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Unit 7 Task 2 - Principles of Safe Practice in Health & Social Care
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Unit 7 Task 2 Coursework, was awarded a distinction.
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Unit 7.2 (2 policies: CQC (Care Quality Commission) + Food Hygiene)Case study 1: Beeches Drop-in Centre
The drop-in centre caters for adults of all ages many of whom, are homeless. All of
the users of the service have social and often health issues. They live chaotic lives
and do not always get on with each other. There have been incidents of violence
resulting in individuals being injured. No records of incidents and accidents are
kept as the book got lost and has not been replaced. Although they are not
supposed to, users of the service are often drunk when they attend. The staff ask
them to leave but the offenders tend to sit outside harassing any late comers.
Several of the users of the service have mental health problems including
depression and anxiety. Other users of the service tend to isolate these individuals,
often refusing to speak to them. Two of the individuals have a phobia to certain
foods which can make mealtimes difficult. Several of the users of the service have
suffered abuse. The centre is staffed by two full time workers, one of whom is a
Social Worker and the other a Registered Nurse. There are also several volunteers,
some of whom come five days a week and others one or two. There is a signing in
and out book at the centre however, some of the users of the service cannot read
and write and others are too concerned with their own issues to bother signing the
book. This means that no record is kept of who attends. The full-time staff do
occasionally take a register, but this is only when they remember. The building is
old and belongs to the local council. There is no step-free access. The kitchen is old
and difficult to clean and the fridge doesn’t always seem to work. The fire doors
are kept locked to prevent users of services going into the yard at the back to use
drugs.
CQC
Care Quality Commission (CQC) was put in place to protect the service users – along with
friends and family – and staff. The house of commons library (2020) stated it was established
in 2009 and went under the health and social care act of 2008, the reason being was to
improve the care people were getting by ensuring the healthcare setting were following
appropriate procedures and regulations. In the beeches drop-in centre, the CQC inspection
was clearly not done because the place was severely understaffed as well as they did not
have an accurate register of all those in attendance of the centre. Furthermore, this would
be a case of health and safety due not knowing how many people are in the building in case
of an emergency situation like a fire, in addition to this they also blocked an emergency exit
to prohibit service users using it to do drugs but in doing so they put the individuals that use
the centre in harm’s way. Some strengths of the CQC are that they ensure that all
establishment are to the right standard so everyone who uses the healthcare setting is safe
and gets the appropriate care they need. Furthermore, CQC is beneficial to many settings for
example Empowering U (2023) stated that due to the CQC inspection they were able to
adapt things in order to fit with their service users’ individual needs by having individual-
based care, they are motivated by the CQC inspection to further promote their service users’
best interest. However, some downfalls of the CQC could be to do with poor judgement,
inspection processes can be subjective, relying on the judgment of inspectors. The bias may
impact certain result in the assessments and could lead to inconsistencies. If the CQC must
operate on limited resources, then this limitation can impact and result in failure to find
potential issued or areas that need improvement. One way the CQC is effective however, is
through enforcement of standards which plays a big across all settings of health and social
health however it could be more effective if their inspections were more through and not
, just down to one inspector. Furthermore, leading to my next point an area that isn’t as
effective in the CQC, is inspection in the case of the beeches drop-in there were major
health and safety concerns which if the inspection had happened thoroughly or at all this
wouldn’t be a concern, but the inspector clearly missed a variety of issues that can put
individuals at risk especially vulnerable individual.
Food Hygiene
The Food hygiene Act 1990 was introduced to prevent any harm to the consumer and their
health. The BCP Council (2023) stated that one way it helps is it safeguards consumers by
making it illegal to sell food that does not meet the Act and its requirements. If the act were
not in place, it could impact many individuals for example it could put them at risk of food
poisoning especially if the individual in immunocompromised. In the beeches drop-in centre
vulnerable individuals are at risk because the fridge in broken and therefore the food cannot
be frozen nor chilled and if certain medications are not stored properly, they might not work
how they are supposed to and, in some cases, can even become toxic. Strengths of the Food
Hygiene Act is that it is solely for consumers benefits, they prioritise health of individuals
that are eating the food therefore they use several measures to ensure service users safety.
One of those measure is they prevent food cross-contamination because people can become
sick from food that is not processed or cleaned efficiently, this makes the law effective
because it helps protect people from risk or injury by professionally training them as keeping
toxic or flammable substances away from individuals and safely stored. Another strength is it
prevents individuals who have allergies encounter the allergen in other types of food. They
do this by giving the consumer an allergen information on the food whether pre-packed or
not. This makes the law effective because this way people can avoid unnecessary risk and
stop themselves from having an allergic reaction and possibly anaphylaxes. If this legislation
wasn’t in place there would be many fatalities because not everyone does basic hygiene like
washing their hands before they start prepping or making the food, many people - especially
vulnerable individuals – will suffer as a result of this because it could make their condition
drop significantly, individuals that are mostly affected by food poisoning is pregnant women,
people with chronic illnesses and the elderly due to their immune systems being weaker
than normal, Hence why this law is important because it prioritises the safety of an
individual's health it is a trust that individuals put in the service provider especially if they’re
in a healthcare setting where they are getting treatment, If they can’t rely on the safety on
the food then service users will have a hard time having trust in the organisation and the
care they are delivering.
The influence of different health and safety laws or policies.
Although the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Food Hygiene Act differ in approach
and focus, both play a central role in ensuring the safety, and quality of health services,
while CQC focuses on assessing and regulating the overall quality of care provided by
healthcare facilities, and the Food Hygiene Act focus on delivering safe food and keeping the
service user’s health a priority just like CQC. The CQC’s impact is that a lot more health and
social care settings now have a better standard of care because of their inspections, for
example the beeches would have used CQC to improve all areas of care. The CQC would
change the fact that there’s no register taken, and the emergency doors are locked as it is a
health and safety risk in case of any emergency there would be no way of knowing that
everyone has be evacuated safety and the door being locked put people at greater risk
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