Analysis of Social Policy in Health and Social Care - AB721HSC7

This report provides an overview of social policy within the health and social care sectors. It discusses the historical context of social policy in the UK, highlighting key milestones such as the establishment of the National Health Service and the influence of figures like Sir William Beveridge. The report outlines the steps involved in developing social policies, including problem identification, policy formulation, adoption, implementation, and evaluation, while also considering the various factors that influence policy development, such as political parties, government agencies, and the media. Furthermore, it explores different approaches to policy implementation, such as bottom-up, top-down, and principal-agent theory, and examines methods for measuring the impact of social policies, including cost-effectiveness analysis, statistics, research, and feedback mechanisms. The report concludes by discussing the direct impact of social policies on vulnerable populations, such as children, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities, emphasizing the importance of providing adequate care and support to improve their overall health and well-being. This document is available on Desklib, a platform providing study tools and resources for students.

Part 1: Submission Front Sheet to be included with Final Submission and any Resubmission
Submission Front Sheet
Assignment Code: AB721HSC7
Programme: BTEC Higher National Diploma specification in
Health and Social Care
Unit Title and Number: Social Policy Unit 7
QFC Level and Credit value: 4: 15 credits M/601/1590
Module Tutor: Jahanzaib Irfan
Email: [e-mail]
Date Set: 1st May 2018
Name:……………………………BIOLA……………………………………………………………….
Registration Number:…………..……………………………………………………………………………….
Date:………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
LO1........................................................................................................................................................4
1.1......................................................................................................................................................4
1.2......................................................................................................................................................5
LO2........................................................................................................................................................6
2.1......................................................................................................................................................6
2.2......................................................................................................................................................7
LO3........................................................................................................................................................8
3.1......................................................................................................................................................8
3.2......................................................................................................................................................9
3.3....................................................................................................................................................10
LO4......................................................................................................................................................11
4.1....................................................................................................................................................11
4.2....................................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................................14
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
INTRODUCTION
Social policies are connected with the welfare of society and its relationship to society and politics.
The main focus of social policy is on the welfare of the individual. If refers to principles, legislation
and guidelines that affect the condition of individual living in the community. The policy has been
developed to improve the welfare of human and to fulfil the need of the individual like housing,
health and education. This policy plays a role in the development of the overall health and social
care sectors. People with disability and disease must be provided with special care and attention.
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
LO1
1.1
In 1945s the historical landmark significantly focuses on the social well-being of the individual living
in the society (Allen et al., 2014). UK government has launched various wellbeing programs with the
help of social security and welfare provision that has the main aim of providing a minimum income
of top of people who have poor socioeconomic status and are disabled (Allen et al., 2014). With the
time, the poverty rate has been increasing and it is the responsibility of the government to minimize
the poverty level and support the individual suffering from this issue. Due to poor economic
condition, most of the people in the UK are not afford medical treatment and this lead to affect the
health and wellbeing status. In the previous era, the UK has no welfare policy and they did not
accept any responsibility to take care of the people (Curtis, 2013).
Sir William Beveridge has directed a committee on the wellbeing system and it was published in
1942 (Curtis, 2013). Social and organizational policy are different from each other, as social policy is
for the wellbeing of the individual living in the community whereas organization policy has been
developed in order to accomplish the goals and objective of health and social care sector. In 1948,
the National Health Services has been set in order to provide a complete range of free medical
treatment, care and services including vaccination, medicines and visitor to doctors (Curtis, 2013).
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
1.2
Many western countries have developed an intellectual attitude and named by the end of ideology.
Many social problems such as poverty and unemployment have been solved but there was a broad
conflict between labour practice and conservative practice in the budget and community (Bivins,
2017). From 1970, employment party has experienced various loss of ideological nerve and several
activities were undertaken for the wellbeing of the employees. New employees were concerned
about equality and the UK government is trying to solve its effort in order to help the individual with
a poor socioeconomic condition.
The government has provided equal opportunities and there will not any discrimination on the basis
of caste, age, colour, gender and disability (Bivins, 2017). Gaitskellism is one of the famous
ideologies of the British employee party. He worked for the wellbeing of the employees so that the
poverty level can be minimizing in the community (Bivins, 2017).
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
LO2
2.1
Various steps are to be followed in order to develop social policy and different parties are taking
initiative in development such as political parties, government agencies, committee, European
Union, etc (Braat and De Groot, 2012). the various steps are
Problem identification and agenda setting
The main focus is on the identification of agenda and problems. It has been analyses that public
problems are conveying to political agenda if they are being transferred into a political issue (Speed
and Gabe, 2013).
Policy formulation
The policies and strategies are developed and they put into practice. It is very helpful to understand
how political policies are formulated.
Adoption
The various policies such as local government or state have been developed are put into practice
(Speed and Gabe, 2013). The new policies and strategies are adopted by the means of assessment of
the cabinet.
Policy implementation
In this stage, the policy which is being put in practice is examined to check the effectiveness of policy
after incorporating it (Langley, Hooley and Bertuchi, 2014). The various parties involved are
committees, union and European, etc.
Policy evaluation
Policy evaluation is the last step in policy development. It includes analyzing, monitoring and
evaluation the proposed policies. The efficiency and effectiveness of policy can be judged in this step
and various parties involved in this can inquire (Langley, Hooley and Bertuchi, 2014). However, they
are responsible for evaluating all the policies and to check whether any change is needed or not.
