Relevant Policy and Law in Health and Social Care

This essay focuses on relevant policy and law for the working in social and public health sector. Exploring this legal framework within social, health and support care works has been depicted in a brochure. Key legislation, organizational and national policy are imperative to the health care practitioners for a more convergent patient centered care.

VICTORIA KWOFIE
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Submission Front Sheet
Assignment Code: ABRQF759HSC1AO
Programme: Pearson Higher National Diploma in Healthcare Practice
Unit Title and Number: Law, Policy and Ethical Practice in Health and Social Care
Unit 1
RQF Level and Credit value: 4: 15 credits T/616/1636
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I certify that the work submitted for this assignment is my own. Where the work of others
has been used to support my work then credit has been acknowledged. I have identified
and acknowledged all sources used in this assignment and have referenced according to
the Harvard referencing system. I have read and understood the Plagiarism and Collusion
section provided with the assignment brief and understood the consequences of
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Signature: Victoria Kwofie Date: 11/04/2019
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INTRODUCTION
Responsibility of general policy and health legislation in England is taken care of by the Parliament, Secretary of the State for Health
along with the Department of Health. According to Health Act of 2006, the Secretary of State (Armstrong and Bulmer, 2018) performs
a legal duty in order to promote the health service across country that provides care which is free of the charge, apart from the charged
facilities. Rights of National Health Service care are précised in NHS Constitution - they include right to the access of care without
any discrimination and within specific time constraints for the emergency and acute informed care. Department of the Health offers
stewardship for general healthcare system, but daily accountability for running NHS is intervened by a distinct public organization,
NHS England. It controls NHS budget, directs the 209 local Clinical Commissioning Groups (Curtis et al. 2018) and safeguards the
objectives of annual mandate controlling efficiency of health goals. Budgets of public health are held by the local government system
that is required to develop coordination in local services by decreasing health disparities.
This essay focuses on relevant policy and law for the working in social and public health sector. Exploring this legal framework within
social, health and support care works has been depicted in a brochure. Key legislation, organizational and national policy are
imperative to the health care practitioners for a more convergent patient centered care. The pragmatic impact of equity, equality
legislation, the policies are discussed with respect to implementation of health, social care disciplines.
LO1: BROCHURE
LO 2: P3 DESCRIBE THE RELATION BETWEEN KEY LEGISLATIONAND NATIONAL POLICIES OF DIRECT
RELEVANCE TO HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE PRACTICE (OBSERVATION LOG LO2)
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Date and time of observation
09/03/2019
Rationale – why these activities/tasks were chosen:
The Equality Act 2010 needs to be implemented in the chosen care setting for the integration of
advancement of the principles of inclusion and equality in the daily activities of those individuals
who are subjected to the duty of care. These legislation sets the framework for the health and social
care practitioners to decrease the inequalities which are present in England at the local as well as the
national levels(The Law Library, 2018)
Explain the individual’s needs (for example healthcare, communication needs)
Ronald Anderson, a patient suffering from dementia and cognitive impairment arrived at Care,
UK. His primary needs were communication and esteem needs as he was unable to express his
emotions. He is in need of a more treatment satisfaction and empowerment and has been treated by
the practitioners, was no singe of discrimination relating to his disease .His disability is protected
under the Equality Act 2010.
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Describe briefly the details of the setting (for example location, type of setting)
Describe the context of the setting (for example what takes place in the setting at the time of
observation)
P4 COMPARE NATIONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL POLICIES AGAINST NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL
STANDARDS IN TERMS OF THEIR IMPACT ON HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SERVICE
Student name
UNIT 1. Law, Policy and Ethical Practice in Health and Social Care
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Assessment criteria LO2 P4
How well did you achieve the practice criteria for this unit?
I have achieved in maintaining the organizational policies individually as well as my unit (where I am a manager)
adhered well to the organizational policies to great effect. As, for the NHS policies on patient caring,
safeguarding rights and clinical guidelines – the adherence has not been up to the mark. What are their beliefs,
values, background, cultural or religious differences, personal preferences.
As a clinician, I always follow the guidelines and I believe that a patient centered care can be bought by a
collaborative action. As caring for Mr. Ronald – I have focused on his cognitive needs that has directly affected
his communication. According to NHS guidelines, I have developed a patient centeredness while caring for Mr.
