1. Decide which sites and services you can cover
Start with your operating area, supervisors, available staff and experience. Cleaning an occupied office, a school and a healthcare site can involve different hours, access arrangements and methods. Write down the work you deliver well and the limits you cannot safely stretch. This makes it easier to reject a poor-fit tender before spending days on a response.
- Choose the locations you can supervise, including travel between sites.
- Separate routine cleaning from periodic deep cleaning, specialist work and window cleaning.
- Check whether you can cover absence, holidays and additional demand without weakening your existing contracts.
- Identify whether you want to lead the contract, bid for one lot or explore a permitted subcontracting role.
2. Search for cleaning tenders and check the individual lots
Search official portals for cleaning services, building cleaning, school cleaning and facilities management, using terms relevant to your operation. A facilities management notice can include catering, security, grounds maintenance or repairs. Read the lot descriptions to see whether cleaning is bought separately. Do not treat the value of an entire facilities package as the cleaning budget.
- Find a Tender and Contracts Finder are useful starting points; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also have their own portals, linked by GOV.UK below.
- Use our cleaning market page for dated opportunities, historical awards and buyers to research.
- Check that you are reading a live procurement rather than an award notice or a closed framework application.
3. Read the specification as an operating plan
List the buildings, floor areas where supplied, room types, operating hours, service frequencies and periodic tasks. Check who supplies equipment, chemicals and consumables, and who provides storage, access and utilities. Record the required inspections, reporting and response to missed standards. If the documents leave a gap that affects your cost, raise it through the buyer's clarification process.
- Are there restricted access windows or requirements for work while buildings remain occupied?
- Which tasks happen daily, weekly, in school holidays or only on request?
- Can the buyer add or remove sites, and how is the price adjusted?
- Is a site visit offered or compulsory, and when must you book it?
4. Check workforce information before fixing the labour price
Look for information about the existing workforce and any transfer arrangements in the tender pack. Do not assume you will recruit an entirely new team or inherit the same staffing pattern you would otherwise choose. Employment obligations can materially affect the cost and mobilisation plan. Ask for clarification where information is missing and take qualified advice on any proposed transfer or contractual commitment.
- Identify the staffing information the buyer has supplied and what remains unknown.
- Allow for supervision, training, absence cover, recruitment and mobilisation where relevant.
- Check the requested vetting, safeguarding, site induction and specialist training requirements.
- Keep employee information confidential and follow the handling instructions in the tender documents.
5. Build a price you can explain and deliver
Use the actual specification to build the staffing and cost model. Include the productive cleaning time, supervision, travel, equipment, consumables, cover, quality checks and administration required for this contract. Follow the buyer's pricing template and check how it handles periodic work and changes. Do not use the published contract estimate as your cost model; it may cover options, multiple lots or several years.
- Check the cost of the busiest periods as well as an average week.
- Test the effect of changes in hours, staffing or site numbers using the terms in the documents.
- Review the payment timetable and the cash needed before the first payment arrives.
- Reconcile every priced activity against the service schedule so tasks are neither omitted nor counted twice.
6. Write to the buyer's evaluation criteria
Read the scoring questions before writing a company introduction. Explain how you will clean these sites, supervise the service, check quality, cover absence and fix problems. Use relevant examples you can evidence. Where the buyer asks for a mobilisation plan, give named responsibilities and a credible sequence of actions. Avoid promising response times or staffing levels your operating plan cannot support.
- Keep a checklist of mandatory documents, signatures and attachments.
- Use the stated clarification channel and respect its deadline.
- Register and test access to the submission portal early; an alert-service account is not a portal registration.
- Submit before the final deadline and keep the receipt or confirmation.
Build a repeatable shortlist rather than bidding for everything
Record why you bid or declined: location, service scope, staffing, commercial terms, evidence and margin. Use previous awards to identify buyers that purchase your kind of cleaning, but check newer notices before assuming a contract is coming back to market. A published end date may change through an extension. Update your search terms and bid checklist from the feedback you receive.
