Impact of Recent Changes on Health and Social Care Services in UK

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the factors driving change within the UK's health and social care sector. It delves into both internal and external influences, including political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors, and assesses the challenges these factors pose to healthcare organizations. The essay also evaluates the impact of recent changes, particularly the Care Act 2014, on service delivery and financial management. Furthermore, it proposes strategies for measuring these changes, emphasizing the importance of stakeholder perspectives and the need for continuous improvement in service quality. The study highlights the critical role of adaptability and proactive planning in ensuring the sustainability and effectiveness of health and social care services in the face of evolving demands and regulations.

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE FACILITATING CHANGE IN H&SC

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Part 1...........................................................................................................................................................4
Part 2...........................................................................................................................................................8
Part 3.........................................................................................................................................................14
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................18
Reference List:..........................................................................................................................................19

Introduction
Health and social care sector in UK have been addressed with many types of
changes. To deal with these types of changes the organisations have to take
proactive steps so that the change can be facilitated systematically and
effectively. The sustainability of these changes is also a matter that needs to
be discussed as well. In this assignment the different factors that influences
change and how they affect the organisations will be discussed. The
challenges that are faced due to these factors will be discussed as well. This
assignment will also consist of strategy for measuring these changes as well.
The impact of recent changes will be evaluated in this study as well. The key
principals of changes and how these changes will be planned will be part of
this study.

Part 1
Essay on factors that drive change in health and social care services
(Task 1 AC 1.1,1.2, and MI,M2 and M3)
Introduction
Organisational change happens due to the experimentation or starting new
arrangements in an organisation. Organisational change is a factor that
affects the different aspects of operations and functions of a health and
social care organisation. A good organisation should be able to adapt to
these changes quickly and effectively and in this essay the key factors that
drives changes in a health and social care services will be discussed. This
essay also assesses the challenges faced in the health and social care due to
these key factors as well.
Explain the key factors that drive change in health and social care
services (1.1)
Changes in an organization can happen due to both internal and external
environment. People, event, organizational structure and condition part of
internal environment of a health and social care organization. A lot of the
factors like organizational activities, decision making and employee
behaviour can be influenced by the change in internal environment. For
example changes in the organizational culture and leadership style can
impact the organization very heavily. These kind of major changes happen
when a health and social care organization changes their business strategy
or goes through a merger. Merger can change their business strategy and
affect the already existing process and procedure of the organization.
External factors are something that cannot be controlled by the organization
but effects the organization very much. There are 6 main external factors
that influence the any health and social care organization like political,

economical, social, technological, legal and environmental factor. Other
factors like customer and market competition is also a very influential
external factor. Following is the analysis of these factors and how they affect
the health and social care organisation (Laird et al., 2015).
Political factors-Political influence is one of the key influencing factors of
change. Legislations of EU and Brexit are some of the factors that
influence health and social care organisation. Lack of natural resources is
also a factor that influences the organisation. Not only Brexit but various
health and social care act like 1999, 1990 and 2014 are also affecting
and influencing change in the health and social care organisations. The NHS
certified organisations need funding and they are feeling the demographic
pressure all due to these political influences.
Economic factor-The uncertain economic condition is something that
influences change in the health care organisation. Strong economy boosts
the health and social care organisations very much.
Technological factor-The technological advancement will be an effecting
factor as well. Technology will impact the health and social care
organisations with better facility to provide their service user.
Social factor-Social factors are something that influences service user’s
values and behaviours so it is also an influencing factor for the health HSC
organisation. Legal factor is also something that influences the HSC
organisation.
Legal factors-New laws of the government of the needs to be implemented
in the HSC organisation and the employment law is also something that falls
in this category. Labour market is something that is also part of the external
factors (Cameron et al., 2014). Legislations like care act 2002, Care act
2014 has impacted the health and social care organisation tremendously
and employees of the health and social care are being affected by these laws

