Iulia Maria Damian 19100298
7/A.P1 - Explain the implications of a duty of care in a selected health or social care setting
The concept of duty of care is locked into the legal obligation to care for the service users at the best
of your ability and act, or not act, with the intent of not causing harm. You should always act within
your competence level and do what you are trained to do. Duty of care consists of being professional
and following rules and act in the best interest of individuals you care for and anybody that might be
affected by your actions.
Beeches Drop-in Centre does not follow its duty of care as a service, and the practitioners do not
follow the policies and procedures in place, by failing to protect the users of the service and
endangering them and failing to prevent harm. They do not provide the minimum standard of
safeguarding of their users, and do not follow health and safety procedures. For example, by not
keeping a record book of accidents and incident and failing to replace the lost book.
In case study 1, the practitioners didn’t take any action to promote the interest of the individuals
that are suffering abuse and neglect from the other service users, and by doing so, they are not
upholding their right of getting equal care. The practitioners are failing their duty of care towards
these individuals and by not having an anti-discriminatory practice in place they are indirectly
allowing the service users to abuse each other.
The centre does not protect health, safety and wellbeing of the service users by allowing drunk
service users to sit outside the centre. By telling the drunk individuals to leave the centre, but at the
same time not taking any action to make them leave the premises, the staff is protecting the service
users inside the centre but putting at risk of harassment the service users that have yet to come in
the centre. The staff fails to protect the individuals by not taking any action for the safety and
wellbeing of all service user and themselves, by for example calling the police.
The staff does not minimize the risks in the centre in order to provide safe practice, but instead,
their action increase the risk of hazards and harm to the service users and themselves. They do not
follow and put to practice the safe workplace policies, for example by locking all the fire doors and
exits to the yard. They are putting into danger everybody in the building, and they act in a way that,
in the case of a real fire taking place, could result in serious injuries and death. The staff is breaching
the centre’s policies and procedures and they are not following their obligation of duty of care.
The practitioners and the volunteers in centre are not following a code of conduct and are not
meeting the standards set for Beeches Drop-in. The quality of care is poor, and care is not effective,
they are not promoting safety for themselves and the service users, they are not taking action for
the best interest of the users and are unprofessional. For example, the sign in and out book is not
being signed by users because they too overwhelmed by the events in their lives or cannot read or
write. The staff, aware of the reasons, do not bother to take a register of the people attending,
breaching health and safety policies.
A few service users are being discriminated against and isolated because of their mental health
issues and the rest of the users refuse to speak to them. Staff should be challenging these
behaviours with inclusive and anti-discriminatory practice and promote individual rights while
balancing them with the risks.
Staff is not acting in the best interest of the service users, and they act in a way that might result in
harming the individuals. The fridge is broken and sometimes doesn’t work. Not making adjustments
and repairing it may lead to individuals and staff members being sick and getting food poison.
, Iulia Maria Damian 19100298
To conclude, Beeches Drop-in Centre is an unsafe service, and the staff does not keep to their duty
of care. Policies and procedures are not being followed, staff do not follow a code of conduct,
service users are being exposed to direct and indirect discrimination, health and safety is a big
concern and the service users' needs are being neglected. The staff to make improvements should
be following the service’s regulations and take action towards the health, safety and wellbeing of the
individuals using the service and the individuals working there. Anti-discriminatory practice should
be implemented, and risks assessments should also be done.
REFERENCE:
BTEC Level 3 Textbook link for Book 1 - https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cityuk-
ebooks/reader.action?docID=4745325&query=health+and+social+care pg.298-301
Unit 7 Safe Practice - P2: Discuss ways in which complaints and appeals procedures address failure
in a duty of care in a selected health or social care setting.
One of the biggest failures of Beeches Drop-in Centre is the inability to provide a safe work
environment and neglecting the service users’ needs.
There are many aspects of the centre that contributes to it being defined as unsafe. The incidents of
violence followed by the injuries, and these incidents have not been recorded because the centre
does not have an incident book. There are users of the service that attend the centre whilst being
drunk, and as they are not allowed to come in drunk, they sit outside in the premises of the service
harassing other users. The service is severely understaffed and the volunteers working there part
time are not necessarily trained or experienced enough. Staff also do not track or keep record of
who attends the service, and they don’t insist for the service users to sign in themselves. The
building is old, and the staff struggle to clean the kitchen appropriately, the fridge does not work
properly, exposing everyone to unhygienic and potential food poisoning. The fire doors are kept
locked, risking everybody’s life in case of fire.
They are not prioritising the safety of the people attending the service and working there,
endangering everyone severely. All these issues tied together, or even singularly, can lead to one or
multiple complaints from either the service users, staff or third parties because their safety is being
compromised and not assured as it should.
To complain, the first thing to do is to contact Beeches Drop-in Centre. It could be in the form of a
phone call, addressing person in charge of the service. In this case, a service user is making a
complaint against the unsafe work environment and neglect from staff towards service users.
A service user of Beeches Drop-in Centre is calling the service regarding their safety being at risk as
well as their needs being neglected. The service should be seeing the complaint is a positive way,
taking it as a way to improve the overall care provided. They should take it seriously and the service
must be treated with respect and dignity. The response should be immediate and the service user
