A Comprehensive Report on Health and Safety in Social Care

This report examines the critical aspects of health and safety within the health and social care sector, focusing on the responsibilities of the NHS Trust, risk assessments, and care planning. It addresses specific challenges such as those related to elderly and bariatric patients, emphasizing the importance of risk assessment in care planning and organizational decision-making. The report explores the impact of health and safety policies on practices like lifting and handling, potential dilemmas faced by care workers, and the consequences of non-compliance with health and safety legislation. It highlights the significance of proper training, effective communication, and adherence to regulations to ensure a safe and healthy environment for both service users and employees, offering recommendations for improvement and emphasizing the need for continuous evaluation and adaptation of health and safety protocols.

Health and safety
in health and social care

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Covered in poster .................................................................................................................1
1.2 Responsibilities for managing health and safety in NHS Trust............................................1
1.3 Health and safety proprieties for the elder people................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Risk assessments define care planning for individuals and organisational decision making
regarding policies and procedures...............................................................................................3
2.2 Impact on health and safety policy on lifting and handling in health and social care
practice........................................................................................................................................4
2.3 Dilemmas care workers will encounter in carrying out health and safety policies and
procedures...................................................................................................................................5
2.4 Effect of non-compliance with health and safety legislation a health and social care
workplace....................................................................................................................................5
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………..10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Health and safety is an important as well as essential element of workplace. It is the responsibility of every employer to provide a healthy and safe environment to workers. Risk free
workplace improves productivity and satisfaction level of workers. It is very important to build and maintain safe conditions of work in health and social care in order to deliver quality services to
service users. Winchester and Eastleigh NHS (National Health Service) is an organisation that provides health services. It is very essential for the organisation to maintain safe conditions at
workplace to deliver quality services to patients (Chartier, ed., 2014). Currently, health and social care service is a basic need of society and therefore more organisations are working in this sector.
he present report is based on reviewing system, policies and procedures applied to guarantee that information on health and safety in organisation to communicate with employees and patients.
This report is also discussing about the responsibilities for managing health and safety in a health and social care organisation and national health service (NHS).
TASK 1
1.1 Covered in poster
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2

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From the above case scenario, it is seen that the issue of slips and trips in the wards were the problems that arises more frequently. The problem was occurring due to the wet floors and the faults of the cleaning
department. They kept the floors wet and there was no sign or symbol indicating about the wet floor. It is related to the health and safety system as if there were sign or any symbol indicating for the wet floor then there
would be no such issue. There should be a different way of cleaning procedure regarding the health and safety and a proper communication about it should be there.
The wet floor sign was not in place to create an awareness to the potential risks of fall, slips and trips.
Verbal Communication in the trust was not effective as the employees were not given sufficient trainings to know when to communicate hazards. For example, the cleaners knew the floor was wet but failed to pass on
the communication to the nurses who later fell and fracture. This is breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974; the Workplace Health and Safety Facilities Regulations 1992 and The Management of Health
and Safety at Work Act 1999.
The trusts failed to implement the rules and regulation of RIDDOR in the sense that they failed to act as soon as the incidents were documented. Add evidence of the totals falls recorded before the safety adviser went
the training.
You have to make useful and evidence-based recommendations as a few directors.
After critical analytical thinking, you will have to make some good recommendations:
Examples- Good housekeeping / regulations
Timely reporting and intervention/ regulation- example of written health and safety communication
Trainings and Development of employee/ regulations- is an example of verbal health and safety communication
. Displaying of signs in the correct position and places / Signs
Recommendation
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It is recommended that to fight the issue of frequent falling and taking steps against these risks, a good housekeeping should be introduced in the hospital and that should abide the rules and regulations. Proper training
must be given to cope with the issues of falling, training includes all the verbal communication to be given to the house keeping staff. It should also indicate or suggest the use of the correct signs and at the correct
place. Housekeeping staff must know the rules and regulation of the health and safety communication and work for the safety of the others.
