TivloSchool cleaning is one of the most stable contract types available to commercial cleaning businesses. Schools run on long-term budgets, the work is predictable, and once you're in - and doing a decent job - they rarely want to go through a tender process again.
But winning a school contract is harder than knocking on a door and quoting a price. And keeping one requires a level of administration and accountability that catches a lot of cleaning businesses off guard.
This article covers what you need to know: how school procurement actually works, what they'll ask for, how to handle staffing around term dates and what ongoing evidence you need to provide to stay on the shortlist when contracts come up for renewal.
Understand How Schools Buy Cleaning Services
Most schools - whether state-funded, academy or independent - are bound by procurement rules that depend on the size of the contract.
For contracts above certain thresholds (currently £214,904 for public sector bodies in England), schools must follow a formal tender process. Below that, they can use a simpler quotation process, but many still use a structured approach to demonstrate due diligence.
In practice, this means:
- •You may be responding to an ITT (Invitation to Tender) or a request for quotation via a framework agreement
- •Local authority schools often buy through council-run frameworks or buying consortia (like ESPO or YPO)
- •Academy trusts and independent schools have more flexibility but still want documented suppliers
If a school in your area is out to tender, the contract notice will usually appear on Find a Tender Service (FTS) for higher-value contracts, or on the council's own procurement portal for smaller ones. Getting onto a local framework agreement can make you a preferred supplier across multiple schools in a region without having to bid each time.
For smaller independent schools, you can often approach them directly with a well-presented proposal. But don't underestimate their expectations: they're buying a service for a building full of children, and they take safeguarding seriously.
DBS Checks: Get This Right Before You Quote
Every member of staff who works in or around a school must have an enhanced DBS check. This is not optional, and it's one of the first things a school will ask for.
An enhanced DBS check covers criminal records plus checks against the children's barred list. Your staff are typically working during school hours, after school finishes or during holidays when children may still be on site, so the school has a duty to verify everyone.
What you need to have in place:
- •A process to request and track DBS checks for all operatives working on school sites
- •A system to renew them - DBS checks don't expire formally, but most schools want to see a check within the last 3 years, and some want annual renewal
- •Records available to show the school on request
Some schools will ask to see your DBS register before they'll sign a contract. Others will check on first visit. Either way, if you can't produce this documentation quickly and cleanly, you'll lose the contract or never win it in the first place.
If you're using contract cleaners who work across multiple sites, you also need a clear record of which individuals are cleared to work on which school sites.
Staffing for Term Time: The Problem Nobody Talks About
School cleaning contracts look straightforward on paper: clean during term time, reduced service during holidays, deep clean at Easter and summer. In practice, staffing this well is genuinely difficult.
The problems:
- •Operatives who work school hours are often only available during term time; they go elsewhere in the holidays
- •Schools expect enhanced deep cleans at the start of each term
- •INSET days and half-term closures vary between schools, and your schedule needs to reflect the right school's calendar, not a generic one
- •If a regular operative is off sick during term time, you need a DBS-cleared substitute, not just whoever's available
Building a reliable pool of DBS-checked operatives who understand school environments takes time. Some cleaning businesses maintain a small core team specifically for education sites, supplemented by operatives who are available term-time only.
When you're quoting a school contract, be honest about your capacity. Schools have been burned by cleaning companies that win the contract with a low quote and then struggle to resource it properly. A head teacher who has had to complain about the state of classrooms three times in one term will not renew, and will tell other schools.
Evidence of Quality: What Schools Expect Over Time
Winning the contract gets you in. Keeping it requires a consistent record of documented, evidenced service delivery.
Schools, particularly those in multi-academy trusts or with active governing bodies, are increasingly asking for regular written evidence of the service they're receiving. At renewal time (often annual, sometimes 3-year), you'll be measured against this record.
What good looks like:
- •Inspection reports after each periodic clean or quality check. Who inspected, what they found, any snagging items and how they were resolved.
- •COSHH documentation for all cleaning products used on site. Schools have a duty of care to staff and pupils, and they'll ask for this.
- •Incident records for any spillages, equipment failures or issues raised by the school.
- •Attendance records - proof that your operatives were on site on the days they were scheduled to be there.
The more of this you can produce on demand, the less likely the school is to go back out to tender. A facilities manager who can pull up six months of inspection reports during a governor review is a facilities manager who renews without a competitive process.
Where Most Cleaning Businesses Lose School Contracts
Not on the cleaning. On the communication.
Schools raise issues: a classroom wasn't cleaned properly, a bin wasn't emptied before a parents' evening, a product left an odour. These are routine. What isn't routine is what happens next.
If the facilities manager emails you about an issue and gets no reply for three days, you're in trouble. If they raise a complaint and can't get confirmation it's been logged, they start looking at other suppliers. If the head teacher sees a problem during inspection and there's no record of it being reported or fixed, you've lost the contract at renewal regardless of how good the cleaning usually is.
Giving your school clients a clear way to raise issues, view the service schedule, and see evidence of quality checks changes this dynamic. It removes the friction that causes contracts to switch hands, not because of poor cleaning, but because of poor communication.
Build the Kind of Record Schools Want to See
Retaining a school cleaning contract comes down to one thing: making the person responsible for facilities management confident they've made a good choice.
That means giving them visibility. Inspection reports they can access when they need them. A documented response when they raise an issue. A clear record of DBS status for every operative on their site.
Cleaning businesses that put these systems in place tend to renew without competition. Those that rely on "they know we do a good job" find out at renewal that the school had three other quotes lined up already.
If you want to see how your current systems measure up for the kind of contracts schools expect, the Tivlo Cleaning Business Scorecard gives you a clear picture in about 10 minutes.
Take the scorecard at score.tivlo.app
Tivlo is a client portal platform built for UK commercial cleaning businesses. It gives your clients a professional window into your service: schedules, inspection reports, shared documents and a way to raise requests without picking up the phone.