Workplace Health and Safety Practices

This assignment delves into the critical aspect of workplace health and safety. It examines various aspects, including the effectiveness of the Health and Safety at Work Act, economic incentives for promoting safety, and different approaches to controlling risks in the workplace. The analysis draws upon research studies, case examples, and official guidelines from organizations like HSE (Health & Safety Executive).

health and safety
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................4
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Oral Poster Presentation.............................................................................................................4
1.2 Organogram of health and safety management.........................................................................5
1.3 Implementation of the health and safety legislation in Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation
Trust.................................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2 ................................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Risk Assessment with the findings in CareUK..........................................................................5
2.2 Impact on health and safety policy for Four Seasons Health Care (Scotland) Limited
(FSHCL)..........................................................................................................................................6
2.3 Dilemmas care worker will encounter in carrying out health-and-safety policies and
procedures........................................................................................................................................7
2.4 Effects of non-compliance with health-and-safety legislation in FSHCL.................................7
TASK 2B..............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Monitor and review of health and safety practices....................................................................8
3.2 Effectiveness of health-and-safety policies in the workplace....................................................9
3.3 Own contribution.......................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
References...........................................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
Health and safety organisations are growing with time due to increasing diseases or
disorders. It is important to provide proper and high quality services to the patients so that they can
recover fast and in a better way. Health and safety of employees as well as service users is the prime
responsibility of the health care organisation (Acton, 2013).
In this study, given case study is taken into consideration. This file consists of policies,
procedures for communicating information at the workplace, responsibilities of employees, health
and safety priorities. Along with this, it includes risk assessment, impact of health and safety policy
and effects of non compliances with health-and-safety legislation. In the end, conclusion is
explained with the help of key findings.
TASK 1
1.1 Oral Poster Presentation
Director is required to implement various policies and system to health care firm to
communicate about health and safety policies to its employees and the service-users (Brand, 2012).
It is essential to follow appropriate legislations while implementing policies and procedures for
transferring information from one member to another.
Training: It is the most effective way for communicating the policies and procedures regarding
health and safety of care workers and clients. This will enhance their knowledge about use of
various equipments, instruments, etc so that they can handle them properly without any injury.
Along with this, it will help to inform patients about the healthy diet and exercises so that they can
improve their health quickly (Hanks and et.al., 2011).
Organisational Culture: Director needs to create friendly, open and ethical organisational culture
so that every staff member can respect each other and their patients and can work with proper
cooperation and coordination. This will also increase understanding between them and their
patients. Proper organisational culture of the health care firm will help in maintaining respect and
dignity of the service-users (Nguyen, and et.al., 2012).
Health and Safety Policies: Social care firm are required to implement proper policies regarding
food safety, health and safety, safeguarding and many more so that staff members can use them for
the welfare of the patients (Vogel, 2012).
Record Keeping: Health and social care organisation can use record keeping system for their
workers. This will help in getting information about treatments, medication, joining date, type
diseases or disorder, etc of the patient.
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1.2 Organogram of health and safety management
Within any healthcare firms, an appropriate structure which is being followed by them is as
follows. It clearly represents the responsibilities of different team members within the hierarchy.
Health care firm serves different business operations with the help of the different departments
through which they are able to maintain positive interrelationship with each other. As per the
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structure of company organization chart starts with the managing director of the company.
He controls overall business operation of company and develop various strategies for the
betterment of health care sector. Various other people such as as Vice president, chief executives
etc. are responsible for reporting the managing director about their work. They are also responsible
for handling all their employees by forming effective internal strategies. In addition to this, there are
different department’s serves their different business operations such as: HR department is
responsible for recruitment as well as policy formation and training and development. On the other
hand, accounts department is responsible for entire financial calculation as well as salary structure
of employees.
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1.3 Implementation of the health and safety legislation in Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust
According to the given case study, due to ineffective and inappropriate implementation of
health and safety policies and regulations Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust face issue of
patient death. For solving such type of incidents in the field of medical, firm is required to
implement right health and safety legislations. It needs to improve its Health and safety act 1974 for
the better structure and authority to encourage and enforce health and safety of the service users and
employees as well. With the help of this act, social care organisation will be able to maintain
equipments, machines and instruments with proper care and security. Along with this, training needs
to be provided to the workers so that they can handle, use, store as well as transport things safely.
Similarly, staff members will also take care of health and safety of the service users by explaining
them use and handling of the equipments and many other things (Glasby, 2012).
On the other hand, Mid Staffordshire NHS trust is required to implement Control of
substances Hazardous to health (COSHH) 2002 for protecting staff members and patients from the
hazardous and risky substances. For this, the organization is required to conduct proper risk
assessment plan, health surveillance and incident planning. Hazardous substances include
chemicals, products containing chemicals, fumes, dusts, nanotechnology, gases and many more. It is
the prime responsibility of the organisation to protect their patients and workers from these
hazardous substances (Control of substances Hazardous of health (COSHH), 2016).
