Legislation And Codes Of Practice

This essay sample on Legislation And Codes Of Practice provides all necessary basic information on this matter, including the most common “for and against” arguments. Below are the introduction, body and conclusion parts of this essay.

There are many legislation, policies and codes of practices in the health services in England. Legislations such as the health and safety act Work Act and Data protection Act are the main and important legislations in organisations such as schools, care homes and nurseries. Under legislations there are policies these are policies can be the confidentiality policy and the anti-bullying policy however there are many more as each organisations has a different one but the confidentiality policy and anti-bullying are the ones that can be found in care homes, nurseries and schools.

Codes of practices are what organisations expect their employees to follow in order to provide good care for their service users.

The Health and Safety Act

The health and safety at work Act 1974 also referred to as HASAWA or HSW is the main piece of legislation covering occupation health and safety in the United Kingdom.

The Health and safety executive is responsible for enforcing the Act and a number of other regulations relevant to the working environment.

Why Are Legislations Important In Health And Social Care

In community schools, community special schools and voluntary-controlled schools statutory health and safety responsibilities fall on the local authority (as the employer) and on the head teacher and staff (as employees). The governing body, as the management body, should ensure that school staff and premises comply with the local authority’s (LA’s) health and safety policy and practices.

Get quality help now

Doctor Jennifer

Verified

Proficient in: Bullying

5 (893)

“ Thank you so much for accepting my assignment the night before it was due. I look forward to working with you moving forward ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

The governing body, having control of the premises, must take reasonable steps to make sure that the buildings, equipment and materials are safe and do not put the health of persons at risk while they are on the premises.

Employees have a responsibility to make sure that they carry out their duties safely without risking themselves, the pupils or visitors. They must also cooperate with others who have duties for health and safety by carrying out instructions and reporting unsafe practices. The head teacher, who has delegated responsibility for the day-to-day management of the school, has a particular role in seeing that the governing body’s health and safety policies and procedures are carried out.

Since the HASAWA was first passed additional regulations have been added to reflect change sin practice, technology and understanding. These regulations include:

– Reporting Of Injuries, disease and Dangerous occurrences Regulation (RIDDOR) 1995

– Food Safety Act 1990

– Control Of substances Hazardous to Health Regulation (COSHH) 2002

– Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 etc… Source: http://www.governornet.co.uk/cropArticle.cfm?topicAreaId=28&contentId=722&mode=bg Accessed on the 22nd/3/11

Policies.

Every organisation has to have their own health and safety policies to state how they will operate under the legislation. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 state that organisations must have a health and safety policy. Most organisations also have a variety of policies linked to their regulations. These would include: Manual Handling Policy; Disposal of Body Fluids, and; First Aid Policy. Other policies are only relevant in certain setting, such as: Challenging Behaviour Policy, and; Medication Policy.

Confidentiality policy

The confidentiality policy plays a big role in organisations as most of their service users prefer that their personal details stay private and within that care setting.

It is rare that organisations don’t have a confidentiality policy as this policy is there to ensure the safety of those who attend the organisation. Organisations who their service users are children or young teenagers respect the confidentiality policy in the following ways:

-Parents/carers will have ready access to files and records of their own children – but not any other child.

-Staff will not discuss individual children with people other than the parents/carers of that child.

-Information given by parents/carers to the organisation staff will not be passed on to third parties.

-Personnel issues will remain confidential to the people involved.

-Any anxieties/evidence relating to a child’s personal safety will be kept in a confidential file and will not be shared within the organisation except for the child’s key worker and Manager.

Client’s Files.

All clients have the right to view their files. However, no clients will have access to any information from a third party (e.g. the client’s partner, children or other agencies) which is stored in their files. This is to protect the safety and confidentiality of others. However when a child is under the age of 16 years old, parents/ careers still have the right to access their files.

But otherwise third party information should be stored separately within the client record. All computer records will be password protected and compliant with IT security procedures.

The Care Value Base

The care value base is a range of standards for health and social care. It is designed to guide the practice of professionals working in this area. This overall aim of the standards is to improve client’s quality of life, by ensuring that each person gets the care that is most appropriate for them as an individual. The care value base offers guidance and sets standards in organisations.

Standards and codes of practice in care homes provides clear guidance on aspects of care and management, underpinned throughout by the recognition of the right of older people to be treated as individuals, and to be treated with dignity and respect.

The aim of the standards is to:

* protect the interests of weak vulnerable people from possible exploitation, abuse and indifference;

* ensure that providers have a clear view and understanding of what is required of them;

* protect staff in carrying out their duties;

* Ensure that care of quality is provided in an environment of quality.

Legislations, policies improve health services by making sure that every legislation or policy that comes out benefit them and protect them in a way or another.

It also way to make sure that people are safe in certain environments, that they are not being discriminated against and that organisation are encouraging equality and diversity.