Aged care facility cleaning contractors in Adelaide: what to ask before you sign

Choosing a cleaning contractor for a residential aged care home is a different job from choosing one for an office. The cleaner works around frail residents, meals, medication rounds and visiting families, and the home has to show an assessor from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission that the environment is clean, safe and managed for infection risk. The contractor's price matters, but the questions that separate a safe contractor from a risky one are about outbreaks, records, chemicals and people. Here are the ten to ask, in the order they usually come up at a site walk.

Updated 3 November 2026. Written by Jordan Sinclair, JC Commercial, Adelaide. Standards and documents are named so you can read them yourself; this is practical guidance, not legal advice.

Where the cleaning requirement comes from

Residential aged care in Australia is assessed against the Aged Care Quality Standards, published by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, with the strengthened Standards described by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Two of the Standards reach the cleaning contract directly. Standard 3, the care and services, includes infection prevention and control, and the Standard on the environment requires the premises to be clean, safe and comfortable for residents. Neither Standard tells a home how to clean. They require the home to be able to show that its cleaning is planned, done and checked, and that it changes when an outbreak is declared.

That is why the questions below are about evidence as much as method. If a contractor cannot show what was cleaned, when and by whom, the home cannot show it either.

The ten questions

Question	What a good answer sounds like	What should worry you
1. What changes when we declare an outbreak?	A written outbreak protocol: increased frequency on touch points and bathrooms, a hospital-grade disinfectant with its contact time stated, zoning so staff do not move from affected to unaffected wings, PPE supplied, and a named person who can add hours the same day.	"We'll do extra wipes."
2. Who is on site, and have they been checked?	Named, regular cleaners with police checks, a current flu vaccination where the home requires it, and an induction to the home before the first shift.	A rotating pool from a labour hire agency you never meet.
3. What is the written scope?	A clause-numbered scope listing every area (resident rooms, ensuites, dining, corridors, lounges, nurses' stations, pan rooms, staff areas), the tasks and the frequency for each, and what is excluded.	A one-page "full clean of the facility".
4. How do we know a room was done?	A record of every visit: time in and out, each area ticked off against the scope, photos of the areas that matter, and anything found on the way round. The record lands in the home's inbox and is kept.	A paper sheet in the cleaner's cupboard.
5. What is the disinfectant, and what is its contact time?	A named product on the TGA register as a hospital-grade disinfectant, its safety data sheet supplied, and the contact time written into the method so it is left wet for the full period, not wiped straight off.	"A strong bleach."
6. How do you work around residents?	Resident rooms cleaned while the resident is at a meal or activity where possible, quiet equipment in corridors during rest periods, a knock-and-wait rule, and a way to record a room that was not entered and why.	No mention of residents at all.
7. What happens when something is missed?	A written response term: a problem raised by the home is acknowledged within 2 hours and resolved within 24, and that sits in the agreement, not in a sales conversation.	"Just call us."
8. How are colour-coded cloths and mops managed?	Separate colours for ensuites and toilets, resident rooms, dining and kitchenettes, with laundering or disposal after each room in an outbreak.	One bucket for the wing.
9. What is the notice period?	A written notice period that works both ways and no lock-in contract, so the home can change contractors without a gap if standards slip.	A fixed term with automatic rollover.
10. Can we see the insurance and the training records?	A certificate of currency for public liability and workers compensation, and training records for infection control and manual handling.	"We're fully insured" with nothing attached.

Outbreak protocols in detail

Gastroenteritis and respiratory outbreaks are the moments a cleaning contract is tested. The home's outbreak management plan will set the clinical response; the cleaning contractor has to be able to follow it the same day. Ask to see the contractor's own outbreak procedure in writing and check four things in it: which surfaces move to twice-daily or more (handrails, door handles, call bells, bed rails, tap handles, toilet flush plates, dining tables), which product is used and for how long it must stay wet, how the cleaner moves through the building so an affected wing is done last with separate equipment, and how the extra hours are approved and recorded. A contractor who has done this before will have the answers to hand. One who has not will improvise, and improvising in an outbreak is how it spreads.

Records an assessor can read

Assessors ask for evidence that the environment is managed, and a tidy building on the day is not evidence of the last twelve months. The record that helps the home most is per visit and per area: which rooms were cleaned, which were not and why, what was found (a cracked tile, a blocked drain, a loose handrail) and when it was reported. Ask the contractor how long records are kept and whether the home can pull them for a date range without asking. If the answer is a monthly summary sheet, the home will be reconstructing history from memory at the next assessment.

Quiet hours and the resident's day

A home runs on routines: breakfast, medication, activities, lunch, rest, dinner, settling. Cleaning that ignores the routine becomes a complaint from families within a week. The scope should set the hours for each area: corridors and lounges early or during activities, resident rooms around meals, dining rooms straight after service, bathrooms at fixed times with a second pass on request. Noisy equipment has its own window. The more of this is written down, the fewer conversations the care manager has to have.

Chemicals, safety data sheets and storage

Every product on site needs a current safety data sheet available to staff, and the contractor's chemical store needs to be locked and away from residents. Ask for the list of products before the first shift, with the SDS for each, and check that the disinfectant's label use matches the way the contractor plans to use it. Residents with dementia will drink or handle anything left within reach, so the trolley discipline matters more here than on any other site.

Pricing in context

Aged care cleaning in Adelaide is priced per cleaner hour like other commercial work, with the routine rate between $45 and $75 per hour and the outbreak rate above that for the extra product, PPE and hours. Most homes buy a fixed weekly figure for the routine scope with outbreak work billed by the hour on top. What moves the weekly figure is the number of ensuites and the hours residents are away from their rooms, not the floor area. For the general picture across site types see the 2026 commercial cleaning cost guide.

JC Commercial cleans aged care facilities across Adelaide around care routines, with a written scope, a record of every visit and an outbreak protocol that changes the clean the day it is called. The aged care cleaning page sets out the method, the earlier guide to cleaning practices for aged care covers the day-to-day detail, and a 15-minute walk-through turns the home into a written scope with the price.

FAQs

Do aged care cleaners need a police check in South Australia?

Yes. Anyone working in a residential aged care home needs a current police check or an NDIS Worker Screening check where the home accepts it, and the home must keep a record. Ask the contractor for the checks before the first shift, not after.

Is a hospital-grade disinfectant required every day?

Not for every surface on every visit. Routine cleaning uses detergent, with disinfection of high-touch surfaces and bathrooms. During an outbreak the home's plan moves affected areas to a hospital-grade disinfectant with its full contact time.

Who cleans a resident's room during an outbreak if the resident is isolating?

The contractor, in PPE, last in the sequence, with equipment that does not leave the room until the outbreak is over or is disposed of. That order needs to be in the written protocol.

How often should resident ensuites be cleaned?

Daily is the usual routine, with a second check on request. Shared bathrooms are cleaned at least daily and more often during an outbreak.