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Distinction Unit 7 Health and Social Care full coursework assignment
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BTECH Health and Social Care Unit 7 full completed coursework assignment - distinction grade
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Assignment: Unit 7 Safeguarding MattersP1 – Duty of Care
Introduction to my case study
I have chosen to use the Wellings NHS Trust Ward 3B case study throughout my assignment.
It is about a female surgical hospital ward and one of the patients, Lizzy D. Lizzy has been
admitted to the ward for a routine surgery on her left hand, however after visits from her
husband she complains of pain and swelling in her hand that was operated on each time,
and refuses to say what happened. It is likely that Lizzy is experiencing abuse from her
husband, but due to the compromised safety of the ward, with anyone being able to enter
at any time with no record of who and when, as well as unsupervised visits and frequently
unrecorded medication given to patients, including Lizzy, this likely case of abuse goes
unreported. This case study has many safeguarding issues as well as a failure of duty of care,
potentially resulting in Lizzy being neglected and I think it addresses a lot of the issues that
are discussed in this assignment.
Duty of care
A duty of care can be defined as a moral or legal obligation to ensure the safety and
wellbeing of others. It is acting in the best interests of the service user or any others that
may be affected by your actions. (Oxford Languages, 2021) A duty of care is also not acting,
or failing to act in a way that would cause harm to the service user. For example, if a nurse
on a surgical ward was unwell, but still came into work and didn’t tell anyone that she was
unwell, not only does she put the vulnerable surgical patients at risk of infection and
potential, life threatening illnesses, she could also forget to do certain things, such as record
medications, forgetting to give, or giving the wrong medications to patients and generally
perform poor quality work. She has failed her duty of care, put the vulnerable service users
at risk of harm, and hasn’t upheld her legal obligation to ensure the safety and wellbeing of
others. A duty of care applies to all health care workers and individuals who work within the
health and social care sector, as well as all service users. This is to ensure that safe care is
not only received and delivered to all service users, protecting them from possible harm, but
also making sure that the wellbeing of every individual within this service is considered at all
times.
A duty of care is extremely important and should always be upheld for every individual in a
service as it avoids and protects them from potential abuse and injury, and any harm that
could occur in general. It allows the service users to have their rights and to make choices
for themselves, even if they involve risk, but with informed knowledge and guidance
towards their decision, protecting them, and providing them with safety. Every service user
deserves to be treated with a duty of care, although this is particularly important when
working with individuals who lack the mental capacity to safeguard themselves. Service
users who come under this category may not be able to speak for themselves and need an
advocate to on their behalf, as well as potentially needing extra care and safety provided for
them, but it is crucial that when working with vulnerable individuals that professional
working boundaries are created to protect both the service provider, and service user.
1
, Assignment: Unit 7 Safeguarding Matters
Legal Obligation
A legal obligation is a legal duty to perform or not perform a particular action. (Billingham et
al., 2016) In the health and social care sector, duty of care is a legal obligation. Aside from a
duty of care another example of a legal obligation would be moving individuals who have
physical disabilities or mobility difficulties with the correct equipment, the appropriate staff
members and with the proper lifting and moving techniques. Anything that is regarded as a
legal obligation in the health and social care sector is not a choice that the staff members
get to make as to whether or not they follow the particular obligation, it is their legal
responsibility to do follow it and by not doing it they are putting the individuals at risk of
injury and failing their duty of care. A duty of care is a legal obligation as all employees
within the service have to provide a duty of care towards the service users and protect them
from harm and this isn’t something they can decide to do if they want to. All service
providers should know their limits and ensure that they only perform tasks and act within
their competency level to make sure that their legal obligations are all upheld.
Upholding Rights and promoting health and wellbeing
All service users have rights, and it is important to promote these and make sure everyone is
aware that they have these rights within the services they use. However, not all service
users will ask for what they need or want and therefore their rights are not met. This could
be due to being physically or psychologically intimidated by a service provider, a family
member, or a friend, or lacking the mental capacity to ask for there needs to be met, or to
speak on their own behalf. In this case, an advocate would be needed, this could be a family
member, or friend, or a service provider or staff member within that service and they would
speak on the individuals behalf. It is important when working within the health and social
care sector that you remember that each service user is an individual with their own set of
abilities and difficulties, and that although some may need extra support upholding their
rights, everybody should be treated in a way that means their rights will be met and they
can do so in a safe environment where they can speak freely without potential physical or
emotional barriers.
Protecting health and safety
Protecting yourself and others health and safety within a service is very important. Actions
and decisions that are made by a service provider can not only affect service users, but
every individual, including themselves and it is important to think about the consequences
that can occur when failings and specific actions or decisions are made. Within the service,
relationships between service providers and service users are established and this is based
off of trust and honesty, in these situations the service provider has more power and to
protect the health, safety and wellbeing of all individuals in the professional relationship,
the service provider should act responsible and not take advantage of the power they have,
and abuse it. Protecting health and safety is equally as important as promoting health and
safety and each play a big role in the safeguarding of service users as well as making sure
that everyone is treated with a good duty of care.
