Legislation, Policies, and Procedures in Health and Social Care

This report discusses the relationship between legislation, policies, and procedures in health and social care. It summarizes the vital legislations related to health and social care, professional practice standards, and factors that impact national and local healthcare delivery. The report also covers the reasons for adhering to boundaries of job roles in the context of healthcare services. The report analyzes how legislation informs policies and procedures within health and social care. It also summarizes the requirements of professional standards and codes of practice in the industry.

UNIT HSC
CM8
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Define the legislation amid policies, legislature and procedure.......................................4
1.2 Summarize legislation in relation to health and social care.............................................6
1.3 Analyse how legislation informs policies and procedures within health and social care 7
2.1 Explain reasons for professional standards and code of practice in health and social care
................................................................................................................................................8
2.2 Summarize requirements of professional standards and codes of practice......................9
3.1 Explain the functions of national and local healthcare provisions.................................10
3.2 Describes the factors national and local health care service delivery............................10
4.1 Explain the roles and responsibilities of health and social care practitioners................11
4.2 Describe different working relationships in health and social care settings..................12
4.3 Explain the need for healthcare practitioner to adhere to boundaries of their own job role.
..............................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
The well-being and care industry is complicated and is regulated by various legislations
and policies because it is associated with social development and welfare (Sahoo and Bhatia,
2018). This report looks at the relationship between legislation policy and procedure of well-
being and care and summarizes the vital legislations related with health and social care.
Professional practice standards along with factors which impact national and local healthcare
delivery are described in this report. Tasks and accountabilities and relationships of employees
in healthcare and welfare industry are provided in this report . In addition to this the report also
covers the reason for adhering to boundaries of job rules in context of healthcare services.
MAIN BODY
1.1 Define the legislation amid policies, legislature and procedure
The definition of legislature is the laws and rules developed by the government which are
implemented in context of healthcare and welfare businesses and professionals in their governing
region. A policy is defined as a guiding principle used to set direction in a health and health care
organization to achieve specific goals (Aagaard, 2020). The definition of a procedural act in
healthcare includes the activities that healthcare or social care professionals need to accomplish
for enforcement of specific legislature or course of action. The difference between policy
legislation and procedure in context of the health and social care sector is defined below:
Legislation Policy Procedure
Accountability The government has
the accountability of
enforcing social and
healthcare legislation
effectively. the
accountability of
successfully enforcing
policies is given to
specific government
authorities public
sector agencies or
. In United Kingdom this
includes National Health
Service, Public health
England or any other
organization working in
the healthcare social care
sector developing specific
policy to improve
healthcare and welfare
policies
Particular procedures
related to healthcare or
welfare area is
completed under the
accountability of
immediate manger
supervising the
implementation of policy
such as health care
practitioner or social
worker.
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private organization in
health and social care
sector who have
created the particular
course of action
(Merhej, 2019).
Continuity Legislations tend to
remain unchanged for
longer periods of time.
A policy tends to evolve
and adapt overtime under
various review processes
so that the specific health
or social care area
associated with the policy
improves. procedure.
The changes in the
procedure are quicker in
comparison to legislation
or policy because
procedures are improved
continuously to make
positive contribution to
the overall task
completed through the
procedure (Martin-
Loeches et. al., 2019).
Safety A legislation improves
safety in health or
social care by
restricting or
preventing several
behaviors.
A procedure supports
safety in health and social
care by providing detailed
action which needs to be
completed in order to
safely accomplish specific
health and social care
objectives.
Policy influences safety
betterment in health and
social care by providing
guidelines towards
behaviors that are most
likely to achieve
intended outcome in a
safe environment.
Legislation is connected with and influences legislature and plan of action in context of
public well-being and welfare because it’s important to comply with government legislation.
Legislation influences policies and procedures very creating boundaries under which the policies
and procedures of healthcare and welfare can be created.
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Healthcare and public welfare policies are retreated to health and social care legislations
and procedures as policies support implementation of legislation and guide in accomplishing
tasks with specific health and social care procedures (Sandal et. al., 2019). Policies influence
legislation by serving as a source of understanding specific health and social care problems to
create exhaustive legislations. Healthcare and social care policies affect procedures as
procedures are created to complete the goals stated in the policies.
