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Unit 7 Task 2 Health and Social Care Level 3 DISTINCTION
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Unit 7 Task 2 Health and Social Care Level 3 DISTINCTION ACHIEVED
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Unit 7 Task 2P6 - Compare the influence of different health and safety laws or policies on
health and social care practice in a selected setting.
There are a range of legislations and policies that will help maintain health and
safety in health and social care settings, one of these is the Health and Safety at
work Act (1974), it has three main objectives, these are: to secure the health, safety
and wellbeing of people at work, to protect every individual within a workplace
against risks to health and safety arising out of or in connection with the activities
people at work control and to control the keeping and use of explosive, highly
flammable or other dangerous substances and prevent the unlawful possession of
these. All staff members within a setting must follow the rules and regulations set by
the health and safety at work act in order to keep everyone safe. If even one
individual is not following the rules it can compromise the safety of everyone else.
Within a hospital setting like ward 3B in which Lizzy is on, there will be a range of
procedures in place to secure the health and safety of individuals accessing the
service, one of these will be ensuring that all the staff are trained on how to use the
medical equipment and that they ensure all equipment is regularly checked to ensure
it is in working order. For example, before using a hoist to aid someone out of bed,
the staff should be fully aware on how to use it and are satisfied that it is in full
working order and safe to use. This will prevent the injury of a service user if the
equipment were to fail due to user error or improper checking. Another area in which
harm could occur through failings in the Health and Safety at Work act is through
medication. If the medication (which can be harmful when not taken correctly or in
the right dose) is kept unlocked or accessible for all service users, it will put them at
risk. By locking these substances away it will ensure that the only people that can
access the substances are the nurses/doctors that prescribe and administer them.
This will limit the risk of an individual causing harm to themselves through improper
storage of medication. Another influence the Health and Safety at Work act will have
on the safety of a setting is that it will ensure risk assessments are carried out, by
performing a risk assessment all possible causes of harm can be identified and
therefore changed and adapted to no longer cause harm. This will be particularly
useful within the Beeches drop in centre. There will be a range of individuals
accessing the service, all of which will have different needs - there will need to be
regular risk assessments on the site to ensure that all harm is avoided. This may
include adding a step free access point to the service, it may also lead to changes in
the layout. It is imperative risk assessments are carried out as they will protect both
the staff and the service users from avoidable harm.
There can be improvements made to the safety at work within Ward 3B, due to the
entrance to the ward being constantly propped open as the keypad is broken,
anyone can have access to the ward. This will be identified as a risk and a failing in
,the safety of the service users as if there was an individual with malicious intent, they
would have free access to the ward and there may not be anyone that sees them
enter. This can pose a great risk to the individuals as whilst they are in hospital they
are more vulnerable than they otherwise would be and so more susceptible to harm,
if an individual were to enter it could stress the service users out which may cause
their condition to deteriorate due to stress.
RIDDOR (reporting of injuries, diseases, and dangerous occurrences regulations) is
an act that means employees must report and keep record of work related accidents.
This act will lead to accidents or injuries at work being reported and so will help keep
the service users but also the employees safer. In the case of the beeches drop in
centre, the act of RIDDOR will not be followed, the sign in and sign out book has
been lost along with the accidents book. By not having a record of the accidents that
happen within the service, there can be no attempt made to adapt and change the
service in order to keep all service users safe, for example if one of the steps was
broken to enter the service and an individual tripped, there will be no record of this
and so the step will not be changed, this will lead to putting all service users in the
future at risk. Within the beeches drop in centre, if a service user were to become
unwell due to food poisoning after the fridge did not work correctly, it would have to
be reported. After being reported it will be clear that improvements need to be made
with food preparation and storage. This will lead to the standard of care being
improved for all the service users. Another example is that if an individual were to fall
or trip up on the stairs at the entrance to the service, it would need to be reported
and therefore changed. A risk assessment can also be completed in order to identify
any further issues with the service. Riddor is extremely important within this setting
as it helps ensure all care provided is of the best standard but it also holds staff and
other team members accountable, if accidents were not reported then the staff would
be failing their standard of care and would be putting the service users at risk.
RIDDOR can also cover accidents or illness through the user of proper infection
control. Within Ward 3B, there will be a range of measures taken in order to prevent
the possibility of cross infection and contamination. There will be a range of service
users within the hospital with different infectious illnesses, it is within the
professionals duty to ensure that each service user is not exposed to an illness or
infection that would make them more unwell when it should be prevented. By
following proper hand washing policies along with infection control measures, the
safety of the service users will be at the centre of their care. It will also help protect
the professionals working with the service users. When RIDDOR is not maintained,
the service user and employers can be put at risk but the company can also face a
fine based on the severity of the failing. The company can be shut down and the
service stopped. For individuals who seem unable to abide by the rules and
regulations and so puts other individuals at risk, can be prosecuted and given up to a
2 year prison sentence.
, Some of the advantages of RIDDOR include the employers maintaining a safe work
environment,it encourages everyone to follow health and safety policies within the
workplace, it ensures that when incidents are reported, the potential risks are
exposed and so can be changed. Ultimately it prevents the occurrence of
frequent/avoidable risk within the workplace. However, it also has some
disadvantages, one of these is that there is confusion between reporting and
recording requirements, the policy was updated and changed and brought into
practice in October 2013, this change lead to confusion in some employers and
employees, this confusion can mean that some incidents go unreported due to
confusion in the classification of an incident.
Both of the policies discussed above have similarities and differences, both of them
help ensure that safe practice is followed and the best care provided can be given,
they both aim to prevent the risk of accidents happening at work and promote the
aspects of safe practice.RIDDOR and the Health and Safety at Work act have some
similarities - one of these is that their top aims are to keep individuals within the
workplace safe by setting out rules in which everyone needs to follow and by
ensuring that any incidents that do happen are reported however, they do this in
different ways - RIDDOR’s way of ensuring that the workplace is safe os that it
ensures that all incidents and accidents and other dangerous occurrences are noted
and recorded and so the cause of these instances can be identified and adapted so
that it no longer poses a risk whereas the Health and Safety at work act focuses on
producing a set of rules an regulations that must be followed in order to keep people
safe at work. These are similar as both policies will result in the individuals within a
workplace being safe and minimising risk. A difference between the two is that
RIDDOR’s focus is on reporting occurrences after they have happened and then
acting on the fact that an incident has occured, this is different to the Health and
Safety at work act, as this focuses on preventing accidents and incidents in their
entirety. When using these two acts with each other, the workplace will be a much
safer space - the majority of incidents and accidents should be prevented by
following rules and regulations set out by the Health and safety at work act however,
anything else that occurs, including near misses of incidents will be reported and
recorded in order for the causes of them to be changed and adapted so the same
incident will not happen again.
RIDDOR can be seen as less effective than the health and safety at work act due to
the idea that it focuses on reporting accidents once they have happened - although
this does lead to change in the organisation and adaptations to reduce risk it can be
argued that it is a less effective way of promoting safe practice and will lead to a
higher level of incidents when used alone. This can make service users unsure that
they are safe when they are within the service and so more likely to feel unsafe and
dissatisfied with the care they receive - this is why it is important to use the health
and safety at work act in conjunction with RIDDOR - by promoting the safety of all
individuals in the workplace by setting out rules and regulations, individuals will be
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