Health and Safety in Social Care Workforce

This document discusses the importance of health and safety in the social care workforce. It covers topics such as reviewing systems, policies, and procedures, responsibilities of different stakeholders, analysis of health and safety priorities, and the impact of non-compliance with health and safety legislation. It also explores how health and safety policies are monitored and evaluated, and the role of individuals in placing health and safety needs at the center of practice.

HEALTH
AND
SAFETY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1.1. Fact sheet for reviewing the systems, policies, and procedures...........................................3
1.2. Assess the responsibilities for different stakeholders, (employer,
employees, and visitors, contractors, customers, partners etc.) as specified in legislation,.......4
1.3. Analysis of health and safety priorities for social care workforce.......................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Analysis of information from risk assessments informs care planning................................5
2.2. The impact of one aspect of health and safety
policy on health and social care practice and its customers.......................................................6
2.3. Dilemmas encountered in relation to
implementing systems and policies for health...........................................................................7
2.4. The effect of non-compliance with health and
safety legislation in a health and safety workplace....................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
3.1. Explain how health and safety policies and practices are monitored and reviewed............8
3.2. Analyse the effectiveness of health and safety policies and practices in the workplace in
promoting a positive, health and safe culture..............................................................................9
3.3. Evaluate own contributions to placing the health and safety needs of individuals at the
centre of practice.......................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Health and safety issues are the most important aspect for every organisation to look
upon. Health and safety are the basic rights of every employee who works in an organisation. If
the person is ill or having some kind of health issues he cannot work properly and it will affect
the goals of the organisation too (Arcila, M. E., and et. al., 2011). Health and safety in the
organisation is really important as it takes care of workers as they are the most important asset of
the organisation. For ensuring health and safety issues, certain laws and regulations is to be
followed by the Care home in east London. In this report it has been discussed that how the care
home will minimise the risk of health issues and the incidences of serious injury and death. This
report includes the communication of health and social welfare in the workplace, risk
assessments, and the effectiveness of these policies.
TASK 1
1.1. Fact sheet for reviewing the systems, policies, and procedures.
The information about the health and safety policies are required to be communicated in
the workplace and it should be communicated to the employees (Baggett, T. P., and et. al., 2010).
The care home must guide their workforce along with the first aid techniques, that how to use it
and proper workshop must be conducted on the safety policy. as there were seen cases of serious
injuries in care home. They must be taught that where the first aid is and it should be always
updated. There are various policies required for the health and safety and it is regulated in the
health and safety act 1881, which states that the employee is responsible to take care of their
employees safety and health issues. They must be provided a safe environment to work upon. In
these policies of health and social care the data protection is very important as they wanted to
protect the privacy of the service users. That consist of their personal and vital information
comprising of their religion, ethnicity, political belief etc. it is the responsibility of the employer
to tell the employee that where is the instruments or measures of their safety. The care home has
sent their manager to take proper training from the heath and safety E and then apply those
policies and measures in their organisation. The legislature of the Act states that the employee
should encourage them to take proper care and precautions while working and suggest them to
even take medical insurance that help him to cover up the expenses that has incurred in the injury
at workplace (Breitbart, W., and et. al., 2010). The injuries in workplace could be because of any

machinery, there were incidences where the workers are so hurt that they lost their arm or any of
the part, because of their own or employers negligence. That is why the law has been enforced to
protect the employees from such industry and guide them through the safety measures. Health
issues have also been increased because of chemicals used in the factories and workplace. So all
this have to be controlled, and the injuries are to be minimised (Buykx, P., and et. al., 2010).
1.2. Assess the responsibilities for different stakeholders, (employer,
employees, and visitors, contractors, customers, partners etc.) as specified in legislation,
It is the prime responsibility of the management to ensure the health and safety of the
workers. The management in care home includes the stakeholders comprising of employees
themselves. Employers, customers, contractors, partners etc. The act of 1974: health and safety at
work, guides that the worker should be themselves take precautions while doing the task and if
they think that the tasks that is out of their physical or mental capacity they should not perform
that. The employee should also not force them to do the task they are incapable of and should
understand the impact of their safety. Safety comes first and everything else comes after that.
The employee should take care of the health and safety equipments that they are not misused and
they are in proper working conditions. If they are not checked regular then at the time of their
use they might fail. The outsiders that came to visit in the care home should take care of the
hygiene and health of the patients. As organisations like care home is a domiciliary service and
they go after course of action. The employer should take care of the working conditions that
affect the environment (Care Quality Commission, 2012).
1.3. Analysis of health and safety priorities for social care workforce.
Care home is situated in east London and lots of workers are working in their
organisation and it is their responsibility to protect them from any mis-happening and injuries.
The employers should adopt a positive approach about the issues and the concerns that are
affecting the employees health (Edwards, A., and et. al., 2010). By ensuring their health the
employees can manage the safety issues and if any legal problem is arising they can take care of
that also. There are various legal policies that are required to be implemented in workplace and
they must be followed diligently. The workplace which is safe for the employees does better
business. For making plans for effective safety and security , the cause behind the injuries should
be identified first. Precautions can be taken if you know the cause and proper corrective actions

