WELCOME TO THE LATEST EDITION OF THE BCC NEWSLETTER, THE VOICE

BY BRITISH CLEANING COUNCIL CHAIRMAN JIM MELVIN

The recommendations of the Embedding Effective Hygiene for a Resilient UK report would make sure the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic were learned by putting cleaning and hygiene at the heart of the national agenda.

The report draws on expert evidence, is very credible and deserves to be taken seriously yet so far Government has paid it little or no attention.

There are arguably almost 218,000 reasons why MPs should collectively want to ensure that the nation does everything in its power to learn the lessons of the pandemic and reflect a new national process and culture around cleaning and hygiene for the future in order that, given what we and our politicians now know, we significantly reduce the possibility of revisiting the tragic events of the last few years and potentially causing more lives to be lost.

With flu regularly reappearing and the constant threat of a new Covid variant, we are talking about measures that will protect people’s health and save lives.

For clarity, cleaning and hygiene operatives have a very skilled, vital, frontline role, keeping others safe, well and healthy. The cleaning and hygiene sector is one of the ten biggest industries in the UK, so it is essential that our voice is heard and it will be.

We at the British Cleaning Council and our 22 members are calling on members of the industry to help us campaign for the report’s recommendations to be implemented in full.

We clean but do we collectively care enough to take part? We truly need your help please or do we simply accept this lack of involvement from those in power as the norm and agree that this is where we seemingly sit?

I genuinely do not think that is what staff in our sector believe, and I hope that we demonstrate it across our great industry by active involvement in this campaign. Find out how to get involved on the opposite page.

On page four, you can read all about what is planned for the biggest and best trade show of the year for our sector, The Cleaning Show.

On page five, you can find an update on proposals for the Apprenticeship Levy funded industrywide Apprenticeship for the cleaning and hygiene sector, read about the welldeserved award of an MBE to my colleague Kim Phillips and find out about a series of upcoming Chartered Practitioners Register workshops.

On page six, we take a closer look at the Labour Party’s skills and Apprenticeships policy, there’s news of how the Textile Services Association (TSA) is championing the importance of mental health and also details of how the Cleaning and Hygiene Suppliers Association (CHSA) is continuing to guarantee the integrity of the association’s accreditation schemes.

On page seven, we pay tribute to the achievements of one of the BCC’s cofounders, Terry King, who sadly died earlier this year, aged 82. There’s also news of the Cleaning and Hygiene Suppliers Association (CHSA) bursary and encouragement for sector businesses and organisations to consider becoming real Living Wage employers.

Finally, turn to page eight for information about the BCC and our members.

Jim Melvin