Ronald and enhanced an informed practice in order to provide opportunities to Mr. Ronald for functional and
psychological independence.
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What challenges did you face?
The challenges that I faced was the lack of adherence to the policy and regulation that deals with fair treatment of
the patients and safeguarding their rights.
With Mr. Ronald, I faced a different challenge that his language problem was in the sensory registration part (that
is he had problems with receptive language). Even if his background was English but this sensory issue created a
barrier for me and my team to communicate with him.
Are there any specific examples from your placement that evidence your learning/development, e.g.
adhering to policies, procedures and practice?
In my unit, I have learned how to provide a fair, individualistic treatment to each patient. In the beginning it was
difficult for there was a myriad of cases waiting in the beds and in the cues but with experience – I have learned
to adhere to the best practice guidelines. I learned to incorporate the six principles of Safeguarding Care Act
2014) into patient treatment and I did the same with Mr. Ronald.
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M2 REFLECT ON WAYS IN WHICH SPECIFIC TASKS IN HEALTHCARE AND SUPPORT SERVICE MEET
NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS OF SAFE AND NON DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICE
Student name
UNIT 1. Law, Policy and Ethical Practice in Health and Social Care
Assessment criteria LO2 M2
How well did you achieve the practice criteria for this unit?
As an individual – I have realized the importance of patient equity and non-discriminatory service irrespective of their values, cultural
or religious differences, background, personal preferences, etc.
Safeguarding the patient rights and choices accordingly to the policies is critical to handling of patient conditions and patient needs.
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What challenges did you face?
. The biggest problem that I have faced are ‘personal biases’ that affects the equity and safeguarding policy (David et al. 2015) which
treating the patient.
Especially in a mental health department, the patients are more in search of emotional support (Carson, 2016.) and they crave for
attachments. So, there is a proneness to develop more attachment to some as compared to others and this affects the quality of
treatment.
Are there any specific examples from your placement that evidence your learning/development, e.g. adhering to policies,
procedures and practice?
I have learned to work on my insight and eliminate these biases and while caring for Mr. Ronald, I have studied his memory,
judgment and decision making skills very closely with observational and analytic methods. I have observed and understood -
in order to address his communication needs, at first his esteem needs are to be addressed as he is quite disarrayed by
progression of dementia and is having sudden emotional outbursts as well. As a health care worker, this case has helped me to
learn about various implications of mental health problems and how important it is for the healthcare workers – to clinically
reason them before intervening. This is a crucial practice to safeguard the interests and rights of the patient pertaining to a
high quality patient centered care.
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D2 ANALYSE THE IMPACT OF EQUALITY LEGISLATION, POLICY AND THE NOTION OF EQUITY ON THE
PRACTICE OF SAFEGUARDING THE INDIVIDUALS IN HEALTH CARE AND SUPPORT SERVICES
UNIT 1. Law, Policy and Ethical Practice in Health
and Social Care
How well did you achieve the practice criteria for this unit?
I have achieved policy adherence and notion of equality with the patients in my wards. The
policy adherence to its exact implications takes a lot of practice and experiential learning.
With Mr. Ronald, I have followed the exact clinical guidelines, legislative policies at
organizational level and national level to safeguard the patient rights of Mr Ronald.
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What challenges did you face?
Different patients are of different ethnic backgrounds and making each patient understand
and making them adhere to the policies in order to foster an effective health care worker –
patient collaboration – is a huge challenge.
Are there any specific examples from your placement that evidence your
learning/development, e.g. adhering to policies, procedures and practice?
I have developed as a practitioner while caring for Mr. Ronald. The subject displayed a
series of problems with respect to his neuropsychological state, behavioral and
cognitive condition – this helped me care for him with a multifocal approach with so
many policies to consider. This has enhanced my individual learning, critical thinking
and adherence skills to a great extent.
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LO 3: P5 EXPLAIN HOW SPECIFIC NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW INFLUENCE
AND INFORM EQUAL AND FAIR TREATMENT OF OTHERS IN HEALTH CARE AND SUPPORT SERVICES
(OBSERVATION WRITE UP)
Human Rights in the Healthcare Programme are a part of the government-led promotions that focuses to embed the human rights in
these public services - thus forming a respectable human rights culture (Osler 2015). The program’s aim was to the collaborate the
Department of the Health, British Institute of Human Rights, and eight participating trusts of National Health Service. NHS Trusts
(Blackwell et al. 2019) has undertaken this human rights based approach in order to position human rights in core of the healthcare.
