Health and Safety in the Health and Social Care Workplace: Analysis

This report delves into the critical aspects of health and safety within the health and social care workplace. It begins by reviewing systems, policies, and procedures for communicating vital information, emphasizing the importance of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the creation of Health and Safety policy documents, including risk assessment. The report examines management responsibilities in relation to organizational structure, highlighting the roles of managers, employees, and service users in upholding safety protocols. It analyzes health and safety priorities, such as the maintenance of medical equipment and staff training. The report further explores how risk assessment informs care planning and organizational decision-making, including the five-step risk assessment process. Finally, it analyzes the impact of health and safety policies on health and social care practices and customers, addressing dilemmas in implementing policies and the consequences of non-compliance with health and safety legislation. The report underscores the importance of monitoring and reviewing health and safety policies and practices to foster a positive health and safety culture, ultimately aiming to enhance the well-being of both individuals and the organization.

Health and Safety in the
health and social care
Workplace

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Review systems, policies, and procedures for communicating information on health and
social care workplace..................................................................................................................4
1.2 Responsibilities for management of health and safety in relation to organisational
structure.......................................................................................................................................5
1.3 Analysis of health and safety priorities appropriate for a specific health and social care
workplace....................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Analyse how information from risk assessment informs care planning for individuals and
organisational decision making about policies and procedures..................................................6
2.2 Analysis of the impact of one aspect of health and safety policy on health and social care
practices and its customers. ........................................................................................................7
2.3 Dilemmas encountered in relation to implementing systems and policies for health, safety
and security.................................................................................................................................8
2.4 Effects of non compliance with health and safety legislation ..............................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Ways to monitor and review the health and safety policies and practices............................9
3.2 Effectiveness of health and safety policies and practices in promoting a positive health and
safety culture.............................................................................................................................10
3.3 Evaluation of the own contribution to placing the health and safety needs of individual.. 10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Health and safety is an important factor in today's world. Now the main aim of any
company is not just to earn more and more profit. In recent times more focus is given to the
health and safety at the workplace (Bircherand Kuruvilla, 2014). The below given assignment is
in this relation only and in it main policies and rules in this regard will be reviewed. Also the
responsibilities that various persons hold in this respect in the organisation will be discussed.
And will find out whether the health care facilities in the organisation are adequate or not.
TASK 1
1.1 Review systems, policies, and procedures for communicating information on health and
social care workplace
In relation to communication of information on health and safety in health and social care
workplace there are various policies and procedures that have been established (Boiano,
Steegeand Sweeney, 2014). And the most important Act which is there in this aspect is The Data
Protection Act 1998. this act has been established in order to provide the service users with
protection in regards to their privacy in relation to various aspects such as their political and
religious beliefs, their health and other personal information relating to them. There are
government authorities who are responsible for the maintenance of health and safety in the
workplace and for this they specify various policies and procedures. According to the regulations
of National Health Services and the health and safety executive it is an obligation for every
health and social organisation that is incorporated to create a Health and Safety policy document.
This policy will contain all the necessary information which will be of great help in case
any emergency and will specify the actions that are to be undertaken in case any accident occurs.
It must be specified that what actions should be taken in case an emergency arises. There must be
proper signs and symbols that should be marked which can help the workforce in case of any
accident such as fire alarms can be applied which can inform the workers in case fire occurs and
there should be proper fire exits which can be used at the time of fire (Popescu, 2014). A part
from it signs should be provided for other emergencies also. In addition to the policy every
organisation should also have a risk assessment document which will identify all the risk
associated with the working environment and the potential harm that can be caused due to such
risk (Edelman, Mandleand Kudzma,2013). And then on the basis of the harms that have been

assessed certain actions should be taken in order to decrease the effect that can be caused due to
it. The injuries that occur in an organisation are required to be reported and this rule was
provided by the Reporting of injuries, diseases and Dangerous occurrences regulation. According
to it there should be a systematic procedure that should be followed for the reporting of the
accidents that occur and also proper reporting of these incidents to the relevant management
personnel should be ensured.
1.2 Responsibilities for management of health and safety in relation to organisational structure.
Four seasons health care limited which is an organisation providing health care services.
There are various responsibilities which are to be performed by different persons (Glasby, 2017).
Major responsibility in this aspect is of management who will be responsible for the formation of
policies and procedures in any organisation as they are the one who have the highest authority.
Not only formation is enough but management should also look after the proper implementation
of the policies formed and should ensure that legislative requirements in relation to safety of
stakeholders are appropriately fulfilled (Littlejohn, 2012). All of this will include that rules that
are formed should be properly implemented, the practices that are being followed are monitored
properly and that the procedure in relation to health and safety are being followed or not by the
service users and employees.
The main causes due to which the injuries are incurring in FSHCL should be identified
and also after identification it should be responsibility of the management that in order to avoid
these causes proper procedure should be formulated. It should be the personal responsibility of
managers, employees, service users and supervisors that the procedures that have been
implemented are to be properly followed by all of them. To maintain the safety in the
organisation it should be the responsibility of every individual to follow the rules and provide
their support in this respect. By following the rules and guidelines provided they will be able to
ensure that they are safe and chances of injury are reduced while performing various functions or
operating such machines that require carefulness. For this reason FSHCL should have a proper
organisation structure which is presented below :

