Hiring a school cleaning contractor in South Australia: the checklist
What does a school cleaning contractor in SA need? Working With Children Checks, RRHAN-EC, insurances, SWMS, ISO and a term-break scope, and how to verify each.
A school cleaning contractor in South Australia needs a current Working With Children Check for every person who sets foot on the site, child-protection (RRHAN-EC) training for anyone working around students, public liability and workers compensation insurance with the school named where required, safe work procedures and safety data sheets for the chemicals and machines used, a written scope that covers term time and the term breaks separately, and a visit record the school can audit. Government schools add the Department for Education's contractor rules; independent and Catholic schools run their own procurement but ask for the same documents. The table below shows who issues each item and how to check it.
Updated 21 October 2026. Written by Jordan Sinclair, JC Commercial, Adelaide. Figures are market ranges checked against the sources linked in the text.
School cleaning contractor checklist for SA: requirement, issuer, verification
| Requirement | Who issues it | How to verify it |
|---|---|---|
| Working With Children Check (WWCC), every person on site | DHS Screening Unit, South Australia | Ask for each person's WWCC number and expiry. Employers and schools can confirm status with the Screening Unit. Valid 5 years. A National Police Certificate has not been accepted for child-related work in SA since 1 July 2020. |
| RRHAN-EC child-protection training (Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect, Education and Care) | Department for Education, online via Plink | Certificate copy for each person. The department's requirements for external organisations set which course applies. |
| National Police Check (where the school's own policy asks for it) | ACIC-accredited provider or SA Police | Dated certificate, usually within the past 12 months. It supplements the WWCC, it does not replace it. |
| Public liability insurance, typically $20 million for school sites | Insurer or broker | Certificate of currency: check the insured name matches the ABN on the quote, the limit, and the expiry date. |
| Workers compensation | ReturnToWorkSA (for SA employers) | Certificate of registration. Sole traders without employees will not have one; ask how they are covered. |
| Labour hire licence (if the contractor supplies workers to the school's direction) | Consumer and Business Services SA | Search the CBS labour hire licence register by business name. |
| Safe work procedures and SWMS for high-risk tasks (ladders, machines, chemical handling) | The contractor | Ask for the procedure for each task on your site, and the chemical register with safety data sheets. SafeWork SA explains when a SWMS is legally required and what it must contain. |
| ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 (where claimed) | A JAS-ANZ-accredited certification body | Search the company at register.jasanz.org and check the standard, scope, certificate number and expiry. |
| Written, clause-numbered scope covering term time and term breaks | The contractor | Issued before the first visit. Every area, task, frequency and visit window, with the periodical program dated against the term calendar. |
| Visit records | The contractor | Ask to see a week of records from another site: time-stamped start and finish, tasks ticked, photographs. |
| Site induction: keys, alarms, asbestos register, emergency procedures, out-of-bounds areas | The school | Signed induction record for each cleaner before their first shift. |
The Working With Children Check comes first
Under the Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Act 2016 it is an offence in South Australia to employ, or continue to employ, a person in a prescribed position without a valid WWCC, and cleaning a school during or around school hours is child-related work. The Department for Education's screening page says anyone working at a department site needs a current check, and its online tool lists cleaners among the contractors it applies to (about relevant history screening). The check lasts five years, is portable between employers, and must be renewed before it expires. The Screening Unit asks applicants to allow time for processing, so a contractor who cannot name the people it will send, with their check numbers, is not ready to start.
Ask for the check number for each person, not a statement that "all staff are checked". Then ask the contractor to notify you before a new person attends. Schools that lose track of this are the ones that discover, at audit, that a replacement cleaner worked three weeks of evenings with no check on file.
Government schools versus independent and Catholic schools
Government schools engage cleaning under the Department for Education's procurement rules, with the principal or business manager as the buyer and the department's contractor requirements (WWCC, RRHAN-EC, site induction) applying to every contractor. A small number of public-private-partnership schools have cleaning bundled into a facilities-management contract, in which case the school does not buy cleaning directly at all.
