Cleaning contract mobilisation: from contract award to a settled service

01

What cleaning contract mobilisation is

Contract mobilisation is the planned process of getting a new commercial cleaning contract from award to steady service delivery, including the handover from the existing contract. It usually runs from the day the contract is awarded to the start date, and carries on through the first weeks after it, until the service meets the standards in the specification and both sides trust the reporting.

The mobilisation period depends on the size of the contract and whether staff are transferring. A single office with a new team might mobilise in a couple of weeks. A multi-site contract with a transferring workforce needs longer, because the legal steps under TUPE take time on their own. Under the Procurement Act 2023, section 51 of the Act sets a mandatory standstill period of eight working days, beginning with the day the contract award notice is published, before the contracting authority may enter into a public contract (a contract awarded in accordance with a framework is one of the exceptions). So the real mobilisation clock often starts later than the award letter suggests.

Several legal duties shape the work. The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) usually apply when a cleaning service moves from one contractor to another or from an in-house team to a contractor. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require the new employer to assess the risks of the work before it starts, and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) require the chemicals to be assessed and controlled. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 set the standard of cleanliness the client must meet from the first day, whoever holds the contract.

02

What a good mobilisation plan covers

A detailed mobilisation plan is a project plan with named owners and dates. Buyers often ask for one in the tender, and the version you win with should become the one you run. It should cover:

• The mobilisation team: who leads it for the provider and which of its operations team will run the site afterwards, who the client's facilities management contact is, and who else must be involved, such as the facilities manager, the school caretaker or site manager, security and reception.
• People: TUPE, consultation, recruitment of any extra staff, vetting, uniforms and identification.
• Site assessments: a walk of every area against the cleaning specification, with measurements, access routes and storage.
• Health and safety: risk assessments, method statements, COSHH assessments and safety data sheets, PPE, and the site's own rules.
• Equipment and consumables: machinery, vacuums, colour-coded cloths and mops, chemicals and dispensers, ordered and delivered before day one.
• Site instructions: work schedules for each operative, keys and alarm codes, lone working arrangements, waste routes and who to call.
• Induction and training: a site induction for every operative, and training needs identified for anyone new to the equipment or the building.
• Systems: how work will be recorded and reported, how the client will raise requests, and how time and attendance will be captured.
• Communication: a timetable of regular meetings with key stakeholders and clear communication channels for problems.
• Day one and the first month: what happens on the start date, when audits begin, and when the service is considered settled.

A good mobilisation plan is short enough to be read and specific enough to be checked, and it ends with a readiness review a few days before the start date, so anything missing is found while there is still time. Successful mobilisation comes from preparation and planning, not from effort on the first morning. "Liaise with client" is not a task; "agree access to the fourth floor plant room with building security by 12 March" is.

03

TUPE and the existing cleaning staff

Where the existing cleaning staff are assigned to the work that is moving, TUPE usually transfers them to the new cleaning provider on their existing terms and conditions, with their continuity of employment. For most cleaning contract mobilisations this is the largest single piece of work and the one with the least room for error.

1. Employee liability information: the outgoing employer must give the incoming one information about the transferring staff, including their terms, any disciplinary or grievance issues and claims, at least 28 days before the transfer in England, Wales and Scotland (14 days in Northern Ireland), under regulation 11 of TUPE.
2. Measures: if you plan changes that affect the transferring staff, such as new hours or a different shift pattern, you must tell the outgoing employer, so it can inform and consult its staff.
3. Information and consultation: both employers have duties to inform, and where measures are planned consult, representatives of the affected employees in good time before the transfer.
4. Meeting the staff: meet the existing cleaning staff early, in person, at times they can attend. They will want to know about pay dates, uniforms, who their supervisor will be and whether their hours are changing.
5. Right to work: the Home Office's employer's guide to right to work checks advises an employer that takes on staff under TUPE to carry out fresh right to work checks, and gives a grace period of 60 calendar days from the date of the transfer to do them. Plan them into the first weeks rather than leaving them to the end of the period.

Where the site needs it, arrange vetting in advance. In schools and care settings the client's safeguarding policy will say what checks are needed, usually a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check in England and Wales, a PVG check through Disclosure Scotland, or an AccessNI check in Northern Ireland, at the level the role requires.

