Health and Safety Guidance Document for Residential Care Setting

This is a workplace guidance document that introduces all news staffs at the residential home regarding the health and safety priorities for the setting and the need to comply with all health and safety legislation, policies and procedures within the setting. The document provides an insight into the concept of hazard and risk at the setting, process of hazard assessment, reporting structure for risk and hazard and person responsibilities to prevent harm of service users.

Running head: HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE UNIT 3
Health and Social Care Unit 3
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Health and Safety guidance document for residential care setting:
This is a workplace guidance document that introduces all news staffs at the residential
home regarding the health and safety priorities for the setting and the need to comply with all
health and safety legislation, policies and procedures within the setting. This document provides
an insight into the concept of hazard and risk at the setting, process of hazard assessment,
reporting structure for risk and hazard and person responsibilities to prevent harm of service
users.
Identification of hazards and risk in the setting:
Hazard at workplace is defined as the factors that increase the likelihood of potential
damage, harm or adverse health effect for service users or other staffs. The examples of harm or
adverse effect include harm to people (due to health effect), harm to organization or property
(due to equipment damage) (Glendon, Clarke and McKenna 2016).
In contrast, risk may be defined as the chance that a person will be harmed or they may
be affected if exposed to a hazard (Glendon, Clarke and McKenna 2016). Hence, good
understanding about hazard may help to prevent harm and identify risk to health and safety for
services users too.
As our residential setting is providing services to adults with dementia, the potential form
of hazards present in the environment may be environmental conditions like no bed rails or wet
floors. Identification of such hazard will be important for workers to prevent falls (Fukuda,
Shimizu and Seto 2015). There might be behavioral hazards for staffs or patient in the form of
bullying too. Hence, identifying and reporting about it will be necessary to prevent fear, anxiety
and depression among staffs and patient.

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Steps to follow to communicate health and safety information:
We have a systematic reporting structure and adequate resource to support staffs or any
person at the residential setting to report about the hazards. The process of communicating about
health and safety issues at the setting has been made easier by the following processes:
 A record keeping book has been developed for managers to report about all forms of
hazards, severity of harm and actions taken to prevent harms. According to the Health
and Safety at Work Act 1974, it is the responsibility of employers to make arrangement
for ensuring workplace safety and absence of risk to health (legislation.gov.uk 2017). In
accordance with this legislation, the record keeping book is an arrangement to accurately
report about hazards or risk at the setting.
 The rules and procedures related to reporting about hazard and reporting it to top
authorities will be displayed at important points so that workers can review and report
accordingly. Safety signs will also be implemented in patient rooms, galleries and
staircase to help staffs take the required precaution to prevent harm to dementia patient.
 Staff training and induction arrangement is also in place to develop concepts of staffs
regarding potential hazards and risk likely to be present at the setting. It will give
information about ways to assess hazard and risk and know about ‘when’ and ‘how’ of
using facilities like alarm call point or the accident book.
 All staffs are requested to report about hazards to their concerned leaders or directly
communicate to supervisors or managers at the setting.
The above mentioned steps a rare in compliance with the RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries,
Diseases, Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013) legislation as it put duties on employers

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and workers to report about serious workplace incidents and occupational diseases (Williams
2015).
Organization’s responsibility to protect service users from harm:
As per the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the employers of the residential care
setting has the following responsibility to protect services used from harm:
 They have the responsibility of unprejudiced maintenance of the setting to ensure that
dementia patients and their formal carers are free from health and safety risk.
 They have the responsibility to train staffs, disseminate proper information and increase
provision for supervision to ensure accurate assessment, identification and prevention of
health risk.
 They have the responsibility to provide optimal environment and facilities to promote
their welfare at work.
 They have responsibility to collaborate and delegate safety, health and welfare
responsibilities to relevant staffs.
 They need to ensure that services users have access to safe and comfortable indoor and
outdoor facilities.
Employee’s responsibility towards health and safety:
The individual responsibility towards health and safety are as follows:
 To maintain ethical requirements in care such as respecting dementia patients, preserving
their personal information, autonomy and maintaining confidentiality of clients

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 To comply with health and safety legislation and procedure for identification and
reporting about hazards.
 To be committed to control risk and combat risk at sources.
 Take person-centered approach to care identifying special needs and care provisions for
dementia patient (Barbosa et al. 2015).
 As per COSHH (Control of Substance Hazardous to Health) legislation, observation and
assessment of environment is also necessary to identify substances that lead to harm.
Service user’s responsibility towards health and safety:
The services user can also ensure their health and well-being by:
 By engaging in decision making process and being aware about the safety provisions for
them.
 Immediately identifying and reporting about any form of hazards such as behavioral harm
or actions causing health related harm to higher authorities.
 Avoid using substances that leads to ill health or harm for patient.
Role of CQC at the residential setting:
 It will be necessary for CQC (Care Quality Commission) to effectively cooperate with
the setting to assist to each other to carry out health and safety responsibilities and
maintain optimal work arrangement.
 They should engage in inspection process after identification of significant hazardous
event at the setting.
Health and safety priorities for the setting:

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As the residential care setting particularly focuses on health and well-being for patient
with dementia, the following health and safety priorities for the safety of dementia patient has
been implemented:
 To prevent harm to dementia patient due to falling or behavioral issues like bullying and
discrimination, security system has been updated and cameras, alarms, fire extinguishers
and door locks has been arranged for all patient.
 Inspection of system failure should be routinely done. This is importance because system
failure may lead to conflict cases and legal consequences for the setting.
 To identify special needs of care for patient and provide relevant devices like hoist and
wheelchairs to maintain mobility and prevent fall of patient.
 Evaluation of environment around dementia patient will be necessary to eliminate risk
(Morgan et al. 2016).
 Complying with health and safety priority is important and non-compliance will lead to
strict disciplinary action for the staffs.

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Reference:
Barbosa, A., Sousa, L., Nolan, M. and Figueiredo, D., 2015. Effects of person-centered care
approaches to dementia care on staff: a systematic review. American Journal of Alzheimer's
Disease & Other Dementias®, 30(8), pp.713-722.
Fukuda, R., Shimizu, Y. and Seto, N., 2015. Issues experienced while administering care to
patients with dementia in acute care hospitals: A study based on focus group
interviews. International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 10(1), p.25828.
Glendon, A.I., Clarke, S. and McKenna, E., 2016. Human safety and risk management. Crc
Press.
legislation.gov.uk 2017. Health and Safety at Work 1974. Retrieved from:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/37/section/2
Morgan, D.G., Kosteniuk, J.G., O’Connell, M.E., Dal Bello-Haas, V., Stewart, N.J. and
Karunanayake, C., 2016. Dementia-related work activities of home care nurses and aides:
frequency, perceived competence, and continuing education priorities. Educational
Gerontology, 42(2), pp.120-135.
Williams, P., 2015. Accidents and incidents reporting: the legal implications. Nursing And
Residential Care, 17(4), pp.221-224.