Independent schools (through their own boards) and Catholic schools (under Catholic Education South Australia) procure cleaning themselves. The documents they ask for are the same. Catholic Education SA's Engaging Contractors in Catholic Schools Procedure (2022) is a useful public example: screening before induction, an induction checklist, and a permit to work for higher-risk tasks. If your school has a preschool, OSHC or early learning centre on site, that part of the site is also assessed under the National Quality Standard, where Element 2.1.2 requires effective hygiene practices to be promoted and implemented, and assessors look at the cleaning schedule and records as part of that.
Term-time scope versus term-break scope
Schools are cleaned on two different programs and the scope must say so. In term time the nightly clean covers classrooms, toilets, staff rooms, admin, the canteen front-of-house, the gym floor and the library, with toilets getting the most time per square metre. The term breaks are when the work that cannot happen with students in the building gets done: hard-floor strip and re-seal, carpet extraction, high dusting, window cleaning to safe ladder height, canteen deep clean, and furniture moved and cleaned behind.
The 2026 South Australian government school calendar has breaks of roughly two weeks in April (from 11 April), July (from 4 July) and September (from 26 September), and a summer break from 12 December after Term 4 ends on 11 December (Department for Education term dates). Independent schools finish Term 4 a week or so earlier. A good scope puts each periodical task against a named break, so the April break is floors, the July break is carpets, and so on. Then the invoice for that work is agreed in advance, not negotiated when the floor is already grey. Hard floor care and carpet extraction are the two largest items in most school periodical programs.
What goes wrong, and the question that prevents it
- Unchecked replacement cleaners. Ask: "Who exactly will be on site, and what is each person's WWCC number and expiry?"
- Chemicals within reach of children. Ask: "Where is the chemical store, is it locked, and where is the safety data sheet folder?"
- Toilets cleaned to time, not standard. Ask: "How many minutes per toilet block are in the price?" Under 20 is a problem.
- Periodical work that never happens. Ask: "Which break is each periodical task booked into, and what does it cost?"
- No evidence. Ask: "Show me a week of visit records from another school."
- Price under the award. Ask: "How many hours a week are in this price?" Divide the price by the hours. Across Adelaide, school cleaning typically runs $45 to $75 per cleaner hour; under about $40 cannot cover the award wage, superannuation and insurance.
How JC Commercial works in schools
JC Commercial was founded in Adelaide in 2023 and is certified to ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001, which a school can check on the JAS-ANZ register. Every school gets a clause-numbered scope before the first visit, with the term-time program and the term-break program written separately and the periodical work dated against the school calendar. Every visit is time-stamped, ticked and photographed. Issues are acknowledged within 2 hours and resolved within 24 as a contract term, and there is no lock-in contract. See school cleaning and childcare and early learning cleaning, or ask for a 15-minute walk-through; enquiries are answered the same business day.
FAQs
Does a school cleaner in South Australia need a Working With Children Check?
Yes. Every person who works at a school site needs a current WWCC issued by the DHS Screening Unit, including cleaners working after hours. It lasts five years. A National Police Certificate has not been accepted in place of it since 1 July 2020.
What is RRHAN-EC and does a cleaning contractor need it?
Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect, Education and Care, is the Department for Education's child-protection training. Its requirements for external organisations set which course applies to contractors working around children on department sites. Ask for the certificate for each person.
How much public liability insurance should a school cleaning contractor hold?
Most SA schools ask for $20 million. Check the certificate of currency for the insured name, the limit and the expiry, and that the name matches the ABN on the quote.
How do I verify a cleaning company's ISO certification?
Search the company name at register.jasanz.org/certified-organisations. Check the standard (9001, 14001 or 45001), the scope statement, the certificate number and the expiry. A certificate that is not on the register was not issued under JAS-ANZ accreditation.
What should happen in the school holidays?
The periodical work that cannot be done with students on site: hard-floor strip and seal, carpet extraction, high dusting, windows to ladder height and canteen deep clean. The scope should name which break each task falls in and what it costs.
How much does school cleaning cost in Adelaide?
Across Adelaide, school cleaning typically runs $45 to $75 per cleaner hour, or roughly $2 to $5 per square metre per month for a nightly program. Anything under about $40 an hour cannot cover the award wage, superannuation and insurance.