very much. The stress of this legislation is hampering the quality of the
service given to the users and at the same time the amount of people
depending on the health and social care service in UK is a lot.
Environmental factor- The environmental factor in recent times have
became a huge issue and with the rise of users who are more into
sustainable living it is causing some serious impact on the health and social
care sectors of UK as well. The waste management of the health and
social care has become an environmental concern as well.
Assess the challenges that key factors of change brings to health
and social care services (1.2)
As a challenge of political factor, legislations of EU (European Union) have
significant influence on the NHS or any other health care organisation Brexit
for example will have huge impact on the UK’S health and social care
organisations. Staffing is going to be one of the huge impacts that NHS has
to face. Almost 55,000 of the NHS worker come from EU countries. Brexit will
impact the NHS and the workforce will be hampered as well. To rectify the
issue NHS has to take necessary steps for fulfilling the needs of the staffs
and they have to invest more in welfare measure of the staffs.
Though UK has relatively better stability in economy but uncertain
economic condition is something that can also influence change in the
health and social care organisation like NHS. As an impact of this issue the
operation and functions of the health care organisation gets affected

immensely. This is unpredictable and cannot be always supported by action
of the organisation.
A lot depends on the values and priorities of the service users, which is
a socio cultural factor. If the service users are not satisfied they might not
avail the service in the organisation, which will hamper the organisation
reputation. Update the functions and operations of the organisation as per
the demands of the service users (Davis et al., 2015).
Technology in the current times one of the chief factors of change in HSC
organisations. Technological advancement is very much necessary and
facilities like e business and assisted technology are something that affects
the all the NHS certified organisation. This will impact the organisation in a
good way but the difficulty might be faced when implementing these
technologies in health and social care organisations. Training and
development of the staffs can be helpful in for implementing technological
advancement of the organisation (Ho et al., 2014).
Legal factors are very important for HSC organisations. Laws like NHS and
Community care act 1990, Health and social care act 2000 and care
act 2014 will have immense impact on the health and social care
organisation. Employees will be really stressed and the entire NHS certified
organisations will have to facilitate this change. Organisation will be given to
welfare measurements for the staffs (Barkauskas et al., 2015).
Environmental factors are also very important and people are now being
conscious of the impact of health and social care centres have on the
environment. The waste management of the health and social care
organisations have been a controversial issue for a long time. The
organisations have to abide by the regulations of UK regarding this matter.

Conclusion
To conclude with it can be said that the external factors have huge influence
on the health and social care organisations. Political and legal factors
specially have huge impact on the health care organisations, which have
been discussed in this essay and also other important factors like
economical, environmental, technological and social factors also discussed
and assessed as well.

Part 2
Essay on recent changes in health and social care services (Task 2 AC
2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4M1, M2 M3 and D1)
Introduction: On 15Th May, 2014, Care Act 2014 was passed and became law (Penhale et al.,
2017). According to the act the local councils are given responsibility to take care of the carers
welfare. The service users were responsible for the same before the act came in effect. The act
also makes the users to practice Human Rights Act 1998 whenever they are under the care of the
health and social care service provider (Bates et al., 2015). The users also allowed using their
care fund independently. The users are also allowed to create new appeal system opposing the
council after they prove their eligibility to care fund. Now, the legal guidance will be issued
instead of no secret guidance to protest the vulnerable adults. While the Act has some positive
effect on the system, the service providers on other hand are facing some issues especially on the
financial management due to the application of the act.
Devise a strategy and criteria for measuring recent changes in health and social care (2.1)
In order to measure the impact of the recent changes in the health and social care sector, it is
essential to understand the key stakeholders involved in the whole process. The main
stakeholders are the users, the service providers and the funding trusts. Royal College of Nursing
(RCN) follows few core strategies for the better service assistance such as creating comfortable
and healthy environment for the users, better communication and care for the patients, using
latest technology and equipments for the treatment procedures, keeping patients fully aware of
the steps of the treatment process and providing all possible assistance to the patients during their
course of treatment. The same policies can be considered for minimizing the effect of the recent
changes.
The service providers face the most difficulty in taking care of the older patients. They are the
most vulnerable patients as they are unable to convey their requirements on their own and need
constant support from the carers (Blumenthal and Collins, 2014). Older people often feel that
they are burden to their families and also neglected by their family members. Hence, other than