Healthcare and social care procedures are linked with legislation and policies of
healthcare and welfare because procedures support enforcement of legislations and policies at
grassroots level by guiding practitioners and other professionals working in health and social
care field. Procedures influence legislations and policies by detailing the who behind decision
made to implement policies and social and healthcare legislations
1.2 Summarize legislation in relation to health and social care
Legislation is considered as one of the vital government instruments in organising societal
and safeguarding citizen. This ascertains amongst other rights as well as re-chances of person &
authorities to whom the legislation applies. Additionally, the key justification behind wellbeing
and social consideration is to safeguard people at work environment and the individuals who are
impacted through working exercises. This is made so all into society comprehends that the ways
of behaving are suitable and that are not. There are various bits of regulation that connect with
wellbeing and security in a consideration setting. One of the most significant is the Health and
Safety at Work Act 1974, which sets out the overall obligations of businesses and representatives
to shield individuals from hurt working. Other key bits of regulation incorporate the
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Provision and Use of Work
Equipment Regulations 1998. Each piece of regulation has its own particular necessities,
however by and large, they all intend to guarantee that individuals are protected when they are
working. Medical care laborers have an obligation to agree with these guidelines, and bosses
have an obligation to guarantee that their labourers are appropriately prepared and know how to
securely do their obligations so they won't represent a gamble to patients.
 The Health and Social Care Act 2012: This introduced the essential real commitments about
prosperity uneven characters. It included express commitments for prosperity bodies
including the Department of Health, Public Health England, Clinical Commissioning
Groups, and NHS England which require the bodies to have due regard to decreasing
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prosperity differences between people of England. The Act similarly got changes for
adjacent specialists on broad prosperity limits.
 The Equality Act 2010: The particular demonstration spread out consistency commitments
for all open region bodies which hope to facilitate thought about the movement of
equilibrium into the regular business of all bodies subject to the commitment.
 The Data Protection Act 1998 - This regulation expects to safeguard individual data about
individuals who are working or looking for work. It forestalls segregation by limiting the
conditions in which managers can acquire, use and reveal individual information about their
representatives, including wellbeing records.
1.3 Analyse how legislation informs policies and procedures within health and social care
The policies and procedures in health and social care are affected by legislature because
complying with relevant legislation while formulating policies and procedures ensures that laws
are not being broken which helps avoid legal trouble in future. Each legislation which affects
creation and implementation of policy in the health and social care industry has both negative
and positive impact on the policies and procedures along with its ability to offer best quality care
to health and social care users. The analysis of impact of legislation on health and social care
policy is provided below:
Health and Social Care Act 2012
This is an important legislation in health and social care industry and all policies are
formed so that the legislative guidelines of this act are complied by health and social care
enterprises (Health and Social Care Act 2012, 2021). This act affects policies and procedures
within the health and social care sector as it provides outline for legal actions and activities in
context of health and social care. Both public and private health and social care institutions have
to follow this act.
Advantage: The positive impact of this act in in formulating creation of policy and
procedure is that it supports better collaboration and cooperation with various agencies working
in health and social care such as NHS and department of health.
Disadvantage: The negative impact of this act on policy and procedure formation is that
it is complicated piece of legislature. This may affect timely completion of health and social
care activities.
The Equality Act, 2010
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As per this act individuals under the categories of the protected characteristics need to be
safeguarded from any kind of workplace discrimination. The protected characteristics under this
act are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and
maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. It is important that businesses from
different industries and sectors comply with this act while forming policies and procedures at
their company because it reduces workplace discrimination. This act impacts policymaking and
procedure formation in health and social care sector as businesses have to account for
discrimination in their workplace.
Advantages: The main benefit of the Equality Act on policies and procedures in health
and social care is that it ensures that prejudice and personal biases do not impact career
advancement of individuals so that only qualified individuals acquire leading position in health
and social care. This ensures that high quality care is given to care users
Disadvantages: The disadvantage of this law is that it does not ensure that every type of
workplace discrimination will end by forming policies and procedures by following this act. This
is because discrimination can occur by using company resources and company policies. There
needs to be strict regulations and checks to avoid this kind of situation in health and social care.
2.1 Explain reasons for professional standards and code of practice in health and social care
Specific codes of practice are required by individuals for developing proper policies
which cover ethical practice and ensure that effective medical care is being taken while
providing medical care to consumers. Be honest and open and act with integrity. Never
discriminate unfairly against patients or colleagues. Never abuse your patients' trust in you or the
public's trust in the profession are some standard of practice for medical care in UK which help
formulate effective policies and procedures.
Professional standards are implemented in health and social care so that health and social
care employees and professionals face accountability for their clinical and social care decisions
and always work with competence throughout their career. They enable an individual to
understand the basic expectations, needs and beliefs to succeed in the health and social care
profession. This is beneficial because it helps deliver high quality health and social care.
Code of practice is required for health and social care because it acts as a clear guide for
acting and behaving in the workplace. It supports employees in continuing professional
collaboration, maintaining professional quality and following various policies and procedures
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effectively. It is important because it help instil values in employees which are aligned with
overall company values so that a dedicated and skilled workforce s gained by health and social
care enterprise.
