An detailed essay describing how health and safety legislation, policies and procedures promote the safety of individuals in a health or social care setting which achieved merit - M1 of unit 3 health and safety.
M1: Describe how health and safety legislation, policies and procedures promote the safety of
individuals in a health or social care setting
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974:
This act helps to promote the safety of individuals in a work place. I am going to relate this to my
work placement at Davenham day care centre. By the centre following this act and its policies it
prevents the service users from hazards and risks occurring and creates a safe environment free
from any potential risks.
This can be achieved by following the health and safety at work act in the example of preventing a
service user from scalding themselves for example by making a hot drink, with this act and the
resulting policies it means the carers have rules in place whereby the carers only make the hot
drinks. As the action of the service user making a hot drink could be a potential hazard to their
health because they could spill the drink on themselves or they may not pay attention due to
distraction this may cause the service user to pour the kettle on their hand and not the cup. This is a
potential hazard as they will suffer from scalding as well as burning. Another potential hazard could
occur if a service user spills the hot water on the floor. This could cause falls which may mean they
could seriously injure themselves. To prevent this happening, the staff should always make drinks for
the service users so incident does not occur like the example above.
Food Safety Act 1990:
It is essential to follow this act in a day care setting for the elderly as there may be service users that
find it challenging to swallow their food at mealtimes. Therefore the staff will use this act as a
guideline to understand the benefit of chopping up the service users food as it will make it easier for
them to eat; therefore this prevents a health hazard. If a service user is struggling to swallow the
chopped up food for health reasons, the method of liquidising the food may help in prevention of
chocking. If the service users attend a cooking activity under the Food Safety Act 1990 it is essential
that the hand washing policy is followed. The staff should encourage and ask the service users to
abide by this policy before cooking to prevent any harmful bacteria contaminating with the food. If
this policy is not followed the service users could eat the potentially contaminated food that they
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