My ears are burning...
Yes, it's a fact of life in schools that money is often in very short supply. Most caretakers have become miracle workers when it comes to doing work with little or no cash.
I run my own cleaning staff, about 16 cleaners for 1200 kids. The work load is heavy, we really get our monies worth out of them, but they are a great team. But the main area I have found savings is in the equipment you buy and the methods of work.
When I took over from the original contractor, I ditched every bit of cr@ppy equipment they had. I bought all new high quality colour coded equipment. It really doesn't pay to buy cheap stuff.
Portion control on the main chemicals is a must. No glug glug methods in my school.
In fact, I took advice on what we use and killed 2 birds with one stone. The previous contractor had cleaners lugging equipment all over the school which wasn't good for the cleaners or the equipment.
Cleaners also regularly left bottles, sprays and equipment all over the school. We collected arm fulls every night when locking up. Stores also went walk about from dishonest cleaners.
We changed areas and working methods. We have just 1 product now which is used diluted in spray bottles and in buckets for washing floors.
We don't use polish as it makes floors slippery and is really only any good on real wood. Being a new school everything is laminated or synthetic wood these days and polish can make that look smeary.
We don't use glass cleaner. We use 3M High performance cloths. I was very sceptical at first, but the rep showed me this product, smeared Lipsol grease all over a door glass, threw a cloth at me and said remove it. With just a couple of wipes, it came off. These cloths are not cheap at £5 each, but staff sign for them and wash them out themselves every now and then and some have been in use for 2 years now and still going strong. I did a review of these cloths when I first started my site
HEREWe buy the staff the highest quality mop heads. We never use bleach in our school and boil them up once a week. Yet again, some mop heads are over a year old and still as good as new.
My way of thinking is, the less products you have, the less cleaners have to lug around, the less likely they are to leave stuff around and there is less to pilfer. I issue restricted amounts of all products and equipment to staff and keep it under lock and key.
They key to saving cash is to train the staff well to respect and look after your equipment. We often have training sessions and when staff learn that all the changes in working practises benefit them by making their job easier, you soon win them on your side and get them working with you.
I've only covered a few ideas here that have saved me money, I've not even scratched the surface. But it can be done. I'm proud of the fact that I have saved 30% for my school compared to what our school used to pay out to a private contractor.
I know it's hard to make ends meet in schools, I have to produce something from nothing every day in all aspects of my work, but it can be done. Whether it's worth doing is something only you can decide. It does take a different way of thinking!