Extra-care and sheltered housing cleaning keeps the shared and communal areas of retirement and supported schemes safe, hygienic and welcoming for older residents. Optus Glean UK cleans these schemes to CQC Regulations 12 and 15, aligned to the NHS National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2025, using Enhanced-DBS-checked, PAYE-employed staff who respect that these are people's homes.
What extra-care and sheltered housing cleaning covers
Extra-care and sheltered schemes give older people their own front door plus shared facilities — communal lounges, on-site restaurants and cafes, laundries, hair salons, activity rooms, guest suites, corridors, lifts and reception. These high-traffic shared areas carry the infection-control risk, and their presentation shapes how safe and cared-for residents feel. We clean the communal and shared facilities to a documented specification and can extend into individual flats where the scheme's service and tenancy provide for it.
CQC Regulations 12 and 15 for extra care
Where an extra-care scheme delivers CQC-registered personal or nursing care on site, it is held to Regulation 15 (premises and equipment must be clean, suitable and maintained) and Regulation 12 (assess and control the risk of infection) — the latter prosecutable where a failure exposes a person to significant risk of harm. We supply the cleaning schedules, colour-coding records, COSHH assessments and monitoring results that evidence both regulations for the communal estate. Our healthcare cleaning service underpins the specification.
Aligned to the NHS 2025 standard
We align communal cleaning to the NHS National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2025, assigning shared kitchens, restaurants, bathrooms and high-traffic areas the appropriate Functional Risk category so cleaning and monitoring frequencies match the risk, and auditing performance against target as a one-to-five-star rating — recognised, documented evidence for the scheme's governance and any CQC inspection. See the NHS 2025 standards guide.
Cleaning respectfully around older residents
These schemes are homes, and many residents are present all day, so how we clean matters. Our operatives work to agreed times, keep walkways and wet floors safe to reduce slip risk, communicate clearly, and treat residents with courtesy. A named cleaner and named relief means residents see familiar, trusted faces — reassuring in a setting where continuity and dignity count.
Enhanced-DBS, directly-employed teams
Cleaning in extra-care and sheltered housing brings operatives into regular contact with vulnerable adults, so they hold Enhanced DBS checks with the appropriate barred-list checks, or Disclosure Scotland (PVG) and AccessNI equivalents. Every cleaner is PAYE-employed on guaranteed hours and trained to our documented infection-prevention standard before their first shift.