1.2 Responsibilities for managing health and safety in NHS Trust
(Bembridge, 2017) cited from DGHE.CO.UK
In Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust the main duty of the employers is to protect employees from hazard which can harm employees at workplace. According to the law employers must
outline all information regarding to the workplace and also look up the health and safety issues. As per the Health and Safety at Work 1974 act before performing a task an employee need to think at
least two times because his/her work will make a direct impact on service users. Health and safety in Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust is also accountable how all the information should be
recorded regarding their employees and service users (Dėjus and Antuchevičienė, 2013). Dean Bailey, the Trust safety advisor for Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust set effective responsibility to
manage their services regarding the safety in health and social care in order to reduce trip and falls. In every organisation management is important to maintain the health and safety process and
procedures in appropriate way. Health and safety in the Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust is essential to improve their service which is provided to their clients and service users. The use of
appropriate techniques is more important in NHS Trust to remove problems in health and safety at workplace and use correct system to keep the environment safe which can harm the employees
and services users. Manager must control the risk in their setting to make systematic process to develop services in effective manner and reduce trips and falls on floors left wet after cleaning. They
can encourage behaviour of employees while using procedures so that they control all potential risks. Make best plan to implement in the process to maintain safe and healthy working place to their
employees and resolve health and safety issues. Provide best training to workers so that they can easily take precaution if they get harmed by any equipment. Protect workplace by conducting time
to time inspection which helps in maintaining healthy environment for their employees and service users and provide the best health services so they do not get harmed.
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Duties of employees under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1948 are as follows:
 At work the employees must take care of his health and safety and should see that due to his acts or omissions other people should not get hurt.
 At work should cooperate with other persons and with the employers so that it makes them to perform their duties and the necessary requirements.
1.3 Health and safety proprieties for the elderly people
Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust maintains different health and safety priorities which is important for giving the best service to their service users and their families. People of different
age group have various priorities because their psychological and physical changes are on continuous bases. Priorities for elderly people in the elderly setting of the Winchester and Eastleigh NHS
Trusts are as follows:
Service provider and employees must understand elderly service user’s behaviour. The must be trained to gain knowledge and experience for working with elderly service users and with various
disabilities.
Another priority is for the service providers and employees to provide effective and efficient quality of services to older people.
More so, as part of the Health and Safety priorities, the senior managers and directors must ensure the quality of the services supplied are controlled and meeting the quality standard framework for
such services e.g. CQC, HSE standards.
Environmental Safety is very important when dealing with elderly people who suffered from health problems such as Dementia, Parkinson etc. Therefore, employees must give more attention
ensuring the environment, processes and medical tools used to deliver services to elderly and other vulnerable people are safe and free from harm and potential injuries.
Fire Precautions is also an important priority for the elderly service users. All employees and carers working with the elderly must receive Fire training and know how to fight fire and keep the service
user’s safe. The service users with poor mobility and visual impairments should be housed on the ground floor for easy evacuation in the event of fire.
Employers and employees must maintain a good relationship with the elderly patients and provide the best quality service. Prescribed medicine should be provided to the right service users on time
and with the right dosage. Staff members should also interact with elderly people and provide high quality medical service (Gao, 2015).
TASK 2
2.1 Risk assessments define care planning for individuals and organisational decision making regarding policies and procedures
According to the give scenario, in the UK there is an increase in the obese population which are significantly over represented in their use of health and social care services. From the
findings, it has been identified that there are many trusts that do not have a bariatric policy. The Bariatric policy is required to lead the process of referral, care planning, assessment of manual
handling risk and identifying the best possible means of supporting the affected patients. For handling of high risk patients such as the Bariatrics, it is imperative to carry out a proper risk
assessment by skilled professional e.g. Nurse Manager who in turns will set goals for the patient, identify needs and provide a plan tailored to meeting the needs of the bariatric patients.
