legal and moral persepectives, effective cleaning, and economic cleaning.
Simple rules
Set procedures that are logical, simple, and formalised for continuous adoption by staff
Effective cleaning involves Agitation, Time, Chemicals. Sometimes you need to vary the mix to meet practical or legal objectives.
Communicate management and legal policies, chemical safety facts, response procedures to incidents to staff and cleaners if they are external.
Ensure everyone understands the difference between clean surfaces and sanitised/disinfected surfaces, especially as little children will have much greater contact with floor surfaces than adults in most workplaces. It’s a concept to be embraced.
Select reliable suppliers and products that provide you with current product innovations, suggestions to be economic in product usage, and reliable availability of all cleaning and protective products.
Essential Principles
Clean and sanitize bathrooms, kitchen equipment, sinks, shared play areas, and countertops. Sweep and mop your daycare center's floors and vacuum all rugs and soft surfaces. Disinfect doorknobs, cabinets,tables and light switches as well as all phones and computers. Toys may become germ carriers.
Continuous hygiene throughout the day must be supported by effective deep cleaning after hours with equipment and appropriate consumables can be used without disrupting children or staff
Ensure staff are aware of legal compliance standards.
Cleaning satandards vary between cleaning, sanitising and disinfection – see our blog on the differences
Ensure staff are trained on the implications of chemicals, chemical labelling, and dealing with incidents. Have all relevant chemical material in known storage points.
Surfaces that are continuously at risk of germ spreading are common touch points like tables, toys, play equipment and certain floors where sitting/ playing occurs. Even outside areas can be managed with regular surface treatment.
Mechanising cleaning will improve cleaning effectiveness and productivity using vacuums instead of brooms, scrubbers instead of mops, chemical dispensers instead of manual “glug” estimations of chemicals needed
Small children require different toilet paper and hand towels than adults, offering the opportunity of reducing cost and environmental impact.
