Busy corridors at Renfrewshire’s largest high school are not being cleaned, as a whistleblower reveals serious concerns about hygiene amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
Park Mains High School currently has one full-time permanent cleaner.
The Paisley Daily Express understands it should have 12.
And while Renfrewshire Council has been scrambling to secure agency staff, people working in the school say the three to four workers turning out at night are not managing to clean the whole campus.
They claim corridors, the dining hall and other communal areas in which the school’s estimated 1,500 pupils pass through every day are not being cleaned to the right standard, if at all.
Renfrewshire Council declined to comment on the claims and would only state they were “currently hiring” to support cleaning staff.
The whistleblower told the Express: “We are way, way down on numbers and they just can’t get the school cleaned. That was evident after the first week and it is really bad now.
“Areas that are supposed to be cleaned by the large scrubber drier haven’t been done for weeks.
“We work there and we know what should be done, what the standard should be and we are now getting complaints from teachers and different departments.
“They know it is not our fault but it’s frustrating.”
He added: “There is not a big enough deal being made about this situation, especially with the pandemic.
“I doubt the public and parents know what is going on. There would be a kick up about if they did.”
The whistleblower who works at the Erskine campus also revealed that the number of covid cleaners - employed on short-term contracts - was cut from three to one just as more children made a return to school in April.
They allege these staff were only reinstated when senior managers at the school complained.
Working from 9am until 4pm when the children are already in school they are, the whistleblower claims, unable to complete the work which was not done by the shift the night before.
News of the cleaning problems within the school come just months after the Express revealed that in term one Renfrewshire had one of the highest covid school infection rates in Scotland.
Many of the problems at Park Mains have also been made worse by Renfrewshire Council’s remodelling of facilities services.
It means that the roles of janitors, cleaners and kitchen staff have been removed, with all now dubbed facilities operatives and different shift patterns imposed.
But the school source said with huge staff shortages across Renfrewshire schools, it was way too soon to implement the shake up.
He said: “We are seeing a lot of people being made to work in the kitchen who have been cleaners or janitors. They have never worked in a kitchen before and not had the relevant training and some don’t have their food hygiene certificate.
“Even for those who had the training it was over zoom with no assessment or practical demonstrations and most don’t have the right uniform.
“This just isn’t right for the staff affected, pupils or teachers.”
A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: “The cleaning and cleanliness of our schools continues to be a priority and we are currently hiring for a number of roles to support this. We are working closely with our schools to address any specific issues in the
meantime.”