can be taken. They should follow the procedures and take advice from the experts that how to
deal with the legal issues and procedures (England, M. J., and et. al., 2012). By following the
procedures they can self manage the health and safety issues that they don't have to hire other
specialist for managing the healthy practices. The cause of injuries are generally from machines
and chemicals used . There are certain areas in the organisation which requires special attention
and there is emergent need to mange those situations. The workplace should be equipped with
safety aids like wheelchair , hoist, security systems must be well maintained and they should be
handy, such as door locks, cameras ,patrol, alarms etc. and these should be properly maintained
as they need to be used at any point of time. The fire alarms should be installed and check that
they are in working condition . In case of fire the fire extinguishers should be used immediately
and employees working there should know how to use them and training must be given to them
for saving themselves and others from injuries. Disaster management must be taught to them
(Epstein, R. M., and et. al., 2010).
TASK 2
2.1 Analysis of information from risk assessments informs care planning
The assessment of risks is very essential to know the familiarity of all the possible risks
that could be occur in the organisation. If the risks are not assessed properly and accurately than
the policies for health and safety will not be made properly. The utmost advantage of the risk
assessment is that it helps the care home to identify the risks associated with them and frame the
policies accordingly (Erdley, S. D., Anklam, D. D. and Reardon, C. C., 2014). The things which
are lacking behind in the business also came in the knowledge of the managers. They assessment
of risks gives the chance to compare the actual standards of the health and safety in the
organisation with the standard set through the comparison analysis and the standards of the
policies and measures should be improved. It gave the idea to introduce more measures and the
people working their could suggest the ideas that help in making the workplace a safe place to
work in. the machineries installed in the organisation should be installed and used according to
the guidelines given with the machinery. The decisions taken by the management for the safety
must be effective and should be according to the international standards of risk assessment.
These policies should match the international standards. The standards that has been set for the
organisation must be achieved and worked hard for sustaining them. The standards that are set

should be achieved in an honest way as only this will help them ensure the safety of the workers
in the organisation. The procedure for assessing the risk are:
 All the hazardous activities should be identified
 Take account of the people who can be harmed by these hazards.
 Evaluate all the risk associated with them and necessary actions must be taken.
 Proper conclusions must be analysed.
 Risk assessment should be done
 The training should be provided.
 The employer should take care of health of their own and of the other workers working in
care home (Gleghorn, J. P., and et. al., 2010).
2.2. The impact of one aspect of health and safety
policy on health and social care practice and its customers
This is for the purpose of acknowledgement that there are different factors that could be
helpful on the ground in order to make the combination perfect with the health and safety foe the
staff working there and the clients. It is not possible for a single factor to be helpful in respect to
the health and safety of the employees. Architecture of the operation theatre, cleanliness and
hygiene, layout of the clinic or hospital and the most important factor is the handling of the
equipments and machineries used for the surgeries and treatments, etc. are the major aspects that
could facilitate the safety at high level, not just for the patients but also for the staff. Cleanliness
and hygiene of a clinic or hospital is one of the most important aspect the authority needed to
care about as if the atmosphere in the area is not clean, bacteria could be spread in a vast scale
and other harmful viruses causing dangerous diseases could be present in the environment. In
such situations, the patients who are visiting the place to consult the doctor for a minor disease
will get infected by the dangerous disease causing viruses in the atmosphere in the hospital and
fall more ill. Therefore, the concerned authority have the duty of keeping the infrastructure clean
and maintain the hygiene to give more priority to the health and safety of the patients as well as
staff. The operation theatres should be disinfected soon as the operations of the patients are
completed (Györffy, B., and et. al., 2010). The nurses and doctors who were present in the
operation theatres must bath in disinfectant soaps. Leading a healthy environment within a health
related institution is necessary, and if not so, how can we expect the external social atmosphere
to be healthy. Therefore, maintaining just a factor won't make any difference in making the

