REGULAR
Making progress together
Jim Melvin, Chairman of the British Cleaning Council (BCC), reveals how the industry is coming together to progress the APPG’s findings.
I took part in an important and very productive meeting in London last month with a wide range of key colleagues from the cleaning and hygiene industry and the public health sector.
The roundtable meeting was to discuss the findings of the recent ‘Embedding Effective Hygiene for a Resilient UK’ report from the All-Party
Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Cleaning and Hygiene Industry, and the recommendations arising from it.
There were 20 of us in total, and I was delighted that such a wide group of industry experts and senior stakeholders were keen to lend their support to this event.
As well as myself and BCC colleagues, we were joined by representatives from the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) including Dr Jyotsna Vohra, and Professor Sally Bloomfield, Chair of the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene. Other attendees included leaders in applied behavioural science, the Behavioural Insights Team, and high-level colleagues from the Cleaning and Support Services Association, the British Institute of Cleaning Science, the British Toilet Association, the Cleaning and Hygiene Suppliers Association, SC Johnson Professional UK, Reckitt and Wightman & Parrish, amongst others.
For the voice of the industry to be heard, it’s vital that we work collectively, so seeing this group come together to discuss such an important topic was hugely encouraging.
The APPG inquiry made 11 recommendations designed to increase disease resilience to current common infections and help inform the UK’s response to any similar future public health emergency. The roundtable reviewed the recommendations and looked at what the industry needed to do to take them forward.
APPG Chairman Nigel Mills MP provided a recorded introduction to the meeting in which he noted the huge role of the cleaning and hygiene industry during the pandemic, but said that the situation was drifting back to how it was with flu and COVID cases on the rise. We need to build on the lessons of the pandemic, not forget them, he said.
24 | TOMORROW'S CLEANING
A full report is due to be written and published in due course which will summarise and feature the key recommendations from the meeting, so I won’t go into full detail here, but there are a few points which I will pick out.
During the wide-ranging and detailed debate, we heard that a major cultural and behavioural change was needed nationwide, so hygienic practices are widely adopted as normal and daily behaviour.
I spoke about how cleaning staff need to be held in high esteem. The need for recognition for the vital work of cleaning staff in keeping people safe, healthy and well is a point I am always determined to make. The importance of training, education and development for staff was also highlighted, on which I couldn’t agree more.
We have been frustrated with the slow progress since the foundation of the APPG. I think the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic on Government and the recurring political crises of recent years have preoccupied the political class.
In the meantime, we have been looking at and planning positive solutions, so now it’s surely time for this Government or future governments to actually review them and listen. As an example, we discussed the differences between the approach in South Korea to that in the UK, and where the results and process were significantly different.
However, we're now moving forward on our agenda, and the roundtable is another step in the right direction. We remain absolutely determined to make sure the voice of the industry is heard and I’m optimistic that we will achieve results.
The next stage is to discuss the group’s feedback at the upcoming APPG meeting, and watch out for the publication of the roundtable report in February.
www.britishcleaningcouncil.org twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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