1.3 Analysis of health and safety priorities appropriate for a specific health and social care
workplace
In FSHCL it is very important to maintain the safety of the service users and the
employees that will give them specialised treatment with reference to adult care services as Four
seasons health care limited which is an organisation established in Scotland and facing the
problem of severe burns as it failed to ensure that the temperature of the hot water bath should
not be more than 44 degrees Celsius and due to this a resident was provided bath with 56 degrees
temperature. Due to this he suffered severe burns (Jeffreys, 2015). Due to this factor they can be
considered as the priority of the health care organisation. Before providing an individual with
any service it is important to firstly know about his problem and to understand his behaviour.
And to know about the reasons of it as after having the proper knowledge only his treatment can
be started. So in this respect it can be said that maintenance of medical equipment that will be
required in order to provide the medical treatment to such individual will be the highest priority
of an organisation. There are certain machine which run on the different technologies so it is
very important to provide the person who is going to use it with the required knowledge about
that machine and also the safety measures in respect of such machines should be properly
ensured so that they can provide high quality services (Laranjeira,2012).
Their are some employees in health care organisation who provide services care facilities
to the users so it should also be the main priority of a organisation to provide the service user
with health and safety by providing the employees with the proper and adequate training. And all
this is required to be done so that the rate of injuries in the organisation can be reduced and for
this it is necessary to ensure that they are having proper training or some formal education in this
field. There are various trainings which are required to be provide some of them are knowledge
about how to use hazardous substances and complex machines, first aid training and many more.
TASK 2
2.1 Analyse how information from risk assessment informs care planning for individuals and
organisational decision making about policies and procedures.
With the information that is obtained from the risk assessment it will be possible for the
Four Seasons Health Care Limited to inform people about how the care should be done of any
patient (Littlejohn, 2012). With the help of risk assessment it will be possible to know about the

potential risk that can occur and with that decision can be taken in respect of formulation of best
policies and procedures to overcome these risks. For the formation of correct and efficient
policies it is important that risk assessment should be conducted in a proper way. With the help
of it Four Seasons Health Care Limited will be able to identify its current problems and risks
which it is facing and with the help of it corrective actions could be undertaken in order to
overcome those risks and problems. Comparison will be made possible with the hep of risk
assessment ans the actual outcomes will be compared with the set standards and on the basis of
that changes in the system can be incorporated.
With this guidelines could be issued and they can be used to ensure that proper machines
are obtained and are also installed properly so as to reduce the chances of accidents and if there
some deviations which are found in the current policies in comparison to the guidelines issued
than the required changes will be made to remove those deviations. By performing all these
procedure benefit will be provided not only to one person but to all the people who are in some
or the other way connected to Four Seasons Health Care Limited. But the risk assessment
procedure will be successful only when every aspect in relation to it is performed in an honest
and effective manner and then only the planned results can be achieved by it. So in order to
achieve positive targets it is important for Four Seasons Health Care Limited to perform risk
assessment which will help it in formation of an effective plan. For this purpose the risk
assessment of FSHCL is provided. The risk assessment procedure will involve five steps that are
required to undertaken which are mentioned below :
1. Firstly it will be required that what wrong is going on in the FSHCL should be identified.
2. Then it will be determined who is the person that will be affected by the risk and in what
manner.
3. It will be evaluated that how serious is the problem and what is the frequency with which
it occurs. It will be decided that whether any precaution is possible that can be taken to
avoid it.
4. All the data that will be collected will be recorded and than plan will be made according
to it in which it will be decided that who will be performing what all actions and at what
time.
5. Lastly the assessment that is made by FSHCL will be required to be reviewed and if it
needs to be updated than that will be done.

For better understanding of risk assessment a diagram is provided below :
2.2 Analysis of the impact of one aspect of health and safety policy on health and social care
practices and its customers.
There are various aspect due to which relationship can be established between health and
social care and its customers or clients (Lundgren and McMakin, 2013). Some of the major
aspects in this respect which will not only ensure the safety of patients but also of the staff who
is providing them with such healthcare services. Some of such aspects are layout, cleanliness
hygiene and operational theatre architecture together with knowledge regarding handling of
machines. The aspect which will be described in this essay is cleanliness hygiene. In order to
avoid the spreading of bacteria and the viruses which will lead to harmful effect on the society as
well as organisation it is necessary to ensure that proper cleanliness is maintained in the
organisation. Cleanlinesses is a very important aspect as the health of people will be greatly
affected even by mere negligence in this respect. It is important for an organisation to make
policies in respect of cleanliness. For the creation of a healthy environment it is very important
that cleanliness and hygiene should be taken care of.