physical support, they often need psychological and emotional support too. The carers need to
make them feel important from time to time, so they feel less insecure. The older people also
expect respect from people around them. Hence, it is imperative that while providing care, the
carers should respect their privacy and wishes. Helping the older people can be tricky as some of
them can deem the help negatively. If the help is provided without their permission they feel that
they are considered to be dependable and helpless which hurts their self-esteem.
The legal guidance aspect of the act will help the providers to help the older users in better way
as now they can request the close family members to take decision on the patient’s behalf. The
recent changes have impacted the financial aspect of the service providers the most (Heintzman
et al., 2017). The service providers are expected to provide the users inexpensive and proper care
on-time while maintaining the quality of the service.
The goal and target of the providers are to provide best quality service to its users. Providing a
healthy and efficient healthcare service to its users is main motive of the providers. However, the
recent changes in the health and social care scenario have made it difficult for them to maintain
the service standard.
Measure the impact of recent changes on health and social care services against set criteria
(2.2).
According to the Care Quality Control report the number of complaint from the users against the
service providers is increasing rapidly. The users are not happy with the way the carers are doing
their job. They are expecting more professional service from the carers and as a whole from the
providers.

Figure 1: Ratings of the Adult Health Services
(Source: Mays et al., 2018)
Previously, the users were supposed to take care of the carers and promote their interest. It was
often proved to be very difficult for them as along with the taking care of their own treatment,
taking care of someone else’s interests is a huge task. Hence, the carers often used to get
neglected in the process (Barne et al., 2017). Now that the local authority is given the
responsibility, it can be expected to be more effective process and more beneficial for the carers.
The users are now more protected and empowered under the protection of Human Rights Act
1998. They are given power to access legal help if the service provider is not following the
guidelines imposed by the authority. Also if the service provider is not delivering what they have
promised before admission of the patient, the user can file complaint against them to the
appropriate authority.
The legal guidance will allow the service provider to take necessary step for taking care of the
older patients, especially who are not mentally fit to take their treatment decision or show

resistance in following instructions given by the medical team. According to this, any relative
who is appointed by the user can take decisions on their behalf. This will make the work much
easier for the carers and medical team.
Lastly, the users now can access their care fund easily once they prove their eligibility. They do
not need to depend on the service providers for using the fund anymore. This will make the user
more independent and feel secured financially (Sommers et al., 201.).
However, the new act has put some restrictions on the service providers on using the trust funds
which has ultimately resulting in the financial crisis for them. It has also increased the number of
competitors vying to access the same trust funds.
Evaluate the overall impact of recent changes in health and social care (2.3).
After the Care Act 2014 came into affect the health and social care scenario changed drastically.
The Care Quality Control has identified various deficiencies in the quality of service given by
the health care service providers. The service providers need to improve their quality standard
drastically if they want to carry on with their good name and continue their business in the
sector. However, the falling standard is the result of the recent changes that took place due to the
activation of Care Act 2014.
Especially the financial aspect has taken a huge hit for the service providers. Many service
providers are approaching the trust funds at the same time, which is making it difficult for the
trust funds like The King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust’s Home Truths to select from the
contenders. It is even limiting the amount of fund per provider. Since, most of the providers are
dependent on these trust funds for the financial assistance; there is a fair chance of shutting down
of many such providers in future if the scenario does not change immediately in favour of the
service providers (Beronio et al., 2014).
The recent pay structure for the carers is also very low. This is creating a huge dissatisfaction
among the carers. Many of them are threatening to leave the job resulting in a crisis of skilled
workforce. The decreasing number of workers and increasing demand of the service users are
creating an imbalance in the ratio of number of workers per user.