NQS Cleaning Standards Explained
This guide is for directors, nominated supervisors and educational leaders who want to know exactly what the NQS childcare cleaning standards ask of a service, and what an assessor will want to see. The short version: the National Quality Standard and the National Regulations require clean, safe premises and good hygiene practice, but they never set a cleaning schedule or name a product. That gap is where most services get unsure, so this guide fills it in, element by element, with the evidence that answers each one. It is part of our free library of childcare cleaning guides.
What do the NQS childcare cleaning standards actually require?
Two things: premises, furniture and equipment that are safe, clean and well maintained, and hygiene practices that are promoted and actually followed. The standard describes the outcome. How often you clean, and with what, is left to your policy, guided by the NHMRC's Staying Healthy.
| Where | What it says, in short | What it means for cleaning |
|---|---|---|
| NQS Element 2.1.2 | Illness, injury and hygiene practices are promoted and implemented | Hygiene routines exist, and staff follow them every day |
| NQS Element 3.1.2 | Premises, furniture and equipment are safe, clean and well maintained | Rooms, toys and equipment are clean when children use them |
| Regulation 77 | Health, hygiene and safe food practices | Kitchen, meal and nappy areas are handled hygienically |
| Regulation 88 | Infectious diseases | Reasonable steps to stop illness spreading, including cleaning |
| Regulation 103 | Premises, furniture and equipment safe, clean and in good repair | A legal duty on the approved provider, not only a quality goal |
| Regulation 168 | Policies and procedures the service must have | Health, safety and illness policies that cover cleaning |
The two NQS elements sit in different quality areas for a reason. Element 3.1.2 in Quality Area 3 is about the building and what is in it. Element 2.1.2 in Quality Area 2 is about people and practice: handwashing, nappy changing, food handling, and how the team responds when a child is unwell. Cleaning touches both, which is why a strong cleaning routine shows up twice in an assessment.
Regulation 103 is the one directors tend to overlook. The NQS elements are assessed against a rating scale, but the regulation is a legal obligation on the approved provider, and it applies whether or not a rating visit is due. A dirty change bench is a regulation problem first and a rating problem second.
None of these documents says "mop the floor daily" or "use this disinfectant". For method, the national framework points services to Staying Healthy, 6th edition, published by the NHMRC in August 2024. Your policy should draw on that and say what your service does.
How do you meet the cleaning standard, step by step?
Write down what you do, do what you wrote, and keep proof that it happened. In practice that is six steps, from the policy through to a termly review, and every one of them produces something an authorised officer can read.
- Write the policy
Your health and hygiene policy should say who cleans what, how often, and with which type of product. Reference Staying Healthy by its current edition, and name the person responsible for keeping it up to date.
- Map every room
List each room and outdoor area, then sort its surfaces into three groups: every day, weekly rotation, and termly deep clean. Nappy benches, toilets, food surfaces and high-touch points always go in the first group.
- Fix the method
Detergent and warm water first, then rinse and dry. Disinfectant is added only for body fluids, nappy areas, toilets and outbreaks. Writing this down stops the common habit of spraying disinfectant on everything.
- Keep a product register
Name each product, where it is used, and keep its safety data sheet on file. Educators should be able to find the sheet for anything under the sink in a minute.
- Log the work
Daytime cleaning by educators and evening cleaning by your cleaner both need a record: date, area, task and initials. Missing daytime logs are one of the most common gaps.
- Review each term
Look at the logs, walk the rooms, and ask educators what is not working. Change the schedule when rooms change use, and note the review in your quality improvement plan.
How does an authorised officer check cleaning?
By observing, discussing and sighting. They watch practice in the rooms, talk to educators about routines, and look at your documents. Cleaning evidence needs to hold up in all three, because a good policy with a grubby change bench, or a clean room nobody can explain, will not satisfy the element.
- ObserveWhat they see
Change benches, toilets, meal tables, toys in use, floors where babies crawl, and whether educators follow the handwashing and nappy routine.
- DiscussWhat they ask
How do you clean the change mat between children? What happens when a child vomits? Where do mouthed toys go? Can the educator answer without looking it up?
- SightWhat they read
Your policy, the cleaning schedule, daytime and evening logs, the product register, and any outbreak records from the past year.
Educators often find the discussion part hardest, because they do the job well but have never been asked to explain it. A two-minute run-through at a staff meeting before an assessment visit, using your own policy, makes a noticeable difference.
Visits are usually notified in advance, but an officer can also arrive for a compliance check at other times. That is the real reason the cleaning folder should live on site and stay current: it has to be ready on an ordinary Tuesday, not only in the week before a rating visit.
What mistakes let services down on cleaning?
Most are paperwork gaps rather than dirty rooms: a policy that quotes an old edition of Staying Healthy, no record of daytime cleaning, or logs that say one thing while practice does another. The rest come from overusing disinfectant and forgetting outdoor areas.
- An out-of-date policy
Policies still citing the 5th edition of Staying Healthy, replaced by the 6th in 2024. Check the edition every time the policy is reviewed.
- Only the evening clean is logged
The cleaner's sheets are perfect, but nothing shows that tables were wiped after lunch or the bench after each change.
- Disinfectant on everything
Spraying disinfectant on clean, low-risk surfaces adds residue and fumes, and it is not what the guidance asks for.
- The cleaner keeps the logs
If the only copies leave the building each night, you cannot show them when an officer arrives unannounced.
- Outdoor areas left out
Sandpits, water trays and outdoor equipment are part of the premises, and they belong in the schedule too.
- Toys with no cycle
Toys are cleaned "when needed" with no record, so nobody can say when the block corner was last washed.
When is it worth calling in professional cleaners?
When the evening clean is eating into educators' time, when your logs have gaps you cannot close, or when an assessment is coming and the rooms need a reset. A cleaner will not write your policy, but a good one gives you the records that prove it is followed.
Educators can and should handle daytime hygiene: wiping tables after meals, cleaning the change bench between children, and putting mouthed toys aside. The full evening clean is different. Done properly, with every bathroom, floor and touch point, it takes hours, and asking educators to do it at the end of a long shift is how corners get cut.
If you do bring in a cleaner, check three things before you sign. Every cleaner should hold a current Working with Children Check. The logs should stay on site in your folder. And the method should match your own policy, so the service speaks with one voice when an officer asks how cleaning works.
See how our NQS compliance support sets up the folder, the logs and the product register for your service.
What else do directors ask about the NQS and cleaning?
Two questions that come up at nearly every service we talk to.
01How often does the NQS say we must clean?
02Which products does the NQS require?
- ACECQA, Guide to the National Quality Framework: Quality Areas 2 and 3
- Education and Care Services National Regulations: Regulations 77, 88, 103 and 168
- NHMRC, Staying Healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services, 6th edition (2024)
Clean rooms, and the records to prove it.
Nightly cleaning with a signed log for your folder.