In health and social care there are many different health and safety legislations which care workers would need to follow in order for them to maintain the health and safety of the service users. There are numerous laws and policies which are obligatory to be followed to make sure that service users are safe and secure from any harms or danger. Legislations can influence practises and allows care workers to maintain the health and safety of the service users as it safeguards vulnerable people who are not able to take care of themselves due to their vulnerability. It protects the service user form any accidents and injuries which would impact their health tremendously due to their health issues. The legislation meets all legal requirements of how a service user should be treated and what they should expect from all healthcare professionals that are going to take care of them. Healthcare professionals should act in ways in which their job is not questioned by others, legislation offers many protections from accidents and injuries and manages any risks that could possibly occur in any settings. One legislation is the Health and Safety at Work etc Act (1974) is a legislation which is aimed to reduce risks to employees, volunteers and visitors to a workplace. This legislation is in all health and social care policies which healthcare professionals would need to follow. Employers would need to make sure that they are putting safety measures in their workplace to make sure that everyone is safe whilst working, this also applies to when visitors are coming into the setting to review the service users or give extra support. In Chilchester Drop in centre, if Zara’s social worker was to get a highly experienced social worker to come into the centre and review Zara, the staff would need to make sure that they are informing the ‘visitor' about their safeguarding procedures (e.g. fire evacuation procedures) to make sure that they are protecting them from any harm whilst they are in their workplace. This would allow the visitor to feel safe as they would know that there is nothing around them that would cause them harm. Employers must make sure that they are protecting all of the employees from any harm, and they should make sure that if any of their employees get injured whilst working for them they should report the incidence to RIDDOR, which is used to report incidences of employers, employees or others in their workplace. RIDDOR should be used in order for safe practise to be promoted and to prevent similar injuries happening in the future as preventions would be put in place. If the social worker of Zara was to trip over whilst assessing Zara or getting out some equipment, her line manager would need to report this incidence to RIDDOR to make sure that preventative measures are being put in place to make sure that no other staff have similar injuries as this social worker did. By reporting the incidence a risk assessment could be made to see how it could be prevented and what are the possible chances of it happening again if the space is small due to different equipment’s being out. Risk assessments have many benefits to them as they are put in place to make sure that incidents do not occur repeatedly. Risk assessments help employees to see what type of incidents occur frequently and what can be done to reduce it from happening. If complete and accurate risk assessments are made then they would be easy to follow and lead to less incidents happening. Employees have the right to work in a health and safety workplace, and the people using services are entitled to care and support which is safe for them and looks after their needs, freedom and dignity. Another legislation is the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) which has numerous responsibilities to act on concerns where there is possible chances that certain actions or situations can put individuals at risk. One issue that was found to be really important was on how staffing levels may be a health and safety issue. In a healthcare setting it is important to have enough staff to make sure that that there is no staff shortages or else this would lead to many staff having a high case load. This would mean that if a doctor/nurse had a high case load then they would not be able to spend enough time with their patients to do proper reviews and examinations due to them having too many patients to look after. This can be linked to the Zebra Ward, as the doctors are not having enough time to examine their patients due to having too much to do, this is shown when it says “…however, another emergency is admitted and the doctor forgets to record her opinions…” This is a sign of neglect as the doctor is not able to identify their limit on how many patients they should take on, and this has resulted in Lucy and Kevin not having proper examinations being done by their doctor. The opinion which the doctor has forgotten to record would have been really important to prove that Lucy and Kevin are possibly being abused by their father, but since the doctor has not recorded this it would mean that if a case was started they would not have enough evidence to prove it. Not reporting information about wounds and injury marks on a service user does not promote safe practice and shows that the healthcare professional is not able to maintain the health and safety of the service user under their care. Studies show that in the 2016 annual staff survey, it showed that staff had to work through their breaks and stay beyond the end of their shift. This shows that staff were taking too much cases together when they were meant to ratio the amount of staff there is compared to the amount of patients there was. The Data protection Act (1998) has been put in place for confidentiality to be maintained of the service user as it helps to preserve their dignity through keeping their personal details away from the eye of the public. Care workers should be aware that personal information can only be held only with the consent of the service user and be shared only at a ‘need to know’ basis. The data protection act would protect the health and safety of the service user as they’re vulnerability would not be known, if this was to be revealed it can lead to people causing acts of abuse and harm towards the service user. Any details under the data protection act must not be shared and must be purely confidential in order for the care worker to gain the trust of the service user. However, the service user must be told that anything they tell the care worker about which is worrying and the care worker and they have concerns about it they must tell their line manager about it so that action could be taken. In Chilchester drop in centre, if Zara was to tell her social worker about her ‘panic attacks’ and the cause behind it or why she is afraid of the ‘male service users and staff’ and she wants it to be kept a secret, the social worker should inform Zara that nobody would be told about what she said apart from the line manager who would decide if action needs to be taken regarding it. The Care Act (2014) outlines information on how the local authority and care workers should protect vulnerable service users from risk of abuse and neglect. Through this act, many strategies have been made on how abuse can be prevented and what actions can be taken if there is suspicions of abuse happening. This act allows service users to have advocates who would inform them about what their rights are and what protections they will receive. In Zebra Ward “the duty doctor examines the children, she notices bruises at the base of Kevin’s spine and round marks on Lucy’s neck that resembles burns… the father… states that he marks were inflicted by his wife who died three months ago due to a long-term illness that had affected her mental state. The doctor is unconvinced, as the marks appear to be more recent…another emergency is admitted and the doctor forgets to record her opinions.” Here it is clear that the father of Lucy and Kevin have been physically abusing them leading to them having severe wound marks which he has blamed on his wife who had a ‘long term illness’. The healthcare professional here has also shown neglect to their patient as they are taking on a high case load which means they are not spending enough time with their patients in order for a proper examination to take place. Under the care act, the local authority would work together to see how they would help Lucy and Kevin and what would happen to the father and the doctor for showing neglect to the children and for abusing them. The Care Standards Act (2000) has been put together to establish a National Care Standards Commission, in which it regulates children’s homes, independent hospitals/clinics, care homes, residential family centres etc. The act sets out the minimum standard of care that should be provided by all health and social care settings and it carries out frequent inspections and regulations. It makes sure that all service users are being treated correctly and equally by the care providers, and that the staff are being treated right by their employers. For example Zara attends the drop in centre due to her mental health, so the social worker should make sure that they are doing regular examinations on Zara to check if she is improving, and even get external social workers to check on Zara’s progress to see if they are doing the correct job or if there is something else which they can do. Reference https://www.pearsonactivelearn.com/ebook.asp?id=NTU4NDkyfGJvb2t8MjF8MA http://www.dissertationhomework.com/essays/health-and-social-care/health-safety (I went on this website to look at some information which was helpful, but I did not use it) https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/business-and-enterprise/regulation/health-and-safety/safetywork/health-and-safety-work-act http://www.hse.gov.uk/healthservices/sensible-risk-assessment-care-settings.htm https://www.rcn.org.uk/get-help/rcn-advice/health-and-safety-concerns https://www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/our-legal-framework/our-legislation/ https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2016/04/237291.pdf
