Health and Social Care Act 2012 | Report

Running head: NURSING
Leaflet

1NURSING
Legislature, the executive and the judiciary set the legal and policy landscape for health
and social care practitioners and the settings they work within
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 introduced the first legal duties of the health
and social care professionals about the health inequalities. This Act enlisted specific duties
for the healthcare bodies like Department of Health, Public Health England, NHs England
and Clinical commissioning Groups (NHS England 2019). The Equality Act 2010 helps in
the establishment of the equality duties for the public sector healthcare organizations that aim
to integrate the consideration of advancement for healthcare equality in day-to-day practice.
The main duties that are covered in the Equality Act 2010 specify the professional standards
of practice under the workplace settings of the health and social care practitioners. This
guidance is given to support the Clinical commissioning Groups (CCGs) and NHS England
in order to help them meeting their legal duties (NHS England 2019). The supporting
legislation includes the Social Value Act (2012) and it requires the public sector
commissioners like the local bodies and other health sectors to consider the social, economic
and environmental well-being of the healthcare service users (NHS England 2019).
All the healthcare acts, rules and regulations in UK are government by NHS England.
NHS England Midlands and East is one of the four regional teams that support the overall
commissioning of the services. It also directly commission primary care and other specialized
care services in England. The main division of the NHS England judiciary body is
highlighted in the image below
(Source: NHS 2019)

2NURSING
Relationship between key legislation and national policy relevant to health and care
settings
National laws and regulations are designed under constitutional and legal framework
for any particular country. Laws designed for the implementation of the healthcare
environment are designed on scientific findings and assessment while taking into economic,
social and environmental consideration of that country. Primary legislations that is laws
typically set forth policy statement or other object, include the scope of the legislation and its
relationship with the existing laws. In other words, it can be stated that the laws and
regulations are regarded as a consequences of policy making however, their implementation
or lack of the same might lead to a series of further development of policy. New laws and
regulations might also be important in order to address the emerging environment and other
healthcare problems. International treaties and associated instruments that are related to
global problems help to facilitate the policy-making that helps in achieving the harmonized
approach, nationally or internationally over the issue that is at stake (World Health
Organization 2019).
Healthcare in UK has developed with separate public healthcare bodies for England,
Scotland and Wales and it is referred as National Health Service.
Figure: The brief overview of the framework of health and social care in UK
(Source: Department of Health, England 2013)
The Health and the Social Care Act (HSCA) 2012 by the NHS England introduced
substantial change in the professionals code of conduct of the health and social care