Risk assessment is an important element in any health and social care organisation during the health and safety planning process. According the Management of Health and Safety
Regulations, 1999, all employers are mandated to perform risk assessment and write it down especially when they have 5 or more employees. In the health care sector, the risk assessment is an
essential part which is conducted to meet the requirement of the government legislation as well as policy written down within the organisation to help resolved the issues that is faced by
implementing the health and safety policies in the Health and social care institution.
There are some policies for bariatric patients which need to be implemented in any health and social care settings admitting such clients. This policy set out the do’s and don’ts to safeguard the
health and wellbeing of its employees. So, it minimises the chance of incident occurring for employees as well patients. With all action points and support strategies identified from the risk
assessment documented clearly in the care plan, bariatric patient can be cared for successfully.
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New techniques can be used in renovation of planning and performing health and safety measures (Haas and Yorio, 2016). All health and social care organisations are responsible to provide safe
and reliable treatment to patients be it Bariatric or not, and reduce the risk of accident, injury and death.
In health and safety providing the best service requires that a care plan must be written down. This document (Care Plan), stores information about the service user, their background, medical
history, values, likes and dislikes, next of kin and support needs. The health and safety Act 1974 states that an organisation must keep essential documents e.g Risk Assessment and Care Plan in
the premises where they are providing services. Risk assessment documents are all about collecting and analysis the risk and implement safety measures within the organisation. It can also provide
the information which is related to the comparing levels between actual standards and appropriate standards of the care given to the patients.
As per the given scenario, spatial risk factors are identified and seemed to have poor management record for both employees and patients with over half of the trust policies not considering enough
space to handle bariatric patients in the policy. Here health care organisations need to consider those policies which help to reduce spatial risk.
Risk assessment can be incorporated into the care planning process to improve the quality of life for the service users/patients. Health and Social care organisation providers must monitor to ensure
employees are adaptable to the stipulated requirements as stated in the care plan for individual service users.
2.2 Impact on health and safety policy on lifting and handling in health and social care practice
According to the given scenario, in the UK there are much health care organisations which follow less policy for lifting and handling in health care practices. Policies and procedures of health
safety sector affect its activities in various ways to deliver health care. Obese population is growing and manual handling of bariatric patients became a specific challenge.
It helps designing the process of delivering services to patients and helps to solve issues which can arise during the process. Effective Manual Handling Policies can help to deliver good
services by the organisation to the service users. In health and safety there are some policies which help to improve quality of service (Kondo and et.al. 2015). If in the health care organisation
lacks of policies, space, adequate equipment, competent employees and vehicles for safe care, treatment and transportation of the service users, loads and goods, it will make difficult to handle
patients etc.
Health and social care settings need to provide effective Moving and handling training to their staff in order to provide good service to their service users, reduce workplace injuries and improve
the health and wellbeing of the employees. It can help the health care organisation to satisfy patients and families expectations and maintain positive relationship.
Good Manual Handling skills will promote healthy working environment in organisation which helps to increase the quality level of service delivered. If any accident occurs in a health care
setting it must be reported to the appropriate government authorities or responsible body so they can take further actions accordingly.
The impact of manual handling policies especially on the employees and service users is as they will have to follow the safe system of work and that will consume more time and will have to face
the problem of identifying the risk arising due to the manual handling procedure. Risk assessment from the use of equipment to be taken care of and only as prescribed in manual handling
procedure. Due to others fault will have to attend same training again and again which gives a negative impact on employees. They are responsible for their health and safety while using the
equipment’s and are responsible for the health of others. Will have to take consider all the risk assessment themselves and report a new risk assessment when necessary.
2.3 Dilemmas care workers will encounter in carrying out health and safety policies and procedures
As per the give scenario, it can be very challenging to handle obese patients. Due to lack of available equipment and resources it becomes difficult to avoid or reduce risks within the health
care organisation. In a health care organisation during the implementation of new procedures and strategies there is an occurrence of dilemmas while achieving its objective in each time frame. In
health and safety there are several difficulties which are related to the policies and procedures of the organisation. Dilemmas can be associated or connected with all the procedures regarding the
organisation at hierarchical levels (Koskela, 2014).
