Cleaners on overlooked role during pandemic FORGOTTEN HEROES
W
E THINK of many types of people when we think of key workers – doctors, nurses, supermarket staff, carers. The list goes on. But some have become slightly forgotten amid the coronavirus pandemic.
While people are working, helping to save lives and ensuring social distancing measures are in place, others are tirelessly striving to ensure the public and members of staff in various businesses and workplaces are able to keep safe in their environments. These people are our cleaners.
The ones who are turning up to work every day, putting themselves at risk, to simply ensure everyone is as safe as they can possibly be.
And, even though you may not think it, they have had to adapt to a lot of changes over the past few months in a very short space of time.
One person who knows all about these types of changes is Helen Williams. The 35-year-old runs a business called Clean Sweep that specialises in commercial and industrial cleaning. The office is based in Swansea but the team of 40 work all over the country for various clients.
Their work can vary from cleaning businesses to restaurants and other sites while they also do a lot of work cleaning new-builds. For example one of their contracts was cleaning the new BBC building, in Cardiff, when it was built.
Helen said her business did experience a quieter period, but soon her team were called on to deep clean things like hospitals.
They were responsible for deep cleaning Bristol’s Nightingale Hospital that was built to help in the fight against coronavirus.
Helen said: “It took two and a half weeks from start to finish to build it – it was amazing. We did the clean of that and all the deep cleaning.
“We used specialist equipment. We are doing one in Swansea too.”
It’s been a challenging and busy few weeks for Helen and the team and their dedication to the profession has been second to none.
“It’s quite difficult,” said Helen. “Because you are just doing your job but you’re also trying to maintain the two-metre rule, which is difficult when you have 300 contractors on site – all trying their best, all trying to do a good job.
“We have a deadline but we also have social distancing in place. It’s quite challenging.”
Helen, who has run the business for 12 years, also said there had been an increase in demand for certain services.
“I think cleaners are overlooked,” said Helen. “And not nastily - just because people don’t really think about it. Not because they are looked down on.
“I don’t think people realise how important their job is and how they can be useful.”
There has, quite obviously, also been a lot of risk attached to the role lately as cleaners like Helen have had to visit places like hospitals where people have tested positive for Covid-19.
Helen said: “We were once working on one ward and downstairs had something like 10 positive cases of Covid-19.
“[The cleaners] have children and partners but they have still worked through all of it.
“I just want to thank all my staff and all the other cleaners out there. They are doing a brilliant job.”
Another person who has faced several challenges over the past few weeks is Glenn Perry.
Glenn, 42, has run Ecommercial Cleaning Services, based in Cross Keys, for around seven years.
The commercial cleaning company places ethics high on its agenda - it is eco-friendly and also likes to work with clients who are committed to getting people into employment.
“We like to help get people into work. We’re a feel-good business. It’s not all about the money. It’s more about the work we can do for others.”
The business is 99% commercial and has a host of clients it’s committed too. But, obviously, as lockdown measures were put in place things started to change a lot for Glenn and his company. As businesses began to shut down the demand for work started to drop off.
Glenn said: “I work with 70 contractors – for 95% of these everything stopped. I had 5% going. It was a struggle. I had to furlough most of the staff.
“Gradually as people started to open businesses that 95% soon went to about 60% so now I only have about 30% of people left on furlough.”
Another thing Glenn had to think about was the conditions his staff were working in. Those who were still working had to be kitted out with the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) and he also had to be confident that working environments were safe for his staff to visit.
“I would only feel comfortable sending my staff on a job if I know all the safety measures are in place with the correct measures for us to work,” he added.
At first he said people were confused by the messages, as well as being scared, but businesses like restaurants wanted to start to re-open to offer alternative methods of services like takeaway food that could be picked up from the front door.
This is when the demand for cleaning started to come back into play.
Glenn said: “There was a cause for us to go out and carry out deep cleans and we have a sanitising service we can use to decontaminate bugs causing a spread.
“This is something we have never needed before that will help to stop the spread of viruses and other types of bugs. The service has gone through the roof.”
“The products we use are good enough to clean a ward after the virus,” Glenn said. “We are using these products as standard now.”
“It’s the next frontline from the nurses and doctors. We are the ones behind them cleaning after the virus.”
Jamie Davies, a director at national cleaning company Atlas FM, also offered similar thoughts.
The company has offices all over the UK and in Wales there are bases in Newport and Narberth.
“At the end of March, when some of our clients started to close, some of our clients suspended contracts. What that meant was we were having to put some people on furlough,” he said. “We were quite sensitive to how we did that as we still had a business running so we had to see how we would furlough people.”
Since then, in Wales, the decision was made to close one of the Welsh offices, so the Newport base has shut its doors for now.
Members of the team who could work from home made this alteration and those who are still going out to clean have been kitted out with all the necessary PPE and have been given all the training that’s needed for them to keep as safe as possible.
Jamie said one of the biggest changes he’s seen is the increase in demand for touch-point cleaning. This basically means there is a focus on cleaning things that get touched often like handles, lift buttons, and door handles.
He also said the attitude towards the standard of cleaning has changed, explaining some clients who would ask for around 40 hours of cleaning a week are now asking for 120 hours.
“What they are doing now is not just employing someone to clean,” he said. “Now they are thinking about safeguarding their employees.”
For Gavin Bragg, 50, it’s been a difficult and challenging few months in many ways.
He’s worked as a cleaner at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff for more than seven years and even though some of his work has stayed the same he’s also witnessed a lot of changes since the coronavirus outbreak hit the UK.
A few months ago Gavin was working on the concourse making sure areas like car parks and bins were clean but, more recently, he has helped in housekeeping roles which basically means he goes wherever he’s needed to in the hospital.
In the hospital environment Gavin said one of the most important things is ensuring everyone has the correct PPE.
When asked about what it’s like for the doctors and nurses to have to wear PPE all the time, he said: “I’ve been told it’s extremely hot and they wear it for hours on end. We have to treat everyone whose coming in as having suspect Covid-19.”
What is clear from talking to Gavin is staff at our hospitals really work as a team and, when it comes to taking on Covid-19, they’re all in this together and they’re all as vital as each other.
Whether you’re a doctor, nurse, cleaner, canteen worker, cook or any person who works for the NHS you’re all crucial to making our healthcare service the best it can be and looking after our communities.
“We all play an important role,” he said. “Cleaning is an important role. We still need to feed the patients, we still need to clean things around the hospital. We clean up after [the doctors] and the patients. It’s an important role as any other.”
As well as committing to working in a high-risk environment every day Gavin also has to see and experience a lot of things many of us wouldn’t.
He may not be a medic but he still has to see patients who are very ill coming into the hospital every day and some of them never get the chance to leave.
In a day he can feel pride to know he is helping others in his job, hopeful for patients who are on the road to recovery, but also extremely sad for those people who are very ill and don’t even have the opportunity to turn to their families for comfort.
Gavin said: “When you see someone go home you are so happy for them and then you see other side of it and it’s so sad. I’m extremely proud for what I do for working for the NHS but a lot of people don’t see what we see.”
More than ever cleaners are now proving vital in our society, and in our communities, and they really are going above and beyond to try and keep every one of us safe.