2
, Assignment: Unit 7 Safeguarding Matters
Code of conduct
The code of conduct is a set of rules that tells service providers and organisations how to
behave when interacting with service users and working with colleagues and other
professionals. It sets the standard expected of all adult social care workers and health care
workers in England. It outlines the behaviours and attitudes that people who need care
support should rightly expect. (www.skillsforcare.org.uk, n.d.) It also tells service users how
to improve and maintain the safety, quality, and effectiveness of their service. This gives
these services and organisations guidance in what to do if these standards aren’t met and
ensures that the staff members can fulfil their roles within the service and what they require
to the best of their ability.
Ensuring safe practice
Ensuring safe practice is very important and should be upheld no matter what setting is
being worked in, including in a service users home, a professional care facility or any other
facility within the health and social care sector where care is provided. It is crucial that the
safe practice policies set by an organisation are followed and staff are trained and can put
these policies into place to ensure that everybody within the working environment is safe
and not at risk of harm or injury. When working at a professional care facility, there are risks
and hazards that by following safe practice policies are minimized, however these hazards
are increased when in a service users home. There are many potential hazards within a
service users home, such as pets, furniture, and flooring. This creates problems when using
equipment as well as creating an unsafe environment which could lead to potential injuries,
even fatal injuries. When working in a service users home, it is important to consider any
obstacles that wouldn’t normally be faced when working in a professional care facility and
plan how the care that is being provided, can be done safely and minimise risk to both the
service user and provider, whether that is by moving the furniture, clearing the floor, or
moving pets out of the room.
The Care Quality Commission or CQC also play a part in safe practice in the health and social
care sector. The Care Quality Commission (CQC)regulated all health and social care services
in England. The commission ensures the quality and safety of care in hospitals, dentists,
ambulances, and care homes, and the care given in peoples own homes. (GOV, 2019 )They
have many different rules, regulations, and standards that they require be done, before and
during the job to help to ensure safe practice. One of these things is all new workers to a job
having health and safety induction training. Training, induction and continuous throughout a
workers job is really important as it ensures that they have the required skill level to
perform their jobs correctly and informs them of anything they need to know about the
health and safety requirements that there job has. Workers should also take responsibility
in their professional development and ensure that they are reflecting on their work,
especially the health and safety aspects of their job and do this by asking themselves
questions about what they could do better next time or what went wrong, but also by
sharing with their colleagues so that they can receive constructive criticism and also give out
constructive criticism as all of these contribute to personal development which is really
important in ensuring safe practice in a health and social care workplace.
3
, Assignment: Unit 7 Safeguarding Matters
Balancing individual rights with risk
Every individual has rights, they have the right to choose their medical care, make decisions
about their treatments and procedures and overall just make the choices relating to their
health, wellbeing, and care. However, decisions made by a service user don’t just impact
them, their decision can affect many individuals around them, whether that is in a positive
or a negative way. There are times when health care professionals have power over service
users and their decisions, and they have to consider if the risks that could occur due to the
decision that has been made by the service user out way their rights to make that decision.
This can cause conflict between all service users and service providers involved with service
users losing their independence and control over their care. It is important to remember
when working with service users that they are individuals, they have the right to make
informed decisions about their care, even if they do involve a small amount of risk and this
should still be remembered when examining the duty of care, procedures and policies set by
the organisation that is providing the service.
Acting in a person’s best interest
When working in the health and social care sector and providing care to service users, there
may be times when the care provider feels that they disagree with the choice or decision
the service user has made and feels that the decision isn’t in the service users best interest.
It may be the case that they feel they need to stop the service user from acting on their
choice or making their decision and make the choices for them instead to ensure their
safety and wellbeing. In order to do this consent must be given by the service user to allow
decisions to be made for them. However, if consent is not given and the service provider
believes that the individuals decisions are putting them at a high risk of harm, and could
affect their health and wellbeing, and that they shouldn’t be making the decisions, evidence
can be collected to prove that the individual lacks the mental capacity to make informed
decisions and somebody else needs to on their behalf to safeguard their health, safety and
wellbeing and act in their best interest.
Duty of care not being upheld
In the case study I have chosen, Wellings NHS Trust Ward 3B, a duty of care is not upheld in
many situations. The service user, Lizzy D, is put at a constant, serious risk of harm whilst
being a patient on the surgical ward, and has had a significant failure of a duty of care by the
service providers, the hospital and ward health care professionals and staff. The service
providers have a legal responsibility to provide a duty of care towards their patients, and
this includes ensuring their safety and wellbeing, and acting, or failing to act in a way that
could cause harm to the service users.
On the ward, the door is broken, the keypad that is used to gain entrance to the ward is
currently out of service. Instead of getting up and unlocking the door each time a non-health
care worker requires to enter, they have decided to prop it open to save them the trouble.
4
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