Learning Aim C: Investigate the influence of health and safety legislation and policies in
health and social care settings
In this assignment, I will be investigating the influence of health and safety legislation and
policies in health and social care settings. Legislation is a law or a set of laws that have been
passed by Parliament and policies are a set of principles created with the intent of guiding
actions and achieving sensible outcomes. Moreover, this assignment will focus on the
Merryvale residence case study. This residence provides support for 10 older men and women
who are all over the age 75 who have hearing impairments, reduced mobility and dementia. I
will analyse how health and safety legislation, or policies influence safe practice in the
Merryvale Residence and justifying the effectiveness of health and safety legislation, policies
and procedures in maintaining health and safety in the Merryvale Residence.
Some important health and safety legislation would include:
1. Health and Safety at Work Act (1974): This law lays down a wide-ranging duty on
employers. This legislation aims to protect people from the risk of injury in order to
protect the health, safety and welfare of employees and service users in the setting.
2. Data Protection Act (1998): Designed to protect personal data stored on computers or
in organised paper filing systems.
3. Care Standards Act (2000): The standards focus on the safety, dignity, wellbeing and
quality of life of service users. This Act has been introduced to ensure that service
providers were competent in their duty of care and will not put service users at risk of
abuse or harm.
4. The Equality Act (2010): This Act ensures that vulnerable people are not discriminated
against and are cared for regardless of their 9 protected characteristics which include:
Gender, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and
maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
5. Care Act (2014): This Act aims to implement a system of support, putting the service
user at the centre of their care while integrating the needs of carers so that support is in
place.
6. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations (1992) Amended (2002): This regulation
requires an employer to carry out risk assessment on all manual handling tasks that
pose on injury risk and ensure that the service provider take reasonable care of their
own health and safety and that of others who may be affected their actions. This
legislation is important as a significant number of injuries to staff are caused by moving
and handling people. The HSE document states that: “Poor moving and handling
practices can lead to: 1) back pain and musculoskeletal disorders, which can result in
disability and people being unable to work 2) accidents, which can injure both the
, employee and the resident being moved 3) discomfort and a lack of dignity for the
resident.”
7. The Food Hygiene Regulations (2006) Amended (2013): The aim of this regulation is to
compel food enterprises to carry out their food responsibilities in a safe and sanitary
manner in order to protect consumer health. This also means that it has been made
illegal for food enterprises to supply food that should not be eaten as it may harm
customers.
8. Care Quality Commission Standards: The CQC introduced a range of standards to
improve the service levels offered by health and social care professionals and inspect
the quality of care provided. There are 13 fundamental standards in the CQC
framework.
9. Disclosure and Barring Service Checks (DBS): DBS helps employers to make safer
recruitment decisions. Employers can then ask to see the certificate to ensure that they
are recruiting suitable people into their organisation.
10.
Throughout this assignment I will be focusing on the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) and
the Care Act (2014) and linking its relevance to the Merryvale Residence.
Ø The Health and Safety at Work Act places responsibility on employers for ensuring their
employees' safety at work, according to the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974, by
preventing potential hazards in the workplace. It imposes broad responsibilities on
employers to protect the health, safety, and well-being of all employees when they're
on the job. Settings write policies to meet the requirements of the HASAWA, however
these policies will differ between settings. For example, a nursery would not have a
restraint policy whereas a care home would have this policy as some service users may
have unpredictable behaviour and need to be controlled. If HASAWA policies are
breached, unlimited fines may be issues or prison sentences may be pursued for
individuals or companies.
Ø The purpose of the Care Act is to ensure the well-being of those who require care and
support. It also aims to personalise care services by putting the individual at the centre
of care so that support is put in place before the service user situation goes into crisis.
The care Act also sets out a clear legal framework for how local authorities and other
parts of the system (such as Merryvale) should protect adults at risk of abuse or neglect,
promoting their “wellbeing”. The Care Act defines wellbeing as respecting personal
dignity, promoting independence, protection from abuse and neglect (safeguarding
service users) and supporting personal relationships and strong families.
Ø
Safeguarding vulnerable adults and children
Every health and social care setting has a safeguarding policy. This is because all service
providers have a duty of care to protect their service users from abuse and neglect. This is
because the service user’s welfare is the most important when providing care as they’ll need to