In context to the health-and-safety legislations, firm needs to implement proper safety aids
for their patients such as wheelchairs for those who have walking problem, cameras for monitoring
the actions of the staff workers and patients, alarms in the workplace for getting aware about any
kind of incident or harm and regular maintenance of the machines for preventing doctors and nurses
from injury while using them (Hanks and et.al., 2011).
TASK 2
2.1 Risk Assessment with the findings in CareUK
It is important for the organisations to evaluate the potential risks which may be involved in
the activities of their workers. Risk assessment process of Care UK is as follows.
Identification of the hazardous: In this step, higher authority of the firm identifies the hazardous
substances. Authority checks the manufacturers' instructions or data sheets regarding chemical and
equipments. With this, firm also collects past information from the records about the occurred
accidents and ill health (Hughes and Ferrett, 2012).
Who might be harmed and how: In this step, higher authority of the Care UK decides that who can
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be injured or harmed from the dangerous substances. For this, health care organisation ask
employees and service user's about their perception and view towards the hazardous and how they
can harm them.
Evaluation of the risks: In this step, Care UK evaluates the main risks and things which can injure
its workers and patients. Along with this, firm takes proper action such as trying to decrease the
options related to risk, preventing access to hazards, managing work to minimize hazard exposure,
providing fist aid and many more (Controlling the risks in the workplace, 2016).
Record of findings: In this, Care UK records all the findings which it getss from the irsk assessment
such as types of hazards, how employees or patients can be harmed by it and how to control them.
This record helps the social care organisation in resolving issues in the future.
Review and Update: Care UK reviews risk assessment time to time for making changes for new
equipments, substances and procedures. This helps in updating complete assessment as per the
requirement of the time for preventing staff and service users from any risk (Lee, Mahendra and
Alvarez, 2010).
Findings:
The whole risk assessment assists the organisation in keeping its workers and service users
away from hazardous substances. This provides satisfaction to the employees and patients as they
feel safe and secure within the workplace (Williams and et.al., 2010).
2.2 Impact on health and safety policy for Four Seasons Health Care (Scotland) Limited (FSHCL)
As per the given case study, FSHCL does not conduct risk assessment and care plan which
make employee and service user to face injury and harm. Due to the extreme temperature of hot
water one of the patient of the care house faces severe burn and scaled to feet and ankles. This was
carelessness of the care firm which make service user to suffer from such type of incident. On the
other hand, lack of proper communication results to death of a resident due to offering of solid food
which she was not able to eat (Salvendy, 2012).
As per the incidents faced by the FSHCL, it needs to implement Manual handling operations
regulation 1992 for preventing its service users from any kind of injury and harm. For implementing
this, firm needs to carry out risk assessment effectively on the manual handling activities. Along
with it, social care firm needs to provide training to their workers for proper handling and moving
of the substances or things. They will also ensure it that the staff member is suitable for the lifting
and moving the given task otherwise it can lead to some kind of injury to him (Martin and et.al.,
2013). On the other hand, FSHCL needs to ensure that the services provided to the patients are of
high quality with proper safety. They can easily and simply access the things for their use and
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comfort. On the other hand, for better communication health care organisation needs to keep
records of the patients so that they can get all the information about them. This will help them in
providing right type of food and other items to the service-users which will reduce the risk of injury.
2.3 Dilemmas care worker will encounter in carrying out health-and-safety policies and procedures
Care workers of FSHCL faces various dilemmas while providing health and safety services
to the patients. Sometimes their occurs disagreement between the staff members and their service
users which results to effect the health-and-safety policies and procedures along with the quality of
services (Health and safety policy, 2015). Most common and general dilemmas faced by the social
care workers is unwillingness of patients to take medicines for their disease or problem. As per the
service user rights of health care firm, clients have all rights to refuse staff members to take
medicines. Due to this right, patients can stop taking medicines but it is the responsibility of care
workers to convince them for taking medicines as per their treatment (Black and et.al., 2011).
On the other hand, sometimes client shows unwillingness towards the mobility which results
to increase their disease due to the lack of proper guidance of care workers. It is the right of service
user to select whether he wants to take help of care assistant or not and the misuse of this right
sometimes causes death. In contrast to it, if social care worker does not pay attention to the situation
of the patient then family members will make him responsible for the death of client (Ku and Mills,
2010). There are many other situations also in which staff of FSHCL faces dilemmas such as if a
client wants to go at the terrace of the building then in such case, nurses cannot refuse them, They
can take care of patient's safety rather than stopping them to go at the building's terrace or garden
(Carayon, 2011).
2.4 Effects of non-compliance with health-and-safety legislation in FSHCL
Non-compliance refers to the failure to act according to the given commands. With respect
to the health care organisations, non-compliance is occurred when it does not follow laws,
regulations, policies and procedures properly. According to the given case study, FSHCL is failed to
implement Health and Safety at Work act 1974 properly and effectively which results to cause
injury and death of clients. As per the results, social care firm found to be guilty for not following
the act properly for health and safety of the patients. Effects of non-compliance are faced by the
patients of the health care firm (Nahrgang, Morgeson and Hofmann, 2011).