TUPE law is detailed, and the obligations run both ways. Acas publishes clear guidance, and on a large transfer it is worth taking employment law advice before you promise anything to the staff.

04

Site assessment and set-up

Walk the building with the specification in hand, preferably with the client and, if they are willing, the existing supervisor. The site assessment is where the cleaning requirements on paper meet the building as it is: the kitchen that has become a meeting room, the floor that is now let to another tenant, the washroom used by the public on Saturdays.

Use it to confirm:

• every area in scope, by floor and room type, and anything excluded;
• floor types and finishes, and the machinery each needs;
• access times, keys, alarm codes and any areas that need an escort;
• storage for equipment and chemicals, and whether it is lockable and ventilated;
• water, drainage and power for machines;
• waste arrangements, including where bins go and when they are collected;
• specialist cleaning, such as kitchens, labs or clinical areas, and whether it needs different training or equipment;
• where service gaps are likely: early-morning washrooms, evening events, weekend use.

Then turn the specification into site instructions and work schedules for each operative, so each person knows which areas are theirs, in what order, and to what standard. Complete the risk assessments and COSHH assessments for the actual site, not a generic set. Order the equipment and consumables early enough that a late delivery does not become a day-one problem.

05

Day one and the first weeks

Day one should feel uneventful to the client, and the whole mobilisation process should avoid disruption to the people who use the building. The best sign of a smooth transition is that building users notice nothing except, perhaps, a new uniform. That takes a manager on site for the first clean, operatives who have already had their site induction, and a clear plan for anything that goes wrong.

The first weeks are the implementation phase, and they matter as much as the start date:

• Audit early. Should audits start in the first week? Yes. An early joint audit sets a baseline, shows the client you are measuring, and catches misunderstandings about the specification while they are still cheap to fix.
• Meet often. Weekly meetings with the client for the first month, moving to the contract's normal pattern once the service is stable.
• Keep a snagging list. Every issue raised during mobilisation, with an owner and a date, closed and reported back.
• Watch the staff. Transferred staff are adjusting to a new employer and new staff to a new building. Supervisors should be visible, and training needs picked up quickly.
• Report from the start. The KPIs in the service level agreement should be reported from the first month, even if the first report is mostly a baseline.

Mobilisation ends when the service is meeting the service standards in the specification consistently, the snagging list is closed and the client relationship has moved from project mode to normal contract management. Agree with the client what that point looks like, so both sides know when it has been reached.

06

Where mobilisation evidence fails, and what SiteClara does about it

In the first weeks of a new contract the client is watching closely and has little evidence. The previous provider's records have gone with them, the new check sheets are not yet trusted, and the first sign of a problem is often an email from a building user. A new provider can say the service has started well; it is harder to show it.

SiteClara can be set up as part of mobilisation. Each location gets a printed QR poster, with an optional NFC tag behind it, and the scheduled checks due there. Staff, including transferring staff, are enrolled by text and sign in with a link, then scan or tap on their own phone, with no app to install. They mark each check done, or explain what stopped them, and report any issue with a photo; it goes onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes it.

The supervisor sees what is due, done and missed, and a queue of open jobs grouped by building and floor, and can escalate a job to the building manager. Each evening they review the day, add a note and approve the daily report, which goes to nominated client contacts at 8am the next morning, showing what was reported, what was completed, what is still open and how scheduled checks went, for example 12 of 12 completed. From the first morning, the client sees the new service rather than hearing about it.

07

Further reading, and a checklist to take away

Acas publishes guidance on TUPE for employers and employees, and GOV.UK publishes the Home Office guidance on right to work checks. The Health and Safety Executive publishes guidance on risk assessment and COSHH. The British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc) publishes training for operatives and supervisors, useful for induction. For public contracts, the Cabinet Office publishes guidance on the Procurement Act 2023, including contract award and standstill.

Before the start date, check that:

• the mobilisation plan has named owners and dates, and the client has seen it;
• employee liability information has been received and the staff have been met;
• every area has been walked against the cleaning specification;
• site-specific risk assessments, method statements and COSHH assessments are done;
• equipment, chemicals and consumables are on site;
• keys, codes and access are agreed and recorded;
• every operative has had a site induction and has work schedules;
• the first audit, the first client meeting and the first report are in the diary;
• the client knows how to raise a problem, and who will answer it.