Health and Social Care Research Literature Review

This assignment requires you to conduct a thorough review of research literature focusing on the factors that either promote or hinder collaborative work between health and social care services. The emphasis is on understanding how these interactions shape the provision of integrated care and identifying potential areas for improvement in this field.

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Introduction:
This essay will provide information about how the current legislations and sector skill standards
influence the organizational practice and policies to promote the rights of the users of health and
social care organization. The factors that may affect the promotion of the rights of the users of
health and social care will be discussed in this essay. Along with this, how communication will
affect the promotion of the rights of service user will be discussed in this essay. Effectiveness of
risk management in health and social care organizations and procedures of service organizations
to manage the medicine will be discussed in this essay. This essay will also provide information
about the current policies, legislation and codes of practice that can affect the handling of
medication. The effectiveness of different procedures policies of health and social care
organization for administering medication will also be discussed in this essay.
Task 1 Essay:
1.1 Current legislation and sector skills standards that are influencing to organizational
policies and practices in NHS:
Effective health and wellbeing of people plays an important role in growth of an economy. In
healthcare sector these perspectives are used as supplement and fundamental for the economy
because a healthy society will work with more efforts for the development of an economy. In this
concern, different legislation and skill standards are imposed by the government, which are
necessary to follow by the health care organizations. These legislations and skills standards are
helpful in empowerment to the users by exploiting their rights of empowerment themselves
(Groves, 2014). The legislations are defined as a procedure of establishing different rules and

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regulations in a country. It is analyzed that there is a need for every country to ascertain
legislations for every sector to control the unnecessary activities in the country. The unnecessary
organizational activities may be harmful for the society and may impact on the country’s growth.
These legislations are imposed by passing a bill in country’s parliament.
In the words of Bevan and Skellern, (2011) NHS means National Health Services which provide
services related to healthcare to the citizens of UK. Hospitals services are secondary care
services and NHS ensure that all the services that hospitals are providing to the service users
should be proper. NHS provides free services to the public of UK when needed. Some services
are free for everyone including the visitors also and these services are emergency services and
treatment for infection diseases.
According to Wong, (2011) legislation is a process of making law or enacting the law.
Legislation is that law which is enacted by a legislature or it can be enacted by other government
bodies. There are various legislations that can influence the user’s rights who are receiving the
services from NHS Hospitals. The Data Protection Act 1998 is one of the legislation that has
influence in the NHS hospitals. According to this legislation the data of the user should be kept
safe by the NHS hospital, the data can be related to the financial information of patient, medical
information, diagnosis information etc. According to this legislation the private information of
the patient should not be consult with any third party without the permission of the patient. In the
words of Cameron, et al., (2014) another legislation that influences the NHS hospitals is Health
and Social Care Act 2008. According to this act it is compulsory for NHS hospitals to have more
than one registered managers. The registered manager is that person who will be responsible for
the proper implementation of the rules and regulations related to health care services in the NHS
hospitals. This is how the implementation of the rules and regulation promotes and maximize the

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users of health and social care service. According to Bryson, (2017) the Equity Act 2010 is also
protecting the rights of the service users in the NHS hospitals. Bryson stated that the service
users should not be treated differently according to their age, standard, education level,
nationality, sex, religion etc. According to the Equity Act 2010 every patient have right to take
equal treatment from the service providers. If, NHS hospital discriminate its service users on the
basis of their religion, language, standard or other base than the legal authority of the county can
punish that organization. For example, a student uses a wheelchair to get around and found very
hard to get a place at the college. The student wants to go on first floor to study science but the
student was not able to go first floor of the college. There was no any lift system in the college
because the college was not able to afford this. Under the Equality Act 2010, the college is
responsible to provide the educational services in same manner for that student. In this situation,
the student can take action to take alternative services from the college to make convenient the
educational services.
Furthermore, it is analyzed that the Children Act 1989 is also a current legislation UK, which
should be implemented by the healthcare organizations. This Act allocated the responsibilities to
the local courts, authorities, healthcare agencies and parents in United Kingdom to ensure that
the children are protected and the welfare is promoted in proper manner for them. The Children
Act 1989 focuses on that that the children are cared in excellent way within their own family. In
this, concern, it is analyzed that the Act also makes the provisions for the parents who are not co-
operating their children with statutory bodies (Eekelaar and Dingwall, 2013). As well as, the
Children Act 1989 states that welfare for children should be chief concern of the courts to
provide protection to country’s children. This Act also states that any interruption in the system
procedures may have harmful impact on the children welfare. Therefore, for the effectiveness of

