The cleaning industry relies heavily on flexible labour. Some businesses employ their cleaners directly, while others use casual workers, individual subcontractors or a mixture of different arrangements.
From 1 October 2026, an important change to Right to Work rules means cleaning businesses using some of these arrangements will need to pay much closer attention to who they engage and how their Right to Work is checked.
Until now, the legal Right to Work checking regime has largely focused on conventional employment. The Government is extending it to cover a wider range of working arrangements, including people working under a worker’s contract, individual subcontractors and certain online matching services that connect service providers with customers.
For cleaning companies that have traditionally relied on self-employed cleaners, this is an important change.
Calling Someone Self-Employed Will Not Be Enough
Employment arrangements in cleaning can sometimes become complicated. A business may refer to someone as self-employed because they invoice for their work or because the contract describes them as a subcontractor.
The new rules make it increasingly important to understand the actual working arrangement rather than assuming that describing someone as self-employed removes the business’s responsibilities.
The Government says the changes are intended to close gaps in the existing system, prevent illegal working and create a more level playing field between businesses using conventional employees and those using more flexible forms of labour.
For cleaning businesses, this means Right to Work checks need to become part of the recruitment and onboarding process for a wider group of people.
What Should Cleaning Businesses Do?
The first step is simply to understand who is actually working for your business.
Look at your employees, casual workers and individual subcontractors and understand how each person is engaged. If you regularly bring new cleaners into the business, your onboarding process should make it clear when a Right to Work check is required and how evidence of that check will be retained.
The Government provides different ways of completing a prescribed Right to Work check depending on the individual’s circumstances, including the Home Office online service, manual document checks and approved digital verification services in appropriate cases.
Businesses should also remember that Right to Work checks must be carried out fairly. Someone’s nationality, accent, name or appearance should never be used to decide whether they should be checked. The Government’s guidance makes clear that businesses should apply their procedures consistently and avoid unlawful discrimination.
This Matters Particularly to Smaller Cleaning Companies
Large cleaning companies are more likely to have dedicated HR and compliance teams managing these processes. A small cleaning business may have the owner recruiting cleaners, arranging rotas, dealing with customers and completing payroll at the same time.
That makes simple processes particularly important.
If your business uses individual subcontractors or other flexible workers, now is a good time to review how they are engaged rather than waiting until October. Make sure responsibility for completing checks is clear, records are kept properly and whoever recruits workers understands the new requirements.
This is also another sign of a wider change taking place across the cleaning industry. Flexible employment is not necessarily disappearing, but businesses using flexible labour are increasingly being expected to demonstrate that it is being managed responsibly.
What About Cleaners Transferring Under TUPE?
Cleaning companies taking over an existing contract should also consider Right to Work as part of their TUPE process. Where employees transfer to a new employer under TUPE, the incoming company should make sure it understands what Right to Work records are being transferred and whether any workers have time-limited permission that will require a future repeat check. Do not simply assume that because someone has worked on the site for several years, all the necessary records are complete. Build Right to Work information into your TUPE due diligence, identify any missing or expiring evidence early, and make sure responsibility for future checks is clearly recorded.
This is particularly important during contract mobilisation, when cleaning businesses may be onboarding a transferred workforce while simultaneously recruiting additional employees, casual workers or subcontractors.
CleanBow Perspective
For years, flexibility has helped small cleaning businesses respond quickly to new contracts, sickness, holidays and changing customer demand.
That flexibility remains valuable. But flexibility cannot mean having less visibility over who is working for your business.
The extension of Right to Work requirements is another reason for cleaning businesses to strengthen recruitment, worker records and onboarding processes. The companies that put those systems in place early will be better prepared as employment and workforce regulation continues to change.
For many small cleaning businesses, the question before October should be simple:
Do you know exactly who is working for your business, under what arrangement, and whether your records demonstrate that they have the right to do that work?