In case of the operation theatre the chances of infection are very high so there
maintenance of cleanliness is even all the more important. There are various researches that have
been performed in this respect and the outcome that came from them says that doctors and the
patients both are largely affected from the harmful effects of not maintaining the clean
environment in the operation theatre. Not only doctors and patients but other staff members
which include the nurses and the assistants with them have to bear the negative impacts of it
(Mark and Smith, 2012). So in relation to operation theatre it is very important the clean
environment should be maintained which will include that in order to kill the bacteria present
proper washing of the clothes being used there and also washing of hands must be ensured. The
waste material should be accumulated and should be immediately disposed off so that no other
germs or bacteria can take place in the organisation. So in respect of all this proper policies
should be formulate and also implemented in an effective and efficient manner.
2.3 Dilemmas encountered in relation to implementing systems and policies for health, safety
and security
The implementation of policies and procedures in relation to health and safety of Four
Seasons Health Care Limited faces various problems (Popescu, 2014). The most important
problem that is faced by the organisation is the lack of communication facilities due to which the
various plans and policies that are made in this respect are not communicated to all people in the
organisation. The major problem arises when the person inside the organisation themselves are
not following the safety measures and behaves in a very careless manner. The other dilemma that
can be noticed in respect to implementation of the policies and procedures of health and safety is
that there is lack of knowledge in regards to working on the machines which is due to the lack of
training facilities. Problem of sensitivity can also be faced as result of spreading of bacteria,
germs and viruses. For the purpose of overcoming these problems the legal aspect in the
organisation should be given the required importance. It should be analysed that both internal
legal aspects and the external legal aspect are in coordination to each other as with the help of it
a highly secured environment can be created.
It should be ensured that all the various departments and other related people should
follow the proper policies and behave in a good manner so that any kind of carelessness that is
prevailing in the organisation can be avoided. So to avoid the dilemmas it is necessary that the
legal aspects should be taken care to a large extent. Training is another important dilemma which

every organisation faces and that is possible to be removed by providing training facility in
different levels of management and in different fields. This objective of providing training can be
achieved by following proper procedures in this respect which will include that proper sessions
of training should be maintained so that it will cover all the areas and thereby providing
knowledge to all the people. And due to this employees will be able to handle the machinery in
an effective manner and by all this the major dilemmas in the environment will be removed.
2.4 Effects of non compliance with health and safety legislation
Due to the non compliance of health and safety legislations in a health and social care
workplace there will be lots of problems that will be required to be faced. Due to this many
negative impacts will be there which will include that the roles of the care workers and also their
responsibilities will be possible to be explained in a effective way (Qureshi, Rasliand Zaman,
2014). Government makes the laws that are required to be complied with in order to maximise
the health and safety in the organisation and by not complying with them will have various
effects that will include financial effects, health effects, and the legal effects which will have to
be faced by an organisation. The risk of all the employees, patients and the service users to get
injured are increased to a large extent due to the non compliance of the laws and regulations that
are made in this respect.
There are always the chances that the users will have to face the problem of getting
injured and with the non compliance of the laws that risk will be increased to a large extent and
there safety level which could have been achieved with the compliance of the laws will also be
reduced (Mark and Smith, 2012). Due to the reduction of safety level the chances of the
employees and the service users getting injured will increase and due to all this company will
have to face a great financial effect as there will be high chances that the employees or service
users who will be injured will demand the compensation from the company. As in case of
FSHCL it is found that it is facing the problem of scalding and burning. This is due to the reason
that it is known to the workers that the temperature of the water should be maintained at 44
degrees which was not maintained and due to this the resident has to suffer with the problem of
scalding and burning. It was not checked before that the temperature was too high for a hot bath
and which resulted in severe burns in feet and ankle. The another effect that an organisation will
have to face due to the non compliance of the laws is the legal effect that means as all these rules
and regulations are formed by the health and safety union or can say by the government who