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While implementing health and safety systems for example bed monitors the situation of dilemma arises as the patient might feel his privacy is being invaded and may refuse to accept the use of the
monitor. To overcome the dilemma in this situation the employee needs to explain the importance and the benefits of the monitor and try to convince the patient that’s for his/her safety. Another
dilemma that may arise in the health and social care setting is the use of hoist for bariatrics patients, they might feel afraid of the hoist, as they are extremely overweight, there might be a concern if
the hoist would be strong enough to support their body weight and do not cause the patient to fall. In this situation, the employee needs to explain the safety of the equipment, the regular checks
that are performed every six months. And if the patient still refusing to be hoisted the family should be informed as sometimes the patients listen well to their families. The situation of dilemma brings
more difficulties for the staff. It is also difficult to choose the use of hoist for the patient as when will it be required and whether to use it safely because all the risk lies on the staff and to use it safely.
The situation takes place if it can be dangerous for the person himself and for others as well. The health and safety issues are quite dangerous as to look for the safety of the employee and the
service users
Health care organisations should give appropriate training to their employees to handle bariatrics patient. And provide the best service to all service users specially those most vulnerable people so
that they will not face any problems concerning the service provided. They need to ensure that patients can feel more comfortable and secure regarding within the organisation. Employees of health
and social care settings can expect to get the best health and safety policies at workplace to maintain a positive environment in the organisation that can help to do work effectively by the staff
members.
2.4 Effect of non-compliance with health and safety legislation a health and social care workplace
According to the given scenario, due to lack of implementation of policies at workplace it becomes difficult for the organisation to maintain the safety of patients and employees. When the
organisation fails to follow the policies and procedures in regards health and safety set by some other authorities that will affect the organisation in several ways, for example If the organisation fails
to follow or work according to the policies than it will lead to legal impacts and/or financial impact on the organisation and the service provided. It is necessary for an organisation to work according
to set policies to establish safe and secure environment and create maximum trust every year. Following policies and working accordingly helps the care setting to work successfully in an effective
way.
Impact on service user, it gives a negative impact on the service users as they would not trust the organisation again and would not be loyal to them as the health and safety system is not effective
and not undertaken in the organisation.
Impact on employees, the employees would not be able to keep up with the working of the organisation as all the safety issues will be on them and they will have to look into that.
Impact on employers, they will lose their customers and will try to change the working and implement the health and safety system in the organisation.
For the health care organisation, it is not always easy to manage all the risks and the provision of appropriate equipment and successful management. In absence of following these
legislations it may occur many accidents at workplace and the organisation must face dissatisfaction of the service user and legal actions may be taken (Kunykand et.al., 2016).
Because health and safety is a service based industry it is very important for the organisation to deliver quality and ethical services to patients according to the established policies. This will
reduce the number of accidents at workplace and the organisation will able to achieve efficiency in the service provided. If the organisation fails to accomplish to the health and safety polices at the
health and social care setting it becomes difficult to provide treatment and care to bariatric patients safely and securely.
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TASK 3
It assists in achieving the set policies according to the organisational requirement.
Along with this updating the policies and procedures regularly will assist in removing all the hazard from the workplace.
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It concerns to make sure better monitoring for health and safety aspects with a workplace it is important to review it properly. There is another method of reviewing that through review from the
experience about the current health and safety policy system.
Monitoring systems for the organisation can be taken into account from reviewing the incidents or from the surveys made from the health and safety system. The surveys are easier to conduct and
the mistakes or the changes to be implemented from them are easily approachable. It suggests the changes to be made in the health and safety system.
The individual will feel safe and secure if all the regulations related to health and safety is implemented within an organisation. Further, risk assessment can be conducted by the management in
order to support positive working environment at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.
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