Five broad principles which are recognised as the core elements of an HRBA (Olawuyi 2015): 1. People’s right to participate in
decisions that affect their lives. 2) Accountability of duty-bearers to rights-holders 3) Non-discrimination and prioritization of
vulnerable groups; 4) Empowerment of rights-holders; and 5) Legality: the express application of the 1998 Human Rights Act.
The goal was to practise human rights (Horton and Farnham, 2015) as end and means that is - as a basis for the legal standards and the
obligations to be adherent to the practical methods and principles determining ways for standards and the obligations to be achieved.
At time of this program’s launch, it enjoyed high-end support as the ministry of the state praised the approach with respectful words.
The essay considers the outcomes like achieved positive or negative effects and the impact of the Programme. But first, the context
and framework has to be set out.
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The vital considerations are the Human Rights Act’s extent of execution in the public services, particularly in the health services;
fundamental reforms within the health services and these mounting of the public apprehension about the care standards followed in
few hospitals and the care homes in Wales and England.
The 1998 Human Rights Act
Human Rights Act includes the European Convention on Human Rights and incorporates into the domestic law and then provides a
very fixed platform for formation of new respectful cultural human rights. It borders the political and political rights that must be
considered for delivery of the public services and public health services. These critical services are mandatory not only to the
refrainment from breaching the human rights but also to undertake the proactive steps needed to protect the people from any sort of
human rights abuses. Public service and health service decision-makers should have a crystal clear understanding and knowledge of
their jurisdictions and obligations under Human Rights Act. They should abide by human rights framework and should take the correct
decisions which protect the human rights like right to respect for private life and the right to deny and be independent of degrading
treatments.
After law’s passage, it became overt that the vision of cultural change within public services was not occurring in practice. In
the year of 2003, in the official report examining progress across the 175 public organizations in England, including the health
services, it was found that an initial flurry of the activity had happened immediately following the law’s passage and Human Rights
Act impact was in peril of stalling. It was due to this fact that the public bodies and health services are subjected to new legislation that
was comprehended as more significant than Human Rights Act. By reviewing the existing researches and giving practical examples,
Audit Commission expressed how Human Rights Act can be used as framework to advance service delivery. It contended that by
applying a human rights outline across the public services that includes health services was a legal and sociocultural need.
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Health service reforms
Audit Commission’s report labelled the state of human rights in England’s healthcare in the year 2003 and was illustrated why
formation of Human Rights framework in Healthcare Programme as a direct consequence, was crucial. If the health organizations had
failed to detect the Human Rights Act throughout a passé of stability, it was to be pertinently done now.
The Programme’s application coincided with execution of National healthcare Plan in the year of 2000 and with the Health and
Social Care Act in 2001 that set the greatest change in the healthcare since NHS’s formation in the year of 1948. Hospitals were asked
to become the foundation trust bodies with extended independence under NHS hospitals and they were very accountable for the
membership arrangements in local communities. Organizations which were responsible for the monitoring and authorizing of most
National health services were then abolished and substituted with the new commissioning groups and NHS bodies responsible in
planning and the commissioning of healthcare services within a sociocultural frameworks. The Public health service responsibilities
were passed to the local councils, and in the year of 2012 – a responsibility for operating NHS was given to independent body of NHS
England.
A parallel and similarly fundamental rearrangement of health establishments occurred in Wales in the year of 2009 that included
creation of health boards and NHS trusts which were responsible to the NHS Wales. In both the nations, these variations involved a
excess of health reforms—comprising of new monetary and management provisions, performance and output targets, and methods to
regulation and review—which inexorably took time and took focus away from the human rights.
Concerns about standards of care
In a critical accusation, the review revealed the distress, pain, hunger, thirst, neglect was suffered by the patients and they were forced
to satisfy their needs by drinking from vases. This is a perfect example of lack of compassion, care and humanity which are the basics
of any service and is pertinent to health care.
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While the gage of problems persisted at hospitals of England and Wales - numerous other scandals concerning hospitals and care
homes struck the headlines. These happenings suggested organisational and systemic problems with the health care framework. The
conclusion is supported by official statistics and by Care Quality Commission.