atmosphere healthy within the, workforce, instead work on all those factors to prove it well
(Hodge, D. R. and Horvath, V. E., 2011).
2.3. Dilemmas encountered in relation to
implementing systems and policies for health
In the sector of health, there are many problems in relation to the implementation of
policies and regulations in the organizational setting. The major issue is with communication of
the plans and procedures the concerned officials have made is to reach at the organization's
different levels of hierarchy. The implications of plans and regulations regarding the health and
safety matters are the most most important issue , however the situation rises sometimes that the
staff does not maintain the decorum and behaves carelessly (Kirmayer, L. J., and et. al., 2011).
The careless behaviour by the staff are followed by certain safety issues and dilemma in
security. Sometimes, the part is to blamed which is the training session that have made clear
lacks of ethics and respect they must show towards their profession, but most probably they are
seem to no follow those paths they were educated with. The setting regarding the social
healthcare and safety has been facing other major troubles. The infection caused to the patient at
the healthcare centre due to the viruses and bacteria in the workplace environment. There have
been issues of not providing leave to the people who are sick and they had to come to the
workplace very often. In such a situation, it is a definite chance that the the workplace may get
infected in case if the person who is sick is communicating with any factor in the working
environment. The training facilities have to be upgraded and every department at the workplace
must be provided with proper training and other basic educational information regarding to their
field, even though they are the employees working in the housekeeping section or let it be the
accounts section. The health and safety measures at a workplace is a very concerning matter for
the employer as it is their duty to care about the employees who are working for them (Korda, H.
and Itani, Z., 2013).
2.4. The effect of non-compliance with health and
safety legislation in a health and safety workplace
Factors associated with the non compliance of health and safety regulations in the
workplace are numerous. The concerned authorities are not so clear about issues related to health
and safety and how to face them. The main negative sequences in this sector are that the roles

and responsibilities of the caretakers in the department that must be explained to them in a
proper way. The household workers are considered to be one of the major roles who could
maintain the healthy environment by keeping the environment clean and tidy. They must be
educated about the importance of the work they are doing and what the advantages by doing it
for themselves and other people working at the same place (Kuo, D. Z., and et. al., 2012). They
must be known to their own rights of living in a healthy environment. There may be other issues
such as delay in decision making regarding the health issues and safety matter in the workplace.
There may be visible visions of the staff people integrating that may lower down their mental
strength and lead to create much of the negative aspects. The teamwork is another factor that
could create differences in the organization in various ways. The re may be unhealthy
competitions within the organization leading to the clear notice of the peace and harmony among
the staff being minimized and there might be visible increase in the grudges among them (Kuo,
D. Z., Mac Bird, T. and Tilford, J. M., 2011).
TASK 3
3.1. Explain how health and safety policies and practices are monitored and reviewed
Everyone wants a good health in today's world and if someone is not health or fit it can be seen
on their face or by body. Maintaining health is compulsory for long work life of a person so that
they can work for a long period of time. A company should have a friendly environment so as to
ensure the employees comfortability. In a company there are many possible ways in which a
person can be suffering and they are:
 Stress: The employee may have tension related to the workload and which make them to
have a lot of stress and stress causes a lot of disease which are really dangerous for the
health of a person. So plans and policies to overcome this stress like reducing the
workload, appropriate therapies, counselling must be provided to the employees from
time to time (Marmot, M., and et. al., 2012).
 Sick: A person may feel sick sometimes and sickness can be determined easily by body
language and the performance of the employee. So first aid and all the facilities should be
provided to the employees in the organisation.