always look that whether those regulations are being followed or not. And if the health care
organisation finds that they are not followed that it will have the right to sue the company or can
take severe legal actions against the company. FSHCL was also required to pay the penalty for
not taking proper care in provision of the service to the resident and voilating the laws of health
and safety works Act 1974. The amount of penalty that was paid by FSHCL was £30,000.
TASK 3
3.1 Ways to monitor and review the health and safety policies and practices.
Both the national as well as the local body are responsible for the monitoring of health
and safety policies and practices. All the health and safety related problems or issues are
monitored by the health and safety executives (Salvendy, 2012). The best way by which all these
services can be monitored is to conduct an audit of risk as well as audit of risk assessment of the
health and safety organisation. A professional in the field of health and safety promotion will be
required to be hired who will be held responsible for the conduction of audit of risk by the way
of analysis an organisation's existing environment. By doing so he will be able to find out about
the various risks that are there in an organisation and than will find the ways by which all these
finding can be incorporated in the risk assessment procedure of any organisation. The policies
and procedures can also be reviewed by any organisation by using the experience of the
customers that means that the reviews of the employees and the customers should be collected
which they will be providing on the basis of the experience they have in respect of the existing
health and safety system.
As the employees and the service users are the integral pert of any organisation and they
are always present inside the company so they will have all the knowledge regarding what all
had happened in the organisation. They will be knowing that how many accidents and injuries
have occurred and what are the current policies and procedures due to which they were able to
remain saved from the accidents and if any accident would have occurred than what all steps
they have taken to overcome the impact of such accident. Other ways that can be used in
reviewing the policies will include updating of the policies and procedures, forming own
procedures, by care planning and others (Sergeant and Laws-Chapman, 2012). By following all
this the policies and procedures will be reviewed and monitored.

3.2 Effectiveness of health and safety policies and practices in promoting a positive health and
safety culture.
Health and safety culture is the culture in which such values, patterns and attitude are
followed in the organisation that will provide the safe and healthy environment. This can be
undertaken on individual basis or on group basis. There are various ways in which health and
safety practices and policies will help in increasing the health and safety of the employees and
users in a health care organisation and will also prove to be very effective (World Health
Organization, 2013). By the formation of risk assessment document an organisation will be able
to identify the risks that are present in the health acre organisation that will have some or the
other impact on the users that will be harmful for them. The risk that are involved in performance
of any operation will be possible to be identified by the users and the employees with the help of
using the risk assessment document and they will come to know about the risk associated with
the operation that they are going to perform. Without doing anything in addition they will be able
to find the risk involved in the performance of that task. The employees will be benefited to a
great extent with the training programme that will be provided to them as due to it they will be
able to do their operations in an effective way so that they are able to match with the relevant
standards that have been set in the industry which are set with the objective of providing highest
security and in safety in relation to health care to all the service receivers and operators. The
policies that will be made for health and safety purpose will prove to be effective for the purpose
of formation of safe culture as due to these policies the work will be carried out in a appropriate
manner and risk will be reduced so they will prove to be effective for FSHCL.
3.3 Evaluation of the own contribution to placing the health and safety needs of individual.
There are various needs of every individual which can be physical, social, or intellectual.
At times it happens that the desires of one person affect the others wishes (Zanko and Dawson,
2012). While evaluating the own experience it can be said that a lot have been provided to the
organisation in increasing the health and safety of those who are receiving care in the
organisation. Every service user have different abilities and it is not possible for all that they can
perform their work in secured way. Other problems that are faced by the service users are in
terms of using the electrical instruments which all are not able to handle and for their handling
proper training is required to be made available to them. Every individual will try to give his own

contribution by improving their personal skills and knowledge regarding handling of the
equipments and any other service required.
By performing all these processes and activities the efficiency of the health and safety
organisation will be increased and it will be possible for the organisation to retain their
employees for the longer duration of time (Zeller and Levin, 2013). In context of this it can be
sad that if all the policies and procedures will be performed than it will be possible to ensure that
the employees and others are satisfies and happy with the way the organisation is working
together with the services that are being provided to them by the organisation. It will be ensured
that services that are being provided are provided in right manner so safety issue arises on our
part and safe and healthy environment will be maintained. It should always be ensured in order
to increase the productivity that there is an effective communication system in the organisation
and all the relevant changes that are taking place in the organisation in relation to the policies
and practices should be informed to all the employees on a timely basis . This will help them in
having all the knowledge regarding organisation and they will feel motivated and due to this they
will give their full concentration on their work and thereby increasing the productivity of the
organisation in addition to their own growth.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned information it can be concluded that it is very important for an
health and social care organisation to maintain the health and safety of the employees and the
users and the clients. by doing so the safety and security of the workplace can be ensured. If all
the policies and procedures that are made are being properly followed by the employees than the
decision making process could be improved to great level. Various dilemmas which are present
and affect the legislation are also discussed in the above essay together with this the various
ways by which they can be dealt with are also mentioned. A proper risk assessment was
conducted which will help in assessing the risk and than measures are taken on the basis of it
which will be helpful for FSHCL in building and maintaining healthy and safe social workplace.
It is further concluded that there are various acts that are mentioned in relation to health care by
the government which are required to be followed by the company and due to there non
compliance fine is required to be paid. So it is clear that all these are to be undertaken to ensure a
safe workplace.

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