FSHCL does not conduct risk assessment for ensuring the health and safety of the clients
and due to this care workers were unaware about the kind of food given to the patient. This lack of
risk assessment results to death of the resident due to eating solid food which was not good for her.
On the other end, staff members had not idea about the temperature of hot water which results to
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create burns on the feel and ankles of the client. All these issues are occurred due to the non-
compliance in health care organisation. It also leads to break the trust of patients over the services
and facilities of the firm which results to lower the image and popularity of the FSHCL among the
people (Elsler and et.al., 2010).
Another effect of the non-compliance of the laws and regulations is to enhance the risk of
hazards with the service users. This lowers the quality of services and treatments provided by health
care organisation to its clients along with its performance. Customer dissatisfaction leads to
decrease reputation and market position of the firm. Thus, effects of non-compliance on FSHCL are
negative and not good for its image and growth in the market (Schlune, Plos and Gylltoft, 2012).
TASK 2B
3.1 Monitor and review of health and safety practices
Monitoring and reporting plays essential role in the health-and-safety policies of any
organisation. It is the responsibility of the management to receive reports on the performance of the
health-and-safety policies and procedures within the North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare
NHS Trust.
As per the given case scenario, trust implements right strategies for health and safety of the
service users which results to reduce the percentage of risks. Organisation needs to monitor policies
and practices regarding health and safety of the clients. This will help the trust in identifying that
whether the policies are implemented as per the planning or not. For monitoring and review,
director of the North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust needs to conduct periodic audit
for identifying the effectiveness of management structure and risk controls. Along with this, proper
emphasis needs to be given to the information regarding both preventions and incidents so that firm
can monitor the potential of the implemented policies (Sliney and Mellerio, 2013).
On the other hand, impact of the changes in the working process, services, etc needs to be
reported quickly so that firm can monitor effectiveness of health and safety policy towards the new
procedures. In contrast to it, social care organisation can uses method of learning from the
experiences for monitoring and review health-and-safety practices. As per this method, firm needs
to gather all its previous information regarding occurred accidents, injuries, deaths or harms. This
will help in determining the loopholes in system and policies which can be improved in by
implementing in the current scenario (Zhou, Whyte and Sacks, 2012).
3.2 Effectiveness of health-and-safety policies in the workplace
According to the given case, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust
implements new policies of health-and-safety for bringing improvement in its services and working
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processes. It is clear from the analysis that proper and effective implementation of the polices and
practices results to bring positive changes in the working environment of the heath care firm
(Walters and James, 2011). Director of the social care organisation leads to create appropriate
organisational culture with the help of health-and-safety polices which results to reduce the
incidence rates by 16% over two years and reduction in insurance premium by 10%.
In addition to it, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trusts uses new corporate
and clinical guidance which makes its policies and practices more effective as compare to previous
ones. All these procedures in the field of health and safety results to improve the quality of the
services and facilities provided by the health care organisation to its service users (Effectiveness of
the health-and-safety at work act, 2015). With this, it also leads to improve image and reputation of
the social care trust among the people. On the other hand, effective health and safety policies will
help in influencing the care workers to perform well and will help in providing them full job
satisfaction. They will also maintain respect and dignity of the patients so that they cannot feel
mistreated or uncomfortable (Edelman, Mandle and Kudzma, 2013).
3.3 Own contribution
As a senior care worker of a social care organisation, my responsibility is to monitor and
review the health-and-safety polices and practices of the organisation. With respect to this, I have to
conduct risk assessment on periodic basis for identifying hazards and risks. This leads me to make
changes in the assessment as per the requirement of time and situation. At the time of new
procedures, processes, services, I conduct risk assessment for determining risks in them. As per the
outcomes I inform and aware social care workers and patients about the risks so that they can
prevent themselves from them or handle them appropriately. Along with this, I have to determine
the service quality of the service users so that I can maintain the quality and can fulfil their needs
and expectations.
I also keep records of all the incidents and injuries took place in the social care firm. This
information helps me in improving the present condition and making proper changes in the working
environment of the organisation. On the other hand, I keep good communication and interaction
with the staff members and clients so that they can inform me about insecurities they are facing in
the social care trust. Thus all these things, help me in monitoring and reviewing the health and
safety policies of the social care firm.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations with respect to the health-and-safety of staff members and service users
are as follows.
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 Health care organisation needs to conduct proper risk assessment for the welfare of their
care workers and patients.
 They should provide regular training to the nurses and doctors for proper handling of the
instruments and equipments.
 Trust must take feedback from the clients so that they can give proper information about the
insecurities they are facing.
CONCLUSION
As per the above study it is concluded that health and safety of care workers and service
users plays important role in health and social care organisations. Policies and procedures regarding
health-and-safety are essential to follow for maintaining quality and trust of the patients. There are
various ways such as training, record keeping, etc with the help of which health care firm can
communicate health-and-safety policies and procedures to their service users and staff members.
Non-compliance results to injury, harm or death which is not good for the growth and success of the
health care trusts as it lowers the image among the people. On the other hand, social care firms need
to conduct proper risk assessment with time to time monitoring and reviewing.
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