About Us

The British Association of Cleaning in Higher Education (BACHE-FM) was established in 2004 with funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). We provide a valuable networking forum for cleaning operatives, supervisors and managers, and aim to standardise training for cleaning staff in higher education institutions. 

BACHE-FM enables higher educational institutions to share best practices and cleaning processes, thereby improving cleaning standards and professionalising the delivery of cleaning and associated services across campuses. We are one of eleven organisations forming the Higher Education Estates Forum Association (HEEFA) which has a remit associated with Estates and Facilities Management in Higher Education.

University cleaning and associated support services teams are responsible for cleaning and servicing some 14.3 million square meters. This includes cleaning a diverse range of buildings and facilities, ranging from teaching rooms and lecture theatres, to libraries, sports facilities, laboratories and art studios. Some of these spaces are in use twenty-four hours a day and many pose their own unique challenges.

While university cleaning and support service teams are – now more than ever – doing more with less, they consistently strive to support Estates and Facilities Directors by delivering efficiencies and reducing costs. In doing so, they contribute to improving and maintaining university estates, thus ensuring continual improvement to the student, staff and visitor experience. BACHE-FM aims to provide important assistance to these teams by providing training opportunities, facilitating the sharing of knowledge, and creating a forum for networking between the UK’s varied HE institutions.