Childcare Cleaning Policy and Procedure Template
A cleaning policy and procedure for childcare has to satisfy two readers: the educator who needs to know what to do at 3 pm, and the authorised officer who wants to see that the service has thought it through. This free template is written for both. It follows the National Regulations and Staying Healthy, 6th edition, uses plain language, and marks every part you need to change for your own service. Download it as an editable Word file or a PDF, then use the guide below to adapt it. It is one of our free guides for childcare directors.
What should a cleaning policy and procedure in childcare include?
Who it applies to, the rules it rests on, who does what, the cleaning method and frequencies, how toys, nappy areas, spills and outbreaks are handled, the products and records used, and when it is reviewed. The template covers all of these in seven short sections.
| Section | What it covers | Why an officer looks for it |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose and scope | Why the policy exists and who must follow it, contractors included | Shows the policy reaches everyone who cleans |
| Legislation and guidance | Regulations 77, 88, 103, 168, 170; NQS 2.1.2 and 3.1.2; Staying Healthy | Shows the policy is built on current sources |
| Responsibilities | Approved provider, nominated supervisor, educators, cleaning contractor | Makes accountability clear |
| Procedures | Method, frequency table, nappy change, toys, spills, outdoors, outbreaks, products, equipment, records | The practical heart; staff can follow it |
| Sustainability | Reusable cloths, sensible buying, effective eco products | Links to your wider sustainability practice |
| Review | Review cycle and triggers, informing families | Shows the policy is kept up to date |
Regulation 168 lists the policies every service must have, including health and safety and dealing with infectious diseases, and Regulation 170 requires the service to follow them. A cleaning policy sits under both. Staying Healthy adds a point many services miss: contractors, including cleaners, should know the service's health and safety policies. So the policy you write is also the brief your cleaner works to.
What is in the free template?
A three-page policy with a frequency table drawn from Staying Healthy's Table 3.1, a responsibilities table, procedures for every high-risk area, and yellow-highlighted fields wherever your service's details belong. Take the Word version to edit, or the PDF to read first.
The template is a starting point, not a finished policy. It cannot know your rooms, your products or how your roster works, and a policy copied word for word from anywhere tends to read that way to an assessor. Budget an hour to make it yours.
How do you adapt the template for your service?
Fill in the highlighted fields, tailor the frequency table to your rooms, name your real products, match the cleaner's scope to the policy, then train, adopt and share it. Six steps, most of which take minutes rather than hours.
- Fill in the fields
Service name, approved provider, policy owner, dates. Replace every yellow field, and delete optional lines you will not use rather than leaving them half-finished.
- Tailor the frequency table
Keep Staying Healthy's minimums, then add what your rooms need: daily floors in the baby room, a named day for low shelves, outdoor tasks in autumn.
- Name real products
List the detergent, disinfectant and food-safe sanitiser you actually use, with their safety data sheets filed alongside. A policy that says "approved disinfectant" without naming it is hard to check.
- Match the cleaner's scope
Give your cleaning contractor the policy and check their scope against it. If the policy says toys are washed daily and the contract says weekly, one of them has to change.
- Train and adopt
Walk educators through the procedures at a staff meeting, especially spills and outbreaks. Record that the training happened.
- Share and review
Let families know the policy exists and where to find it, and set the review date. Review sooner after an outbreak or a change in guidance.
How can a service keep its cleaning practices sustainable?
By cutting waste without cutting effectiveness. Staying Healthy supports reusable cloths that are washed properly, recycled or forest-friendly paper products and bulk buying, but it is firm that eco products must still be genuine cleaning products, not vinegar or bicarb.
- Reusable, washed hotMicrofibre cloths and mop heads that go through a hot machine wash replace a mountain of disposables.
- Buy in bulkConcentrates and bulk supplies mean less packaging, as long as dilution is done correctly each time.
- Effective firstChoose eco-labelled products only where they are sold and labelled as effective cleaners.
Sustainability is also a practice children see. Some services involve children in simple, safe routines, such as sorting recycling or wiping their own table with a damp cloth after lunch, which links cleaning to the service's wider approach to caring for the environment.
How should procedures be shown where the work happens?
As short, visual steps posted at the point of use: the nappy change routine above each change bench, handwashing above each basin, the spill steps inside the spill kit lid. The policy explains why; the posted procedure tells a busy educator what to do next.
The NHMRC publishes a free poster, Changing a nappy without spreading germs, which many services print and laminate for their change areas. Your policy can point to it rather than rewriting the same steps in different words, which also keeps the two from drifting apart.
For everything else, keep posted procedures to one page, use numbered steps, and write them in the same words the policy uses. When a relief educator walks into a room for the first time, the poster on the wall should be enough for them to do the job correctly without asking anyone.
It also helps to show the cleaner the same posters. When educators and the evening cleaner follow identical steps, the room is treated the same way at 3 pm and at 9 pm, and the logs from both shifts describe one routine rather than two.
What goes wrong with cleaning policies?
Policies copied without adapting, frequencies that nobody follows, guidance references that are out of date, and a cleaning contract that says something different. An officer compares policy, practice and records, and gaps between them are what get noticed.
- Old references
Pointing readers to Staying Healthy's 5th edition, which the 6th replaced in 2024, or quoting regulations by the wrong number.
- Promises you cannot keep
"All surfaces disinfected hourly" looks thorough and is impossible, so records never match it.
- No named owner
If nobody is responsible for the schedule, the schedule quietly stops.
- A contract that disagrees
The cleaner follows the contract, not your policy, unless the two say the same thing.
When does it make sense to call in professional cleaners?
When the policy is written but the evening clean it describes is not getting done properly, or when your records keep showing gaps. A cleaner will not write your policy for you, but a good one works to it every night and produces the records that prove it.
The simplest test is to hand your policy to a prospective cleaner and ask them to price exactly that. If their quote comes back with a different scope, you have learned something important before signing anything.
Once a cleaner is in place, ask for their log to use the same room names and task wording as your policy. It sounds minor, but it means an officer reading your folder sees one consistent system instead of two documents that almost agree.
Our NQS compliance support sets the nightly clean and the logs against your written policy.
What else do directors ask about cleaning policies?
Two questions that come up whenever a service rewrites its policy.
01How often should the cleaning policy be reviewed?
02Which products should the policy name?
- National Regulations 77, 88, 103, 168 and 170, read with the current ACECQA guidance
- Staying Healthy (6th edition, NHMRC 2024): Part 3.2 cleaning, environmental sustainability, and staff and contractor responsibilities
A policy is only as good as the nightly clean.
We work to yours, and log every visit.