ADVICE & OPINION
FROM THE FRONT
PROTECTING THE POLICE
In our latest look at the work of front-line FM staff, we hear how a commercial cleaning
team was able to step up cleaning duties on the police frontline during the pandemic
Facilities management within frontline
services will always pose unique challenges
for commercial cleaners. The teams working for
Incentive QAS are responsible for the cleanliness
and sanitation of stations across Kent and Essex.
Incentive QAS is the contract cleaning arm of the
Incentive FM Group, with annual sales in excess
of £18.5 million and employing more than 800
sta around the country. The company currently
oversees commercial cleaning for police stations
in Margate, Canterbury, Folkestone, Maidstone,
Tonbridge, Clacton, Colchester, Harlow, Grays,
Southend and Basildon.
What was already a high-pressure environment
for commercial cleaning teams, became a far more
complex task with the spread of COVID-19.
Incentive QAS Operations Manager, Mark Yull,
explains how the teams had to become more
agile and demonstrate significant resilience as the
environment changed drastically for those carrying
out cleaning duties on the frontline.
He said: “Our cleaning operation for the police in
Kent and Essex takes place seven days a week and
365 days a year. Our standard service oˆ ers daily
cleaning in the custody suites and cells, and full
reactive cleaning for spaces that demand a quick
turnaround. Our teams were familiar with cleaning
spaces that had been fouled with bodily fluids and
they understood the need to work quickly and in an
agile manner in a police van, suite or cell. However,
we saw a huge rise in demand for reactive cleaning
in the early days of COVID-19 due to the number of
12 JUNE 2021
arrested individuals suspected of having COVID-19
and potentially infecting the places they had been
en-route to the station and obviously within the
station itself.”
OUT OF HOURS
Incentive QAS deploy on-site cleaning teams
as well as out of hours cleaners for the police.
Generally, each
custody suite
would require
one cleaner,
but the strain
of COVID-19
meant that
individual
eˆ orts had to
be increased
to sanitise
touchpoints to
counteract the
movements
of detainees
with suspected COVID-19. In the space of a few
weeks, cleaning routines had to include door
handles, switches, balustrades, and any other
common touchpoints in the station. As well as a
redistribution of resource on the ground, enhanced
cleaning equipment and chemicals were also
needed to meet the challenge.
Yull explains how it wasn’t just the stations and
suites that caused extra complications during
the pandemic. He said: “The problem was the
knock-on eˆ ect that the virus caused. Police parole
staˆ only have a limited number of vehicles for
example, and if someone with suspected COVID-19
(showing symptoms) or someone was coughing
inside the vehicle for instance, that vehicle needed
to be cleaned. This demanded a quick and agile
response. Stock also became an issue. We had
plenty of PPE and cleaning equipment, but we
found it was becoming increasingly diˆ icult to get
hold of. We would order 500 masks but only 100
would turn up. Suppliers enforced limits on orders
due to the massive increase of bulk buying. We
also found that a lot of PPE and hand gels coming
in from Europe didn’t meet the grade required for
the job.”
The sector also saw the rise in costs for integral
cleaning equipment. Reports showed that items
like a box of gloves rose from five pounds to fi‘ een
in a matter of weeks. Incentive QAS have a strong
relationship with the police stations they work
for and have earned trust through committed and
agile cleaning solutions and eˆ orts.
PRISONERS DURING THE PANDEMIC
As the pandemic continued, a structured
responsive cleaning routine was embedded by
Incentive QAS teams. If a prisoner has or was
suspected to have the virus, a rapid and thorough
clean of the police vehicle, holding room, and cell
would take place.
Incentive QAS constantly engaged with the NHS
guidance, much of which kept evolving to cope
with the changing environment. Large amounts of
waste including masks and gloves was also deemed
hazardous and couldn’t be disposed of through
normal channels. Incentive QAS teams worked
with the police to source hazardous bins, masks
and gloves. With each member of the custody staˆ ,
including oˆ icers and jailers, expected to wear
masks and gloves, the waste operation was also
put under new increased pressures.
Yull added: “We definitely saw an increased
demand for business during COVID-19. From
callouts to deep oˆ ice cleans, it has been a totally
diˆ erent set of expectations for our staˆ who have
reacted tremendously. One of the challenges that
may come in the future is if police bosses decide
that the need for oˆ icers and other police staˆ to
work from a station is less important. If the nature
of policing sees less of a demand on the traditional
police station set up, we may have to redeploy our
teams in other ways.”