Contract cleaning tender: how to run one as the buyer

01

How a contract cleaning tender works, and the rules that apply

A contract cleaning tender is a structured competition: the buyer describes the cleaning service it needs, invites cleaning companies to submit a bid, evaluates the submissions against published criteria, and awards the contract to the best one. Done well, it gives every supplier the same information, time for preparation and a fair opportunity, and gives the buyer a decision it can explain, whether it is a county council buying contract cleaning services across dozens of sites or a single office buying commercial cleaning.

Which rules apply depends on who is buying:

• Public sector buyers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, including councils, NHS bodies, academy trusts and universities that count as contracting authorities, follow the Procurement Act 2023, in force since 24 February 2025. Above the financial thresholds it requires a published tender notice on the central digital platform, Find a Tender, a competitive procedure (the open procedure, or the competitive flexible procedure the buyer designs), award to the most advantageous tender against the published criteria, an assessment summary for each bidder, and a standstill period before the contract is signed. Below the thresholds lighter rules apply, but some publication duties remain.
• Devolved public bodies in Scotland follow Scotland's own procurement law and advertise on Public Contracts Scotland. Welsh bodies have additional duties under Welsh legislation, including the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023.
• Frameworks let public buyers call off from suppliers already appointed through a competition, often with a short further competition. They can save months, but check the framework's scope and terms fit your sites.
• Private buyers, such as companies, managing agents and charities that are not contracting authorities, can run any fair process they choose. The public sector disciplines are still good practice.

Public buyers should read the Cabinet Office's guidance on the Act, or take procurement advice, before starting. The rest of this guide covers what makes a cleaning tender work, whichever rules apply.

02

What the tender documents should contain

Bidders can only estimate and price what they are told, so prepare the pack before the notice goes out. A complete set of tender documents usually includes:

• The specification: every site and area, the tasks and frequency of cleaning, periodic work, the standard expected, and working hours and access. Our guide to the cleaning specification covers this in detail.
• Site information: floor areas by type, floor finishes, washroom and kitchen counts, occupancy and opening hours, and any restricted or specialist areas.
• TUPE information about the staff currently doing the work (see below).
• The contract terms, including length, break clauses, price review, insurance and liability.
• Performance management: the service levels, key performance indicators, audit method, rectification times and any service credits, ideally as a draft service level agreement.
• Consumables and equipment: who will provide and supply what, and any products or colour coding required.
• Health and safety requirements: COSHH, risk assessments and method statements, lone working, and site rules.
• Pay commitments, such as a requirement to pay the real Living Wage, if the buyer has one.
• The evaluation criteria and weightings, the questions, the pricing schedule and the timetable, including the site visit and the deadline for clarification questions.

A good test: could two experienced cleaning contractors read the pack and arrive at similar staffing hours for the building? If not, the difference between their prices will reflect guesswork, not value.

03

Site visits, clarifications and TUPE information

Site visits let bidders see the building before they price it. Offer every bidder the same visit, with the same route and the same person answering questions, and publish the answers to all bidders. Show the difficult areas: the busiest washrooms, the kitchens, the entrances in wet weather, the storage for equipment and chemicals.

Clarification questions should go through one channel, with a published deadline and answers shared with every bidder, anonymised. Clarifications often reveal gaps in the specification; correct the pack if they do.

TUPE is usually the largest single cost question in a cleaning tender. When a cleaning service moves from one contractor to another, the cleaners assigned to it will normally transfer to the new contractor under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, keeping their terms and conditions. Bidders cannot price the contract without knowing who transfers and on what terms, so the buyer should obtain anonymised workforce information from the incumbent, through the existing contract's exit terms where possible, and include the relevant details in the pack:

• the number of staff, their roles and contracted hours;
• pay rates, allowances and any pay review dates;
• length of service, holiday entitlement and notice periods;
• pension arrangements, including any protection for staff who originally transferred from the public sector;
• any ongoing grievances, disciplinary matters or claims.

Separately, the regulations require the outgoing employer to give the incoming employer employee liability information at least 28 days before the transfer. TUPE is a legal area in its own right; take employment advice where the position is unclear, and write TUPE information clauses into every new cleaning contract so the next tender is easier.

