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With the NHS Contract 2026/27 introducing stricter compliance and performance requirements, Samsic UK is highlighting the need for stronger operational visibility and governance across healthcare estates.
The call comes from John Norris, Commercial & Innovation Director at Samsic UK, which is a leading provider of facilities management and commercial cleaning services, as the new contract expects NHS Trusts to be able to provide real-time visibility and data-driven governance.
Cleaning services already need to adhere to the National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2025, which mandate a risk-based approach to cleaning to ensure patient safety. Now, under the new contract’s quality and safety clauses, Trusts are required to demonstrate consistent cleaning standards, rapid response to incidents, robust audit trails, and evidence of compliance. Alongside this, the SC28 Information Requirements section of the contract allows commissioners to request cleaning data at any time.
Drawing on experience supporting complex, compliance-led environment, Norris said: “The NHS Standard Contract 2026/27 has made one thing clear: cleaning, and compliance with the standards, is getting stricter. For estates and facilities management teams, that means moving beyond manual oversight to data‑driven governance that can withstand commissioner scrutiny and protect patient safety.
“With more frequent audits expected, data has to be readily available. We have already seen how structured, data-led approaches improve visibility and consistency across complex, multi-site environments. For estates and FM teams, this represents a shift towards more structured, data-supported service delivery models. These approaches allow facilities teams to better align cleaning activity with actual site usage, while providing the audit-ready data increasingly expected under the NHS contract.”
To support facilities managers and healthcare estate teams in the adoption of data-driven contract cleaning, Samsic UK recently launched a new guide, ‘Why Multi-Site Office Portfolios Struggle With Cleaning Consistency, And How To Fix It’ showing practical steps that can be taken to adopting data-led strategies to commercial cleaning, underpinned by AI.
The guide outlines how data-led monitoring, including occupancy sensors and live reporting dashboards, enables facilities management teams to align cleaning activity with actual site usage. Instead of relying on static schedules, services can adapt in real time to demand across entryways, washrooms and high-traffic zones.
Norris added: “We know the NHS Contract now stipulates that cleaning must be aligned with clinical activity while staffing models must be more predictable. These approaches allow facilities teams to better align cleaning activity with actual site usage, while providing the audit-ready data increasingly expected under the NHS contract.”