 Pressure: Sometimes the employees have a lot of pressure in the work which should be
taken care of and minimized according to the situation and employee capability.
 Depression: Sometimes due to some inactivity at the workplace the employees take a
tension and do not share it which results in depression and may cause harm to the
employee so employee should get the freedom to express their thoughts (Marziali, E.,
McCleary, L. and Streiner, D. L., 2010).
The above activities are reviewed by the companies. Nowadays companies appoints psychiatrist
and a counsellor for better mental abilities of the employees in the company. Many other issues
are reviewed by the companies proper supervision and motivation and a friendly environment is
maintained for the people of the company.
3.2. Analyse the effectiveness of health and safety policies and practices in the workplace in
promoting a positive, health and safe culture
The company need to promote health and hygiene amongst its people because it is very
important nowadays to have a healthy and good working environment. The problems which may
occur in workplace are stress, overload and more work than capacity. It is good if a company is
working on promoting the health and safety. There are many more such points which can be
stated why promotion of health is important and they are:
 Healthy People: If the people are made aware about their health they will surely look
towards it and will follow the measures to be healthy. And if the workforce is healthy
than the companies human resource is better than any other human resource in the world.
 Better Environment: If the company provides the health and safety measure and the
human resource is completely adaptive to it than the company will have a better
environment (Munn-Giddings, C. and Winter, R., 2013).
 Improvement: If the workforce working is healthy and compatible than the
improvement of individual and the company will automatically be there.
 Development: The development of a company completely depends on its human
resource so a better and structured environment should be there to have stress free and
easy going environment which will lead to development of the country.

 Safety and Security: When the employee see that the company is taking care of their
health than they feel safe in the hands of the company and aims to be loyal and retain
with the company for a long time
 Growth: A strong workforce leads to growth of the company which reaches and
accomplish its goals and objectives effectively and efficiently because the workforce is
very active, fresh and energetic.
The above are some factors which can be generated if a company takes care of the employees
and this will also help them to retain the employees in the company with loyalty. Appropriate
stress and workload makes a employee happy and efficient which leads to good health (Patel, K.
R., and et. al., 2010).
3.3. Evaluate own contributions to placing the health and safety needs of individuals at the centre
of practice
The person who wish to work wants a good and healthy working place so as to feel secured and
very loyal towards the company. Appropriate workload should be there so that employee wish to
retain with the company always (Thoits, P. A., 2011). The Care Home company as constituted by
its its provides many caring facilities to its employees like:
 Spreading Awareness: The company spreads awareness about health and hygiene which
is a good sign to its growth and development employees get to know about there
importance to the company which is a positive thing.
 Assessing Problems: Continuous assessment of the problems of the emplyees taking
about their personal and issues related to the company should be examined by the
company so that the employee have a feeling of belongingness to the company (Tosolini,
M., and et. al., 2011).
 Friendly Environment: The environment of the company should be less of pressure and
workload which will result in less stress and depression which are the main causes of
health problem. So to avoid such dangerous mind and health problem the company
should help the employees.
 Proper Counselling: No matter if a problem is big or small it should be rectified and the
problem should be taken into consideration and proper guidelines to the employee should
be given and mind therapies and sharing of the problems lesser the problem (Tracy, C. S.,
and et. al., 2013).

 Feedback: The feedback of the employee about the organisation should be taken so as to
know how they feel working in the company. And if everything is smooth than the
company should feel good and if there is any loophole than appropriate action to it should
be taken for it.
CONCLUSION
Every organization gives importance to the human resources they have employed in their
firm and definitely care about them. The companies provide specific sick leaves for the
employees which is paid to the employees even though they couldn't be at the workplace giving
duty. There are certain rules and regulations applied by the government regarding the health and
safety measures of the employees at a workplace and they include, life insurance provided to
every permanent employees who have been serving the company for a particular long period of
time. The company infrastructure must be holding all kind of safety measures like fire exit and
fire extinguisher present in every room at the workplace (World Health Organization, 2012.).
There must be training provided to the employees and other workers regarding the health and
safety issues and the techniques to take care of them. There must be sufficiently cleaned
environment at the workplace. The hygiene at the workplace must be healthy so that no
employee gets sick due to the atmosphere at the workplace. This project has dealt with all the
matters related to the environment being healthy and safer at the workplace, and the steps taken
by the organization to provide such a healthy and positive environment where the employees
would love to work.
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