2025 Healthcare Cleanliness Standards—What’s Changed and Why It Matters

At Workplace, we understand that cleanliness in healthcare isn’t just about appearance - it’s about safety, trust, and compliance.

For years, we’ve worked hand-in-hand with healthcare providers to meet and exceed the National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness, ensuring that every environment we maintain is not only visibly clean but clinically safe.

As we move into 2025, these standards have evolved to reflect the changing landscape of healthcare delivery. This article offers a comprehensive refresher on what these standards mean, why they matter, and how the 2025 updates are shaping the future of healthcare cleaning.

Understanding the Foundation: The 2021 Standards

The original 2021 standards were a landmark shift in how cleanliness was measured and managed across healthcare settings. They introduced:

• A unified framework for all healthcare providers, regardless of size or specialty.

• Six guiding principles: ease of use, freedom within a framework, future readiness, cleaning efficacy, assurance, and transparency.

• Functional Risk Categories (FRCs) to assess the level of cleaning required based on the risk posed by each area.

• Auditing and scoring systems to ensure accountability and continuous improvement.

These standards helped bring consistency across NHS trusts, GP surgeries, specialist clinics, and private hospitals - ensuring that every patient, visitor, and staff member could feel confident in the cleanliness of their environment.

2025: What’s New and Why It Matters

The 2025 update builds on this strong foundation with several key enhancements designed to improve flexibility, visibility, and collaboration:

Collaborative Cleaning Over Element-Based Cleaning

Rather than cleaning individual items (e.g., sinks, beds, chairs) in isolation, the new approach encourages cleaning entire areas holistically. This method improves efficiency and ensures that no element is overlooked.

Inclusion of Ambulance and Patient Transport Services

For the first time, the standards now apply to ambulance services and patient transport, recognising these as critical touchpoints in the patient journey.

Visible Star Ratings

Healthcare facilities must now display star ratings based on cleanliness audits. This transparency builds trust with patients and motivates teams to maintain high standards.

Expanded Risk Rating Categories

Two new risk categories have been added, giving facilities greater flexibility in tailoring cleaning schedules to the specific needs of each area.

Efficacy Audits

Audits now assess not just whether an area is clean, but how effectively the cleaning was performed—a shift toward quality assurance rather than just compliance.

Blending Functional Risk Areas

Facilities can now combine risk areas to streamline cleaning operations and optimise resource allocation.

Linked Cleaning Frequencies

Cleaning schedules are now directly tied to risk ratings, ensuring that high-risk areas receive more frequent attention.

Customisable Elements Lists

Organisations can now tailor the list of elements to their specific environment, allowing for more relevant and focused cleaning plans.

Our Expertise in Action

Our teams are trained to deliver cleaning services that meet these evolving standards across a wide range of healthcare environments, including:

• GP surgeries: where patient turnover is high and infection control is critical.

• Optegra Eye Hospitals: where surgical precision and sterile environments are non-negotiable.

• Specialist clinics and private practices: where bespoke cleaning plans are essential.

We work closely with each client to develop cleaning schedules, audit protocols, and reporting systems that align with both the standards and the unique needs of their facility.

“The 2025 standards represent a real step forward in how we think about healthcare cleanliness. It’s not just about ticking boxes - it’s about creating environments that are safe, reassuring, and visibly cared for. We’ve worked closely with our clients to implement these changes, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Whether it’s a busy GP surgery or a specialist hospital, our goal is the same: to deliver cleaning that supports patient safety and staff confidence.”

- Lynne Van Loggerenberg, Operations Director

Looking Ahead

As the healthcare sector continues to evolve, so too must the standards that support it. At Workplace, we’re proud to be at the forefront of this journey - helping our clients navigate change, maintain compliance, and deliver excellence in every clean.

If you’d like to learn more about how we can support your facility, or to request a consultation, please get in touch.