Contract cleaning means the cleaning of your premises is an outsourced service with a specification, a term and a price, rather than an individual you employ or pay by the hour. The contractor employs the operatives, covers absence, supervises the work and carries the insurance. You buy an outcome and a record of it, which is why the contract matters more than the brochure.
Contract cleaner or hourly cleaner
An individual cleaner you pay directly may be your employee in law, with the holiday pay, sick pay, pension duties and dismissal rights that follow, and you carry the risk if they are hurt on your premises. A contract cleaning company employs them instead, covers holidays and sickness from its own bench, and holds employer's and public liability insurance. That transfer of employment risk is most of what the higher hourly rate buys.
What the contract has to say
The specification room by room with frequencies. The hours and the access window. Who supplies consumables and machinery. The audit regime and who signs it. Price review, usually annual and usually tied to the wage floor. Notice and termination. And whether the operatives are the contractor's employees or subcontracted, which decides whose vetting and right to work checks you are relying on.
TUPE is the part people forget
When you change cleaning contractors, the operatives who work on your site usually transfer to the new contractor under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, on their existing terms. That is normal and it is not an obstacle, but it does mean a tender must include the current staff details, and a new contractor quoting as if it will hire fresh minimum wage staff is quoting for something that will not happen.
Reading a contract cleaning company
Ask how many sites the local supervisor covers and how often they visit yours. Ask what the absence cover actually is, because that single answer separates firms more than any accreditation. Ask for two references at your building type in your area. A contractor working across London or Manchester with real local density can cover sickness the same morning; one covering the country from a single office usually cannot.
Questions people ask about what is contract cleaning
What does contract cleaning include?
A written specification of tasks and frequencies for named areas, delivered by the contractor's own supervised and insured staff, with an audit record. Everything else is an extra that should be priced in the contract.
Does TUPE apply when I change cleaning contractor?
Usually yes. The operatives assigned to your site transfer to the incoming contractor on their existing terms under the 2006 Regulations.
How long should the contract term be?
Twelve months with a break clause at three or six months is common and reasonable. Longer terms should buy you something concrete, such as a fixed price or invested equipment.
Can a contract cleaner also do periodic work?
Most can, either directly or through specialists they manage. Either is fine provided the contract names the frequency, the price and who actually attends.