Nursing home cleaning is infection-prevention cleaning of a CQC-registered residential care setting, delivered to the NHS National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2025. Optus Glean UK cleans nursing and residential homes to those standards and to CQC Regulations 12 and 15, using Enhanced-DBS-checked, PAYE-employed operatives, BICSc colour-coded equipment, and documented schedules an inspector can audit.
What standard should a nursing home be cleaned to?
Care homes fall within the scope of the National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2025, which apply to all healthcare and care environments regardless of who provides the cleaning. Every functional area — bedrooms, bathrooms, communal lounges, treatment and medication rooms, kitchens — is assigned a Functional Risk (FR) category from FR1 to FR6 that sets its cleaning frequency, audit frequency, and target score.
Results are expressed as a public-facing five-star rating against the target, with any area at three stars or fewer requiring a written improvement plan. We build our schedules around your home's FR allocation, so the frequency and evidence match the standard rather than a generic office rota. See our full healthcare and clinical cleaning approach for how this is delivered.
How do CQC Regulations 12 and 15 apply to care-home cleaning?
For a CQC-registered provider, cleaning sits inside two regulated activities. Regulation 15 (Premises and equipment) requires the home to be clean, suitable, and properly maintained, with an appropriate cleaning schedule that is monitored and acted on. Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) requires the provider to assess and control the risk of infection — and CQC can prosecute a Regulation 12 breach where it exposes a person to a significant risk of harm. Our schedules, colour-coding, COSHH data, and audit records give inspectors the evidence trail both regulations expect; see what CQC requires of cleaning.
Why do nursing-home cleaners need Enhanced DBS checks?
Cleaning in a care home is regulated activity with vulnerable adults, so operatives hold Enhanced DBS checks with the Adults' Barred List check (currently £49.50), or the Disclosure Scotland PVG and AccessNI equivalents in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Every operative is PAYE-employed on guaranteed hours — not gig or self-employed labour — with a named primary cleaner and a named relief, so residents see familiar, vetted faces rather than a rotating cast of agency staff.
How do you prevent cross-contamination in a care home?
We use the BICSc four-colour system — red for sanitary areas, blue for general lower-risk areas, green for kitchens, and yellow for clinical and isolation areas — so cloths, mops, and equipment never move between risk zones. Every product carries a COSHH assessment, each area type has a documented method statement, and outbreak response (enhanced cleaning, correct disinfectant contact times, and terminal cleans) is written into the specification.
Can one contract cover a care group across the UK?
If you run homes in more than one town or nation, you should not have to manage a different local cleaner in each. We provide one contract, one documented standard, one account manager, and one consolidated invoice across every home — with the same method statements and reporting everywhere, and the correct regulator and vetting scheme applied per nation (CQC in England, Care Inspectorate in Scotland, CIW in Wales, RQIA in Northern Ireland). Request a fixed monthly quote for your home or group.
NHS 2025 Functional Risk categories (how care-home areas are graded)
| FR | Target audit score | Audit frequency | Typical care-home areas |
|---|---|---|---|
| FR1 | 98%+ | Weekly | Treatment / clinical rooms |
| FR2 | 95%+ | Monthly | Bedrooms, communal lounges, bathrooms |
| FR4 | 85%+ | Every 3 months | Corridors, offices, lower-use rooms |
| FR6 | 75%+ | Every 12 months | Stores, filing, plant rooms |