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children’s welfare the court should take into account the different types of wishes and needs,
which may be emotional, physical and educational needs. In this concern, the NHS healthcare
organization has been properly implemented the Children Act 1989 to improve the child care
services.
Additionally, the ‘sector skill standards’ can also influence to the organizational practices and
policies for maximizing user rights of social and health care. The ‘sector skill standards’ are
described as the standard set to execute all activities in the associated sector. All of these
standards should be followed by the organizations in their procedures and policies to authorize
the rights of the clients. It is observed that these ‘sector skill standards’ plays an important role in
the healthcare sector as these standards involved different rights of users that are authorized by
effective policies and legislations of the organizations. In this concern, it is analyzed that the care
standards are influencing the organizational practices and policies in great manner. As these
‘sector skill standards’ are associated with the above discussed legislations therefore these
standards also used to empower service users by endorsing and maximizing their rights related to
the social and health care services. In United Kingdom, these standards are introduced by the
Care Standard Commission, which are responsible to arrange publication and inspection of
minimum standards for the organizations in the country. In this concern, the Care Standards Act
is used to inspect care homes and hospitals at least once in a year. On the basis of these standards
the service users can get their rights properly. These ‘sector skill standards’ can be understood
through following examples:
 Maria has been diagnosed with the indication of breast cancer and she decided to fight
with this disease by taking an appropriate medical treatment. For this she requested to a

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local care trust to treat her. But, her request denied as the treatment was expensive. In this
situation, Maria can go to court to get her rights.
 The rights associated with the children such as safety and security, heard, positive
consideration, confidentiality of their records, considering their wishes and information
should be measured in meaningful way.
All of these legislations, policies, and regulations are implemented in NHS healthcare
organization to improve the offering services. These policies helped to the organization in
providing the care services to the patients in effective way and become helpful in improving the
economy.
1.2 Factors that are promoting and maximizing the rights of users:
In healthcare organizations, it is essential to empower individuals who are requiring health and
care services by maximizing their rights and providing opportunities to get better services. There
are several factors such as policies, procedures, qualifications, technology, human resources,
communication and the manner of the service providing employees. In every organization, the
policies are used as approaches and principles that followed in the working area of a particular
organization in which the code of conduct will be helpful in achieving the organizational goals
and objectives. The factor ‘policy’ is different from the legislations implemented by the
organizations because the legislations are applicable law in a specific country and the policies are
implemented by the organizations to empower the service users of NHS healthcare. Therefore,
the management of the NHS is using legislations and policies in different concepts. For instance,
the NHS organization is making slope at the working stations and campus for the use of
handicapped people who are using wheel chair. By implementing these activities the

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organization is ensuring the rights of people by the way of granting them extra facilities and
resources.
Furthermore, it is analyzed NHS healthcare organization have designed the ‘procedure’ factor to
obtain the outcomes from the implemented policies and ensure the empowerment of service
users. It is an effective framework and way to carry out the policies at the workplace. In this
regard, it is analyzed that the procedure factor is used by the organization to achieve the
successful results from the implemented policies in effective way. In the words of Hawk, et al.,
(2012) there are many factors that can influence the user’s rights of hospitals. An organization’s
policies and rules regarding the services can affect the rights of the users. It can be happen that
the hospital have some norms for the proper treatment of the users and the organization did its
job according to its norms but the user not feeling satisfy than in that case the organization is not
liable because it done its job according to its norms.
According to Leggat, et al., (2011) another thing that can affect maximization and promotion of
rights of the users is the HR of the hospitals. If the human resource of NHS hospitals does not
have proper skill and knowledge than the service user cannot get proper treatment from that
organization. Technology is the one of the most important factors which can affect the
achievement of promotion of the rights of the patients of NHS hospitals. If the health and social
care organization have old technology or it can be happen that the organization doesn’t have
proper technology than the organization cannot provide proper treatment to its users. Therefore,
it is analyzed that the NHS healthcare organization organizes training programs for its employees
to develop their knowledge in the care services. As well as, the organization have been
implemented the latest technology to provide effective services to the patients. The technological

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implementation improved the efficiency of the organization and made the services easier to
obtain for the patients.
Communication is also very important between the service provider and user of that service to
maximize and promote the rights of the users. Communication is the way by which the NHS
hospitals can know the need of the user and then can provide better services to the users. It is an
effective factor for the healthcare organization to get the views, ideas and generating issues
among the people. Through the effective communication procedure the service provider will be
helpful in satisfying to patients. In this concern, the communication factor is playing an
important role in the healthcare service providers. The clear communication between the service
provider and the service user will be helpful in protecting the human rights effectively (Schulz
and Nakamoto, 2013). Through the effective communication the service provider will be able to
discover the needs of the patients contribute in promoting the rights of the service user. Hence,
the communication is an important and major factor of promoting and maximizing the rights of
service users.
Other identified factors are qualification and attitude of the service provider employees, which
are used to promote the rights of service users. In this concern, it is analyzed that the employees
of NHS healthcare have formal qualification in the healthcare sector with considerable
knowledge. On the basis of their formal qualification in healthcare practices, these employees are
able to know that why and how rights of the service user should be promoted and protected. As
well as, they are also conscious of to how they can personally contribute to promote these rights.
In this procedure, their attitude will impact on the service users in great manner. Therefore, the
attitude of these employees should be positive regarding to the service users for better
organizational outcomes.