Anxieties about the excellence of care in certain English hospitals and clinics echoed in Wales, where Older People’s Commissioner
defined the care of some elder people in the Welsh hospitals as “shameful” and Wales Audit Office stated that numerous patients were
not getting the quality nutritional care that they needed.
The Human Rights in Healthcare Programme
The Human Rights in Healthcare Programme espoused a collective approach. Funding and direction was delivered by Department of
Health, while training, support and advice on human rights were provided by British Institute of Human Rights. The Project
management is delivered by self-governing consultants and the market study company Ipsos MORI reinforced NHS organizations into
research and estimation of HRBA to the health service design.
8 NHS organizations (Gee and Cooke 2018) contributed in the mentioned Programme between the year of 2005 and 2012. Their
efforts also focused on the developing and the testing of a variety of applied human rights resources. This ‘start and stop’ affair with
active phase lasted around twelve months. Each following active stage was reliant on on both governmental approval and continuance
of funding from Department of Health. This unavoidably resulted in the gaps between the active phases and discontinuity.
I feel a constant need of implementing the human rights policies in my organization in a better way or rather a strengthened manner.
That would safeguard a healthy conduct. As a health care worker, I have cared for the mental health patients and complied with mental
health laws and specially Mental Health Act 1983, Equality Act 2010 and Mental Capacity Act are underpinned by strong patient
centered care policies. I have agreed on the validity and weightage of the principles of legislation and made sure of me not doing any
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violation of these national principle. I admire dignity of other service users and give privacy to them and respect to their intervention
and planning. I abide myself by the Human rights legislation in order to ensure appropriateness of care and safeguarding their rights.
One precise occurrence which describes the application of these government laws is my experience of caring for a mental health
patient named Ronald. The patient’s family member family member was not satisfied with the service and escalated to the senior
administrators through an external source and responsively, then I came to know about this – I checked on the patient documents and
level of care received till then and found out certain ‘planning gaps’ which I immediately bridged as to me, all patients should receive
their proper treatment without any lag or bias. I provided the critical emotional support to the family and apologized for the
happenings and with the changed treatment protocols – the esteem needs and communications of Ronald were addressed, thus
contributing to his and his family’s satisfaction.
The activity will adhere to dementia intervention and care guideline policies and will consider only volunteer participation of
the patients and collaborative support from the different medical, allied health and nursing teams who regularly deal with these
patients.
LO3 P5: EXPLAIN HOW SPECIFIC NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW INFLUENCE
AND INFORM EQUAL AND FAIR TREATMENT OF OTHERS IN HEALTH CARE AND SUPPORT SERVICES
Date: 15/03/2019 Time: 11.30
Area: 24 HOUR SUPPORTED LIVING ACCOMODATION Activity title: Law, Policy and Ethical Practice in HSC
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Proposed learning outcomes (for example what activity is being carried out Ethics, Policy and Law in relation to Practice Themes)
An inclusive approach to the observation of health service provider’s adherence to implementation of laws, policies and ethics
which can aid to enhance the outcomes for organization and service users.
Brief description of the activity (for example what you expect to do and the roles of others .e.g. activities in promoting health and
safety and/or safeguarding of other employees and service users)
As a health care support worker, I aspire to fulfil my part of providing an ethical and best practice care to the mental health subjects
and to ensure prime functionality at organization level – that is assuring equipment safety, employee stress and the safety measures
pertinent to both the staffs and the patients.
Resources/Equipment (for example list everything you expect to use or to need including specific tasks or activities carried out by
others. e.g equipment used in monitoring blood pressure, temperature etc.)
I need to use check the quality of mobility device, biomedical devices as well as the written and verbal communication prevalent in
my unit that pertains to an effective patient centered care.
Law, Regulation and Ethical Practice: Theme 1 suggests adherence to the national healthcare legislation informing the duties,
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responsibilities while a service provider is delivering support and it also supports employee rights.
In United kingdom, Human Rights Act 1998 (Kavanagh 2015) is a crucial legislation that guarantees and informs equal treatment to
employees and patients of health and the social care sector. This act came up in the year of 2000 and sixteen essential human rights
with their freedom were empowered by this law (in accordance with European Convention on Human Rights). This act provided
rights that directly impacted the services of social and health care sector. Right to life and Right to freedom from any sort of
inhuman, degrading treatment is every patient’s right Article. Right to Liberty, Right against discrimination and Right to Respect for
family and private life, correspondence and home are the other rights existent in the current social and health care framework.
