BCC initiative invites primary schools to take part in targeted hygiene pilot project

Primary schools and trusts across the UK are being invited to express interest in potentially taking part in a pilot project starting in the Autumn term which aims to reduce absence rates using targeted hygiene.

The British Cleaning Council (BCC), working with sector partners including SC Johnson Professional, has designed the initiative to explore whether a practical, evidence-informed targeted hygiene approach can help schools support attendance at the time of the year when winter illnesses such as flu are most common.

Winter illnesses continue to create significant disruption for schools each year, contributing to increased pupil and staff absence, operational pressures, safeguarding challenges and disruption to learning. Department for Education (DfE) figures for 2024/25 say approximately 42.2 million pupil days were lost specifically due to illness.

The initiative seeks to work collaboratively with a small number of schools to assess whether focusing hygiene interventions at key moments of infection risk can help reduce avoidable disruption. The pilot project will gather evidence on whether such an initiative could be introduced more widely.

Rather than increasing cleaning activity across all areas at all times, the targeted hygiene approach concentrates efforts on when and where infection spread is most likely to occur, such as when pupils and staff arrive and leave school, before they eat and after toilet use, and focuses on frequently touched, shared surfaces like door knobs and desks.

The pilot has been specifically designed to minimise any additional burden on schools and will come at no extra cost. It relies only on routine attendance and absence data already collected through existing systems, with no medical testing, individual pupil monitoring or changes to attendance policies involved.

Schools could participate anonymously and results will be reviewed only at aggregated group or trust level. Findings of the pilot project will not be used for inspection, regulatory purposes or school-level performance judgements.

Schools expressing an interest will be given details of the proposal and there will be an opportunity for discussions and questions before any decisions are made. Around 14 – 16 schools of the right profile are required.

Jim Melvin, BCC Director for Government lobbying, said: “Schools continue to face major operational pressures during the winter illness season and many are looking for practical ways to strengthen resilience without creating additional workload for staff.

“We hope that targeted hygiene could make a difference to this burden of illness on pupils, staff and school communities.”

Schools and academy trusts interested in exploring participation in the targeted hygiene school pilot are invited to contact BCC Company Secretary Simon Hollingbery at compsec@britishcleaningcouncil.org.