04

Evaluating quality and price

Cleaning is labour-intensive, so most of the price is wages. A tender weighted heavily on price tends to reward the bid with the fewest hours, which is rarely the contract the buyer wanted. Set weightings that reflect the risk of the service, publish them, and ensure the initial price is tested against the hours before you secure a preferred bidder.

Quality questions should ask bidders to explain how they will deliver this contract, not to describe their company. Useful questions cover:

1. Staffing and hours: the hours proposed for each area and how they were calculated, cover for absence, and supervision on site.
2. Recruitment, training and retention: induction, the training scheme used, and how staff turnover is kept down.
3. Quality management: how audits are carried out, how often, by whom, and how failures are corrected.
4. Evidence of delivery: how the contractor will show scheduled cleaning and checks were done, not only that the result looked good at audit.
5. Reporting: what the buyer will receive, how often, and what it will show.
6. Mobilisation: the plan from award to the first month, including TUPE consultation.
7. Health and safety, environment and social value, proportionate to the contract.

Score against published criteria with a panel, each member scoring independently before moderation, and record the reasons. Check the price schedule against the hours proposed: a price that cannot pay the proposed hours at lawful wages, plus on-costs, is a warning. Under the Procurement Act 2023, public buyers may disregard a tender whose price is abnormally low, but must first tell the bidder and give it a reasonable opportunity to show it can perform the contract for that price. Take references from current clients of similar buildings, and visit one if you can.

05

Award, standstill and mobilisation

Public buyers must notify the result, give each bidder an assessment summary, and observe the standstill period before entering into the contract. Private buyers should still tell unsuccessful bidders why, briefly; it improves the next competition. For larger public contracts, the Procurement Act 2023 also requires key performance indicators to be set and performance against them published during the contract.

Then the tender becomes a contract. Mobilisation is where the promises in the submission meet the building: TUPE consultation with transferring staff, site inductions, COSHH assessments for the new products, keys and alarm codes, equipment and consumables, and a start date. Agree a mobilisation plan with named owners, walk the site with the new contractor before day one, and hold a review after the first month against the KPIs in the tender. Our guide to cleaning contract mobilisation covers it step by step.

Keep the tender file: the specification, the winning submission and the evaluation notes. They are the baseline when you manage the contract, and the starting point for the next tender.

06

Where tender promises fail, and where SiteClara fits

Every submission promises supervision, audits and reporting. The gap usually appears after mobilisation, when the buyer realises that the only regular evidence of delivery is a monthly audit score and the absence of complaints. A washroom checked hourly in the tender becomes a sheet on the door, and a missed evening clean surfaces as an email the following morning.

One way to close the gap is to specify daily evidence of delivery in the tender, and SiteClara is one tool for it. A printed QR poster at each location, with an optional NFC tag behind it, lets cleaning staff confirm each scheduled check with a scan or a tap on their own phone, with no app to install. Staff see what is due and mark it done, or explain what stopped them, and can report an issue with a photo, which goes onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes it. The contractor's supervisor reviews the day's totals and photos, adds a note and approves a daily report, which reaches the client's nominated contacts at 8am the next morning, showing what was reported, completed and still open, and how scheduled checks went. Where the building owner and the contractor share a site, each company keeps its own staff, forms and approval. It is priced per building, with no per-person fees.

07

Further reading, and a list to take away

For public buyers, the Cabinet Office publishes guidance on the Procurement Act 2023, and tender notices appear on Find a Tender (Public Contracts Scotland in Scotland, and Sell2Wales for many Welsh opportunities). The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) and GOV.UK publish guidance on TUPE. The Health and Safety Executive covers COSHH for cleaning. For how bidders see the same process, read how to win cleaning contracts.

Before you issue a contract cleaning tender, check that:

• you know which procurement rules apply, and have advice if you are a public body;
• the specification lists every area, task, frequency and standard;
• site information and floor areas are accurate;
• anonymised TUPE information is in the pack;
• evaluation criteria and weightings are published, and quality is not drowned by price;
• questions ask how delivery will be evidenced, not only how quality is audited;
• every bidder gets the same site visit and the same answers;
• the mobilisation plan and first-month review are part of the contract.