Over recent months, we’ve seen the cleaning and hygiene sector make significant progress in a number of areas.
The BCC and its members are constantly driving to highlight the vital and important role of the sector and staff.
Our recently released research report for 2022 again reinforced our message about the true scale and importance of the cleaning, hygiene and waste sectors to the UK economy. Latest figures show that 1.47 million people are employed in the industry - approximately 5% of the UK workforce - ensuring it remains one of the country’s top 10 biggest employers. According to the latest information available, it contributed £58.9 billion to the UK economy in 2019, up from the previous year. All subsectors, bar landscape service activities, saw a year-on-year growth in turnover up to 2021.
It is difficult to draw conclusions about the impact of the pandemic and staff shortages on the health of the industry today as the data is not completely up to date. Nevertheless, the figures clearly demonstrate why our calls for the voice of the industry to be recognised should be listened to. Our sector is massively important to the economic health of the nation.
This message about the economic clout of the sector is one of the key messages in our recently launched ‘We Clean, We Care’ campaign. At the Manchester Cleaning Show earlier this year, we launched ‘We Clean, We Care’ by offering free badges emblazoned with the logo to attendees. The campaign highlights how the role of cleaning and hygiene personnel is frontline and essential to keeping key workers and the public healthy, safe and well and that sector staff are skilled, professional and trained to a high standard. Over the next few months, it will also reiterate another key message about how our industry has been a key component and absolutely vital in the fight against the COVID pandemic and will continue to be essential in returning to normality safely and hygienically, as well as helping to stop any future pandemic.
The ‘We Clean, We Care’ badges we first dished out at the Manchester show have proved to be hugely popular, with orders for several thousand more badges coming in from BCC members. The logo can be downloaded for free from the BCC website and we hope the industry will adopt it in the future.
The launch of the ‘We Clean, We Care’ campaign is only one of recent developments that are very promising for the future of the sector. We’ve seen BCC member the Worshipful Company of Environmental Cleaners (WCEC) launch its Chartered Practioners Register, which will help highlight the expertise of sector staff. Another member, the Cleaning and Support Services Association (CSSA), launched Clean Start, which aims to encourage people outside the industry to consider a career within cleaning. We are also hoping for good news on the bid for the Cleaning Hygiene Operative Apprenticeship in the autumn, though it is still too early to say for sure. If it gets the green light, the training programme and apprenticeship will ensure significant amounts of funding currently lost to the cleaning and hygiene industry can instead be invested in training for personnel. It will also improve recognition for the skills that sector staff have which, as I said earlier, is one of the BCC’s key aims.
It is wonderful to see such good progress on these key sector issues.
About the contributor
Jim Melvin
Chairman
British Cleaning Council