New cleaning standards from NHSE
After NHS England/Improvement (NHSE/I) released the National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness (NSoHC) 2021, NHS Property Services (NHSPS) has reviewed and developed a plan to implement the new cleaning standards with our customers, successfully doing so already with all acute and mental health Trusts.
NHSPS’ approach is to deliver the NHS England National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2021 in a consistent manner, ensuring all mandatory requirements are implemented for all customers whilst also ensuring engagement with each individual customer to determine how best to implement the new standards to meet their needs and requirements.
Throughout November and December 2021, NHSPS undertook briefing and training sessions with FM managers on the new standards, before starting to engage with customers to discuss their requirements.
In line with NHS England and Improvement’s implementation timescales, as of 1 May 2022, the new cleaning standards have been implemented in all acute and mental health Trusts in our portfolio.
From 1 June, FM managers will hold meetings with all other customers to provide detail on NHSPS’ implementation approach and to discuss individual requirements, such as agreeing functional risk categories for their areas.
The FM Service Level Agreement (FMSLA) will be updated accordingly and issued on the date of implementation. Existing key performance indicators (KPIs) will still be met.
All customers will have the new cleaning standards implemented by November 2022.*
More information
How the new standards are being implemented
The article explains that NHS England and Improvement introduced the National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2021, and that NHS Property Services created an implementation plan with customers. The approach described is consistent delivery of mandatory requirements while also working with each customer to define how the standards should be applied in their setting.
Training, engagement, and rollout timing
According to the source text, briefing and training sessions were held with FM managers before customer discussions began. The article also outlines the rollout sequence across acute and mental health Trusts, followed by meetings with other customers to agree requirements such as functional risk categories and updates to service level agreements.
Operational details mentioned in the article
The article also states that existing key performance indicators would still be met during implementation. This gives readers a practical view of how the standards are being introduced without changing the article’s focus from its core topic: clean, structured adoption of the NHS hygiene framework.