The government guidelines for September stipulate extensive hygiene rules for schools, so how much is that going to cost heads if they are to be compliant?

With schools differing in size, it’s not an easy calculation to make, but we have spoken to heads and procurement experts to get some ballpark figures, and the results are eye-watering.

The government has issued 60 pages of guidance, which contains six “prevention” actions to help schools welcome back all students while minimising the potential transmission of the coronavirus.

Compliance with the guidelines - which include additional hand cleaning, enhanced respiratory hygiene, enhanced cleaning, social distancing and, in some cases, personal protective equipment (PPE) - is not being financed by the government, so schools will have to find the cash themselves. 

What measures must schools take?

The guidance states that schools should implement “a cleaning schedule that ensures cleaning is generally enhanced”, including “more frequent cleaning of rooms/shared areas that are used by different groups”, as well as “frequently touched surfaces being cleaned more often than normal”.

The guidance also states that students must “clean hands thoroughly more than usual”. 

With social distancing in place, this could mean installing new hand-wash or sanitiser stations, which will need supervision when used by younger children.

It also states that schools should be “promoting the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach” and “must ensure that they have enough tissues and bins available”.

In addition, schools must implement social distancing, which has meant purchasing additional signage and, in some instances, installing temporary structures.

Counting the costs

While putting an exact cost on these additional measures is difficult to do across schools of different sizes and locations, it seems few schools have managed to absorb the enhanced hygiene measures into their existing provisions.

According to Sian Churchill, business manager from Ysgol Penrhyn Dewi, the St Davids Peninsular all-age school in Pembrokeshire, the cost for their 600-pupil all-through school will come to over £17,000 for the autumn term.

“Just in terms of cleaning (staff and consumables) for our three sites, there’ll be an additional cost of approximately £1,150 per week,” she says. 

“In addition to cleaning supplies, to date we have spent approximately £5,400 on signage, staff and other items required for school recovery, which is approximately £385 per week.”

Mark Unwin, headteacher at Handforth Grange Primary School, put the estimated extra cost at around £12,000 in a Twitter post, while another school leader at a school in the south of England, puts the cost for the autumn term at around £13,000, which is a 30 per cent increase in cleaning costs and a 60 per cent increase in equipment.

Nicola Forster, headteacher at North Primary in Southall, has also seen costs increase.

“We’re spending a fortune on anti-bac, and even more lidded bins for masks now,” she explains.  

“We are two-form entry and we’ve employed a full-time first aider and an additional unqualified teacher so that we can have four staff per year group. We’d already bought signage and distancing rugs for June, but will need new signage for gates.”

Fiona Wilcox, school business manager at The Burgate School and Sixth Form, tells a similar story.  

“Obviously things like sanitisers, an extra cleaner, various cleaning supplies mean we have increased our budget for next year,” she explains.  

“To put a figure on it is very difficult but we’re also looking at hand-washing stations and if you hire them they’re about £100 per week or if you have some plumbed in you’re talking about £300-400 to get some troughs put up.

“We’re also looking at some marquees to put on the school site because we’re going to have year group zones, so we’re going to put up some marquees to give them an area where they can pick up their lunch and have somewhere outside so they can be under cover.”

Few summer term savings

Although some schools may have reduced cleaning costs due to partial closures during the summer term, many have reported losses due to the lack of rental income and things like wraparound care at primary schools.

“We’ve definitely lost income from our catering and our letting,” explains Wilcox.  

“We’ve also been open the whole time for key worker students. We’ve been cleaning, and welcoming the Year 10s and Year 12s back has meant that we’ve had to maintain a tight cleaning regime, so we haven’t furloughed any cleaning staff or anything like that.”

Are there any savings available?

Hilary Goldsmith, a school business leader in the south of England,  estimates the cost to be around £10,000 for her secondary school, but highlights that she has benefited from being able to buy at scale. 

“We’ve bulk bought enough [cleaning product] to sink a battleship. But the issue is for smaller schools, without the budget power to do that,” she says.

“We have a large cleaning team. We’ll adjust hours to have more of them on site during the day, and do less after-school cleaning.

“There may be a need for some additional hours and, if so, we’ll pick it up from our contingency. We also have some savings on cleaner overtime for the summer term, so I’ll throw that at it.”

Meanwhile, independent procurement consultant Naomi Clews says that schools should attempt to renegotiate any existing cleaning contracts in light of the current situation. 

“Onus should be on the current cleaning company to suggest how they will rise to the Covid-19 challenge,” says Clews. “In the current climate, public sector contracts are lucrative, putting schools in a strong negotiating position.

How will this impact other spending?

“We’ve postponed much-needed refurbishment plans, including more Chromebooks and dongles for our business continuity plan,” says Forester.  

“The cancellation of free fruit and veg is a big issue for our children, we might also have to fund this as our children really need their snack. Money is going to be tight if we want to give the children the best deal possible.”

“There will be a lot of monitoring of the budget,” adds Wilcox.

“We are OK at the moment, but I think it might be that we may have to forgo some of the things that we’ve planned to pay for all these extra costs.”