Team Clean Awards ceremony honours best cleaners

An awards ceremony has been held in central London to mark the hard work and professionalism of the country's best cleaners.

MITIE Cleaning and Principle Cleaning Services were awarded a joint trophy for Best Cleaners in the UK Team Clean Challenge as the judges were unable to choose one overall winner.

Everyone involved in the contest – entrants, judges, organisers and trainers - gathered at a venue in Westminster where the trophies were handed out.

The contest was organised by Asset Skills, the Sector Skills Council for the cleaning industry. It took place in October and was rolled out to the prisons' sector early this year.

Thirteen prisons hosted the event to help highlight the excellent training available to offenders while they serve their sentences.

It aimed to highlight to inmates how cleaning can be a viable and worthwhile job to consider for the future while flagging to employers the quality training on offer within prisons for potential future workers.

The Team Clean Challenge was one of 22 skills contests running across a range of industries and overseen nationally by UK Skills.

Teams were put through rigorous, two-hour assessments of their practical responses to a set of scenarios including mocked-up filthy hospital wards, office spaces and dirty IT equipment.

Trophies were handed out for best prison cleaning team, manager, supervisor and best operative. When deciding the winners the judges looked at social skills and project management.

The winners will now go on to represent the UK in the EuroSkills contest in Rotterdam next September.