Hospital cleaning is high-frequency infection-prevention cleaning delivered to a defined national standard across every risk area of a hospital. Optus Glean UK cleans NHS and community hospitals to the NHS National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2025 (FR1–FR6, five-star audit) and CQC Regulations 12 and 15, using Enhanced-DBS-checked, PAYE-employed teams and BICSc colour-coded equipment.
The standard we clean hospitals to: NHS 2025
The NHS National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2025 are written for exactly this environment. Every functional area — from operating theatres to ward bays to public corridors — is assigned a Functional Risk category from FR1 to FR6, and that category sets the cleaning frequency, the audit frequency and the target audit score. It gives the trust a single, recognised measure that a CQC inspector and NHS commissioners already understand. See our guide to the NHS 2025 standards for the full FR framework.
High-risk clinical areas and the five-star audit
The highest-risk clinical areas sit at FR1: a 98% target score with weekly auditing. Wards and clinical areas typically fall at FR2 (95%, monthly), with lower-risk offices and stores stepping down to FR5–FR6. Each area is scored against its target as a public-facing one-to-five-star rating — five stars for meeting or beating target, one star for 10% or more below — and anything at three stars or fewer gets a written improvement plan with agreed timescales.
CQC Regulations 12 and 15 in a hospital
A registered hospital is held to CQC Regulation 15 (premises and equipment must be clean, suitable and maintained) and Regulation 12 (the provider must assess and control the risk of infection, including healthcare-associated infections). A Regulation 12 breach is prosecutable where it exposes patients to significant risk of harm. Our cleaning schedules, colour-coding records, COSHH assessments and audit results give the trust the documentary evidence both regulations expect. Our clinical infection-control cleaning covers the highest-risk areas and outbreak response.
Colour-coding, isolation and infection control
We use the BICSc four-colour system across cloths, mops and equipment — red for sanitary areas, blue for general low-risk areas, green for kitchens, and yellow for clinical and isolation areas — to prevent cross-contamination, backed by COSHH assessments and documented method statements for each area type. Isolation and barrier-nursed areas are cleaned to enhanced two-stage clean-and-disinfect protocols with correct disinfectant contact times.
Enhanced-DBS, directly-employed hospital teams
Cleaning in a hospital is regulated activity, so operatives hold Enhanced DBS checks (with barred-list checks where required), or Disclosure Scotland (PVG) and AccessNI equivalents. Every cleaner is PAYE-employed on guaranteed hours — never gig labour — and trained to our documented infection-prevention standard before their first shift, with named cover so high-frequency FR1 and FR2 areas are never missed.