Law, Policy, and Ethical Practice in Health and Social Care

Law, policy and ethical
practice in health and social
care
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Table of Contents
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Explain in detail how ethics informs health, care and support service practice, giving practical
examples from own experience and current codes of ethical practice........................................5
Evaluate own national system of government in relation to its effect on health, care and
support service practice and practitioners...................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
The codes of practice, practice themes and key pieces of legislation and policy.......................5
The role of legislation such as the Equality Act 2010, Human Rights Act 1998 in health social
care and support services............................................................................................................6
The role of recent health and social care legislation or national policy in informing the rights
and responsibilities of health and social care support service practitioners................................7
The relationship between legislation and national policy and ethical practice...........................7
Implementation of different and relevant legislation in regard to safe and healthy conduct
within your work setting.............................................................................................................8
How legislation, policy and ethical considerations informs practice with the patient/service
user/client and the impact of unwarranted variation...................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Healthcare practitioners are usually regulated and controlled by a range of laws and
policies while working within a health and social care organisation. Health law and policy is the
region of law which is concerned with health of individuals and population, along with
operations of healthcare system (Mittelstadt and Floridi, 2016). Many of the voluntary or non-
profitable organisations also require laws and policies in order to deliver care practices
proficiently, safely, legally and ethically. In this report Farnworth Care Home has been chosen
which is a healthcare organisation and serves facilities to individuals with age group of 65 or
over. The report will cover different features of legislation, statutory guidance, codes of practice,
and national and organizational policy. Furthermore, it will focus on relationship between key
legislation and national policy, of direct relevance to health and social care practice. At last,
impact of relevant law and policy on the outcome of healthcare organization has been explained.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Describe how the legislature, the executive and the judiciary set the legal and policy landscape
for health and social care practitioners
The main objective of legal and policy framework is to promote and protect the health
conditions of individuals within a community. However, government officials such as
legislature, the executive and the judiciary set these standards in a manner that has respect for
human, involving the rights of self-determination, confidentiality and non-discrimination. They
use a legal framework for developing such polices (Goldenberg and et.al., 2016).
Different factors are required for developing health policies. Firstly, the policymakers
should have an understanding of data and arguments which has been presented in order to access
the polices reasonably. Secondly, bodies of the policy making must be accountable publically.
Thirdly, the body of decision making, must be positioned for receiving and evaluating all the
necessary information on all aspects of health policy. At last, the government officials must have
a considerable criteria for making an appropriate decision. Such criteria will help to assist
decision makers for setting goals and accomplishing social, scientific as well as ethical
parameters for making a decision. Legislature, the executive and the judiciary undergoes several
steps for making policies such as:
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Analyzing interest of public health: The policy makers define the health purpose of the
policies which are made and make them according to the demands and requirements of public
regarding their health (Petrogiannis and et.al., 2017).
Analyze the effectiveness of policy: It is the responsibility of the policy makers to
analyze the effectiveness of policy on the public health and identify if any changes need to be
implement or not.
Develop a well-targeted policy: The policy makers determine whether the policy is
addressing the particular health problem. The policies and legal landscapes must be made
according to the health related problems facing by public in a society.
Summarize key features of legislation, statutory guidance, codes of practice, and national and
organizational policy.
Rules and policies have a significant role in ensuring improvement of public health.
Some of them are discussed below.
Legislation- It is important for the improvement and protection of public health. It is
require for effective regulation of health system. Key features diseases. The main role of
legislation is to safeguard and protect public health. It determine the rights of public as well as
ensure that each and every individual has been treated equally without any discrimination
(Allotey and Reidpath, 2018) .
National policies- It play an essential role in ensuring overall health of population.
Development of national policy is a complex process. They include decisions, plans and actions
that are taken for achieving particular health goals in a society. The policy include facilities such
as free medication, free vaccination as well as free diagnostics in public health hospitals.
Codes of practice: It set a standard for conducting and performing healthcare practices
for health and social workers. Some codes of practice for care practitioners are discussed below:
 Care practitioners should promote and upholds the confidentiality, right and dignity of
patients with in an organization (Nelson and Staggers,2016).
 Health professionals must work with their fellow employees in order to deliver and
maintain a high quality of services.
 Communicate effectively with patients in order to promote health and safety of
individuals within a healthcare organization.
 Promote equality, inclusion and diversity (Erwin and Brownson, 2017).
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