The main difference between professional standards and code of practice is that
professional standard are specific expectations in case of individual health and social care
profession such as counsellor or rehab worker. It states the actions which need to be taken for
maintaining proficiency and competency in specific health and social care professions. On the
other hand code of practice state the values and act as a guide for maintaining professional
behaviour in their health or social care enterprise. This means they are specific to an enterprise
and not health and social care profession.
2.2 Summarize requirements of professional standards and codes of practice
According to the health and social Care Act of 2008 professional standard of practice in
healthcare focuses on providing assistance in dealing with infectious diseases. Several
professional practices which need to be adopted during controlling and preventing infectious
diseases are provided in this code. This regulation related to standard of practice in health and
social care states that effective preventive practices against infectious diseases focus on cleaning
and taking action in context antimicrobial environment so that every individual seeking public
healthcare service gains nontoxic environment for care (Tucker and et. al., 2018).
The public perception and expectation related to professional standards of health and social care
revolve around creating a safe and secure environment for patients and care users so that they are
able to be comfortable with their healthcare for social care services while also supporting their
recovery from health or social challenge. It is important to ensure that this public expectation is
made by living health and social care services because it encourages individuals to comfortably
access health and social care agencies if they are facing challenges related to health are there
social activities. The confidence of public in health and social care system increases because of
professionalism and complaints with code of practice which increases the ease off service users
to open up to health and social care practitioners making the delivery of health and social care
services easier and more comfortable for all the parties involved.
In addition to this the the primary agency associated with professional standard of healthcare and
welfare in UK focuses on promotion of safeguarding the well-being of service users along with
workers which enhances the standard regulation and voluntary registration of individuals
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employed in healthcare and welfare industry (Folkman, Tveit and Sverdrup, 2019). This
independent body comes under the accountability of the UK parliament which states several
professional requirements need to be complied by healthcare and social care practitioners.
Professional healthcare Standards in United Kingdom prepare that standardization associated
with developing voluntary registration for individuals employed in the unregulated sections of
welfare and healthcare industry and supports their accreditation to ensure that professional
standards are being met.
3.1 Explain the functions of national and local healthcare provisions
The national healthcare provisions in United Kingdom such as the provision for
establishing an extensive public welfare and service for England and Wales with distinct
legislature for Northern Ireland serve the function of offering public in United Kingdom
residential care along with funding development and expansion of numerous healthcare
programs and healthcare institutions. In addition to this another function of national healthcare
provisions is to meet the needs of the public in United Kingdom in terms of health and social
welfare.
Local healthcare provision such as the health and social care team for London councils
policy provide community care to specific communities such as children or marginalized
communities in the region who are in need of healthcare assistant and social care support in order
to survive in the country and gain their fundamental rights. In addition to this another function
accomplished by local healthcare provisions in United Kingdom is of using specific delivery of
approaches to offer personalized health and social care services to the communities and
individuals of the region where that local healthcare provision is implemented (Campillo-
Funollet et. al., 2021).
3.2 Describes the factors national and local health care service delivery
The factors which affect national healthcare service delivery include demand of location
and resources available to the government. The demand of specific healthcare service is
considered while delivering national healthcare services so that the sources of the government
are optimally utilized to deal with national healthcare demands. In addition to this the location
of various healthcare institutions is also considers very living national health delivery services
because it plays an important role in affecting the demand of specific healthcare services in the
region. Finally the resource is available to the government including financial resources end
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technological resources to enforce healthcare policies procedures and legislations affect national
healthcare service delivery.
Local healthcare delivery services are affected by factors such as liaison and autonomy
the service user (Hatcher and et. al., 2022). These factors are considered and influence
healthcare service delivery when it comes to local delivery of services because they help improve
personalization of healthcare delivery service as individual factors such as liaison and service
autonomy are considered to provide the service user based experience.
4.1 Explain the roles and responsibilities of health and social care practitioners.
Health and social care practitioners renders healthy supports from beginning consideration to
recovery by fostering a nearby relations with clinical specialists they become competent for
assisting the patients and its families for assuring its holistic care requirements that are met.
Health and social care practitioners have the important responsibility to deliver health and social
care policies which includes wide variety of roles such as risk management. Some of the jobs
and obligations of wellbeing and social consideration specialists are described below:
Policies, procedures or agreed way of working: A policy is defined as a guiding principle used to
set direction in a health and health care organization to achieve specific goals. A method is
characterized as a particular point by point series of activities that healthcare or social care
professionals must take in order to implement a process and comply with the policy.