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1.3 Communication between patients and Service providers
Communication:
According to Baranyi and Csapo (2012) it is impossible to spend a single day without
communication. When two or more people send and receive information, it called
communication. According to Berkhof et al., (2011) there are mainly three types of
communication:
Verbal Communication: This communication involves using of spoken words to interact and to
deliver the information with each others. Verbal communication is mainly related with the use of
mouth to speak the words and to communicate with the people.
Non-verbal Communication: This type of communication involves using of facial expression
and body language to communicate with others. This type of communication mainly useful in
that situation where a person is not able to speak anything so in that situation non verbal
communication is the way by which the parties can communicate.
Written Communication: In this communication the information and instructions between two
or more people convey with the help of written words. This type of communication is
appropriate for those people who feel uncomfortable to communicate face to face with other
people. Written communication is appropriate because written instructions can be an evidence of
the information which was provided to another person.
It is very important for NHS hospitals to maintain good communication between the service
provider and service user to provide better services to the user of services. Communication in
health care sector includes many activities. In the words of Rumsfeld et al., (2013)
communication between health care service user and service worker include verbal, non verbal,

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formal and informal communication, this help to maximize the user right in the health
organization. The service worker like; doctor, nurse and other employees of the health
organization provide many services to the service user and to provide a better health care
services to the user a good communication between the service provider and service user is very
important. The service user can be from other country or religion and can speak other language
so the translation services are the method by which the service providers can understand the
language of the service user and can know the need of the user and then can fulfill the need of
the user. For example; it can be happen that the user doesn’t know the English language so
communication with the service worker who knows the English only cannot be possible so a
translator can help the user to communicate with service worker. If the communication between
the service user and service worker will not good then the service quality that service worker
provide to the user will be poor. So it can be said that the communication between patients and
service providers contribute to promoting the rights of patients of NHS hospitals.
There are different techniques which contribute to empower the service users and these
techniques are as follows:
Ask Question: In the words of Crossley and Jolly (2012), it is very important for the service
workers to ask question to the service users to know the required information about the users.
Without asking a few questions it is not possible for service workers to know about the service
users. There are two types of questions that a service worker can ask to the service user and
following are those questions:

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Closed ended questions: This type of question is asked to service users to get Yes or No answer.
This is good tool to get answer of the service user without any complex brief explanation and
this also help to know basic information about the service user.
Open ended question: This type of question is asked to service user to get more comprehensive
answer from the service user. According to this tool service worker ask those questions to the
user from which the service user gives brief answers.
Listening: In the words of Veil, et al., (2011) communication is useless when the listener not
listen carefully what the speaker want to say. The service worker should listen carefully what the
service user is saying to maximize the rights of the service user. Listening is not related to use of
ears to hear what the service user is speaking. Instead of this, listening is a broad concept which
is concern with the understanding of the things in the same manner and in same way in which the
speaker is saying to the listener.
Feedback: According to Li, et al., (2011) feedback is one of the most important parts of
communication which can empower the service users. The service workers should communicate
with the service user in a better way so the service user can offer feedback or can criticize on the
information which service workers provided. The service user should also be able to ask question
to the service workers if anything is unclear to them. To empower the service users, the service
workers should make a form to get feedback from the service users about the services which the
organization is providing to them. The form consist some question and the service user give
answer of them questions. This help the service workers to know about the experience of service
user and with the feedback the service workers can try to provide better services next time to the
service users.

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The silent treatment: This can be most appropriate method of communication to be silent in a
conversation. If service worker want to know more about the service user so it is important for
the service worker to remain silent in conversation. Instead of giving answer after the completion
of service user statement, the service worker should remain silent so the service user can speak
more about his problem and give further information. If a service worker know all about the user
than he can provide more facilities to the user and can empower the service users.
Language Choices: In the words of Curtis, et al., (2014) the service worker should use
appropriate words to communicate with the service users. It is very important for service worker
to use that language which the service user can understand easily so he can communicate more
appropriately. If the service worker will use medical terms or some technical words which the
service user cannot understand then the communication between service user and service worker
cannot happen. The service worker should communicate with the service user in that language in
which the user can understand and with this tool the service worker can empower the service
user.
Honesty: In the words of Palttala, et al., (2012) this is one of the most important parts of
communication. Trust is the key component of effective communication between service
workers and service users. If the service user will not have trust on service worker than the
communication between them cannot be affective. Along with this, this is a duty of service
worker to provide services with honesty and treat with the service user honestly. If the service
worker will not treat with service user honestly then the service user never trust the service
worker and never try to interact with the worker and never get treatment from that organization.
So it can be said that honesty of the service worker can empower the service users.

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Conclusion:
From the above essay it can be said that the legislation of UK has a great impact on the
maximization and promotion of the rights of the patients of NHS hospitals. It is also analyzed
that the policy of the organization is the main factor that can affect the achievement of promoting
and maximizing the rights of the users. Along with this, it can be concluded that communication
is a very important for an organization. To provide better services a good communication is very
important between workers and users. It can be also concluded that there are some factors that
can contribute to the non-participation, social exclusion and independence for vulnerable people.
To promote the participation and independence of users of services, the organization process and
system evaluate the performance of employees, provide services to users and also provide
information to the workers. It is analyzed that there are some tensions that can be arise when the
service user enjoy his independence such as; going for outing and doing against the
prescriptions.

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