Valuing and Promoting Diversity, Difference and Inclusion evidence - through safe and non-discriminatory practices - Theme 4
( How you implement Equality Act 2010 and Equality & Diversity policy of your organization)
I respected every individual in my circle and teams. I believed in being fair-minded and non-judgmental towards my colleagues,
peers and patients and I never discriminated on the basis of color, race gender, culture and language. I treat people with equity and
safeguard their interests and encourage everyone towards a collaborative team work.
Promoting physical and mental health and Emotional wellbeing in health and social care practice evidenced through – Theme
5(How you implement physical exercises and recreational activities for your service users)
For the dementia group - music therapy, art therapy and various cognition enhancing recreational games will be implemented and
then, the behavior of the staffs towards the patients during the activity will be monitored and assessed ( for adherence to policies and
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patient centeredness)
Evaluation (What went well? What didn’t go well?) If you did the activity again what would you change and why? What have you
learned? Reflect on the activity as a whole.
On the whole, I realized that implementing the prescribed laws is imperative to achievement of a safe, effective health service
process. This also improves satisfaction of patients and service provider alike and better their quality of life. The vitality of equality,
safeguarding of rights and ensuring employee safety is critical. However, I also understood that improper, deficient written
communication as in documentation and record maintaining presents a huge lag in the smooth functioning of health service and
social framework and for this, regular audits needs to be done and interpersonal empathy building activities needs to be promoted.
Signature of placement supervisor who witnessed implementation of activity
Signature: JM Date: 15/03/2019
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LO3: P6 IMPLEMENT DIFFERENT AND RELEVANT LEGISLATION AND POLICY IN REGARD TO SAFE AND
HEALTHY CONDUCT IN OWN PRACTICE
As for an activity, I organized a group activity 19th of April, 2019 for the dementia patients that includes Mr. Ronald Anderson as well.
Everyday activities or activities of daily life becomes very erratic for people with dementia and other cognitive dysfunction. The aim
of the activity was to promote motivation in the patients so that they can achieve the preset goal. The activity assured a happy
engagement of dementia subjects and reduced their agitation, depression, anxiety and anger. The activity also promoted attention,
problem solving and even memory retrieval and kept the behavioral breakdowns in check.
Creating a memory box was the name of the activity – the memory box helped the geriatric subjects feel more connected to the
previous hobbies and the past. They were asked to memorize, draw things that have left permanent marks in their lives which can be
from any stage of their life. Other than that they filled the box with nostalgic photos and hobby items. The caregivers and care
providers did scaffold the process by helping them with the items that is important to them. The resources can include paper clips,
erasers, pencils, paper, letters and color boxes. Finally on a stipulated day, they bought their completed box and talked about it within
a dementia support group.
Certain precautions were taken like keeping the sharp and injury provoking objects out of the patient’s reach.
LO4: P7 DESCRIBE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAW, POLICY AND ETHICAL
REQUIREMENTS IN RELATION TO A REAL CASE SCENARIO IN A HEALTH OR CARE
SETTING
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As health care worker in the acute care setting, my experience with Mr. Stephen was a notable one. The other health care workers in
team is very competent and they knew how to handle the patient with proper communication and care as per the policy needs and they
regularly complied with the laws of the national framework. There was a registered nurse in the team who did not follow the proper
hand hygiene though while attending Mr. Stephen in the post-surgical ward and her nursing colleagues came up to me for assistance. I,
being the most experienced health care professional amongst them – advised them to provide the nurse with peer support regarding
evidence based practice and compliance with hand hygiene protocols ( 5 moments of hand washing as put forward by WHO) in order
to prevent the hospital acquired infections. Patient safety was the ethical concern in accordance with I connected the policies and laws
are interrelated and formulated.
LO4: P8 EXPLAIN THE IMPACT OF RELEVANT LAW AND POLICY ON THE OUTCOME OF A
REAL CASE SCENARIO
Health equity and informed service is one of the most important aspects of United Kingdom health care system and there was an
experience of mine when I observed a community living people who had substantial communication and cultural barrier with the
service providers of my team – started into a conflict. The registered nurse attending the subject was the main person who begun a
conversational conflict with the community living indigenous person – was impacted the law in United Kingdom and penalized
heavily for her actions ( as one of her colleagues reported the same to the hospital authority).
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