Additionally, this is the essential role and responsibilities of health & social care practitioners to
adopt and implement all policies & procedures related to care services. Also, A specific health or
social care procedure is completed under the accountability of immediate manger supervising the
implementation of policy such as health care practitioner.
Duty of care: Duty of care is considered as the term which is utilized for describing the
obligations which implicit into their role as health & social care practitioner. As they owe a duty
of care for its patients or services users, its peers and others. In addition to this, the duty of care
is crucial role & obligations of wellbeing and social consideration specialists as into wellbeing
and social consideration it involved into code of conduct for healthcare supports staff as well as
adult social care employees.
Partnership working: Within health & social care, partnership workings bring together
individuals firms so that it may advantages from pooled particular, assets and power sharing. The
point of organization is to augment the viability and nature of administration provisions. In
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addition to this, partnership working is also the crucial jobs and obligations of wellbeing and
social consideration specialists as it is crucial because this allows action upon determinants of
health that is essential for addressing the inequalities of health.
4.2 Describe different working relationships in health and social care settings.
Within health and social care settings, working relationship is undertaken as the relations in
which time is spent with both service & colleagues at the time of work hours. Additionally, this
relations means there is some or no contact out of working hours. Working relationship between
wellbeing and social consideration experts should be positive to acquire the expected
consequence of wellbeing and social consideration services. Moreover, working relations are the
informal as well as formal relationships which come regarding as a part of work into role of
health & social care staff. So, there are different types of working relations into health & social
care setting that are describe below:
Staff and patients: There are the relations which care staff and managers that have with service
users that it assists. Moreover, it may also extent to person’s friends and family.
Health & social care staff and managers: It is undertaken as the relations that health & social care
staff having with its managers. Additionally, it may be ideas of as manager-subordinates
relations.
Health & social care staff and colleagues: It is the regarded as the working relationship that care
staff having with its other colleagues which perform the same or similar kind of job role and
responsibilities. Also, they may be explained ass co- staff or peers.
Staff and other professionals: Health & social care staff are needed for communicating with a
myriad of other professional as part of its job responsibilities. Also, it may incorporates nurses,
advocates, GPs, psychiatrists and many others
4.3 Explain the need for healthcare practitioner to adhere to boundaries of their own job role.
When individuals are appointed as well as employed the health & social care practitioner they
would have agreed upon the job roles scopes that set out the boundaries, this is vital to obey
these as this allows them to understands what their roles and responsibilities are as well as what
is anticipated of them as health care staff and their employers. Enforcing health and social care
boundaries is also necessary as it helps ensure professionalism to attain specific health and social
care objectives. In addition to this, to become competent for performing its job to do effective of
their competencies and provide cares and understands the requirements for setting an effectual
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cares that they required to understands their own competencies and skills level. Additionally, this
is vital for them to acknowledge its job descriptions as this represents their accountabilities &
duties, which they are accountable to as well as its hours & rates of pay.
Following the process & policies, this is evenly essential as this describes the ways wherein
individuals have to perform, determines boundaries and often associates to regulations. A policy
is defined as a guiding principle used to set direction in a health and health care organization to
achieve specific goals. Procedure is characterized as a particular point by point series of
activities that medical services or social consideration experts should take to execute a cycle and
follow the strategy. Additionally, the process states how to do daily activities in described
manners. So, being become competent to adhere to that agreed scopes of individual’s job role
that permit them to challenges anything they are unhappy along with or are not assures of with
respect to its employment.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is determined that health and social care legislation policies and
procedures are related with each other and play an important role in enforcing rules and
regulations which support the health and social care sector. There are various legislations
implemented to ensure safe completion of health and social care objectives and offer welfare to
the society which are completed by falling standards and codes of practice diligently. National
and local healthcare provisions play an important role of offering care and delivering healthcare
services to specific regions in United Kingdom. Factors suggest resources accessibility end
partnerships influence the delivery of healthcare services in context of national and local area.
Health and social care practitioners have the important responsibility to deliver health and social
care policies which includes wide variety of roles such as risk management. Working
relationship between health and social care professionals need to be positive in order to gain the
intended result of health and social care services. Enforcing health and social care boundaries is
also necessary as it helps ensure professionalism to attain specific health and social care
objectives.
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Hatcher and et. al., 2022. Healthcare worker associated outbreak of Panton-Valentine Leucocidin
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Sahoo, D. P. and Bhatia, V., 2018. Public health legislations in India (Part-I). Indian Journal of
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Sandal et. al., 2019. Health professional–identified barriers to living donor kidney
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Tucker and et. al., 2018. Social Care in Prison: emerging practice arrangements consequent upon
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Online
Health and Social Care Act 2012, 2021. [Online] Available through
<https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/7/contents/enacted>
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