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
2.2
There are various factors to be considered at the time of development of social policy (Garthwaite,
2014). Various parties can influence the development of social policy like pressure and movement
that directly interfere at the time of policy development as it safeguards that it is in favour of the
individual or not. The media can as a watchdog as it safeguard that the social policy is helping people
with disability or not (Garthwaite, 2014). The main agenda of social policy is to support every people
and work for the wellbeing of society and if these policies are not effective for the people then it is
of no use. In health and social care sector, the service user has a direct influence on the social policy
as they can evaluate whether the policy is up to the mark or whether there is a need for a change
(Griffiths et al., 2017). Administrator of the health care sector is responsible for analyzing the social
policy and its safeguards that it is useful for the people or not in society. Hence such type of parties
may have direct influence during the development of policy by any authority or the government
(Griffiths et al., 2017). It has been analyses that religion is universal human quality and it is one of
the most important elements at the time of development of policy.
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
LO3
3.1
Social policies are developed for the wellbeing of the individual living in the health and social care
sectors (Aveyard, 2014). The main aim of the policy is to work on problems such as unemployment,
poverty, etc. There are various approaches used to implement the policy such as bottom-up
approach, top-down approach and principal-agent theory (Aveyard, 2014). In the bottom-up
approach, the policies are set at the upper level and are communicated to all the assistants. The staff
that are working at low level are responsible for implementing the policy and there are various
terms and condition to be followed at the time of policy implementation (Jenson and Fraser, 2015).
In the bottom down approach, the employee at the subordinate level is paying a major role in the
implementation of policy. The policy adaptation is an interactive process which includes various
parties, government and policymakers. In principal-agent theory, it explained the relationship
between agent and principals (Jenson and Fraser, 2015). It is based on the agreement and contract
that permit the principal to specify what is needed. The principal and agent relationship is affected
by the circumstance of the surrounding and nature of policy problems (Winter, 2012). All these
approaches can be used by the health and social care organization in order to implement the social
policy developed by various agencies for the wellbeing of society.
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
3.2
There are various methods are used to measure the impact of social policy includes cost-
effectiveness, statistics, research, feedback and practice experience (Grindle, 2017). The feedback
system is useful to measure the impact of social policy as this policy has been developed for specific
individual and hence people can give the right feedback. It is very beneficial to know the
effectiveness of policy on the basis of the response (Grindle, 2017). Research can be conducted in
order to analyses whether police are effective or not and it is beneficial for the service user of health
care. Research can also be conducted to know the real situation present in the community and on
the basis of this correct data can be obtained (Grindle, 2017). Cost-effectiveness can also be used to
evaluate the effectiveness of policy in the organization.in this, a total number of the health service
user are taken into deliberation and it is being noticed what benefits they have got after
implementing the social policies (Becker, Bryman and Ferguson, 2012). The statistic is another best
method can be used to know the total number of cured patient in the organization and to analyses
the real effectiveness of the policy.
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
3.3
In health and social care sectors, various services are provided in order to improve the health and
wellbeing of the individual (Becker, Bryman and Ferguson, 2012). Healthcare practitioner is
performing various tasks for the wellbeing of the patient suffering from a disease or and disability.
Social policies have a direct impact on children, elders, old age people and who need services in
social care (Becker, Bryman and Ferguson, 2012). The old age people are fully dependent on the
organization because they are unable to perform the daily task by own hence specific policy should
be made for them so that they receive proper care and support. The main advantage of policy is that
it provides help to the people and supports them to cope up with the disease (Becker, Bryman and
Ferguson, 2012). Social policies are providing support for the children with a disability which they
expect from the health care services. On the other hand, some of the health care organization is not
following proper guideline in order to provide support to the people and hence users have to suffer
it (Barnes and Cotterell, 2012). An individual with a disability must provide extra care and support
and provide all the benefits and right of the person. There should no discrimination of age, sex,
gender and caste.
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
LO4
4.1
Various social and health care policies are developing rapidly because various parties are working for
the wellbeing of the community and to provide support and care for every individual. Several
policies and activities are developed to safeguard the quality of services and to support the
individual with any disease and disability. In 2012, the welfare reform act has been introduced to
provide universal credit and penalties for fraud (Winter, 2012). The government has invested a large
amount of fund for the welfare of the community so that the main issue such as unemployment and
poverty can be solved. Another act, health and social care act 2012 was developed to regulate the
social and health care services (Grindle, 2017). In this, many services were introduced to provide
proper care and treatment of the user of the health care organization. Care quality commission is
providing a guideline and set the standard to meet the quality of services. CQC is a legal body and
has an authority to take legal action against the organization if the standard set does not meet the
requirement of the user. In 2011 education act was passed with has the main aim to provide
education to the entire individual living the community (Grindle, 2017). The main agenda of this act
is that people can examine the issues related to health and can take preventive and corrective
measure against it.
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
4.2
When the government proposed national policies or any other social policies then in both the cases
the different procedure is to be followed in order to regulate the policy in the health care
organization. In social policy various step need to follow such as policy identification and setting
objective, adaptation, formulation, evaluation, implementation and monitoring (Barnes and
Cotterell, 2012). The main agenda of social policy is to work for the wellbeing of the community and
to improve the health status of the people which can be different from other policies. An individual
with a specific group such as children, old age and adult who are suffering from any disease and
disability must provide extra care and support (Barnes and Cotterell, 2012). On the other hand,
people with low socioeconomic status, poor financial support must be taken into consideration as
they also required proper care and support. There are several differences in adaptation and
formulation of policy initiative because nations are differentiated by ideology, climate religion and
geography. Different types of people are living in every country and hence several obstacles are
present in order to an adaptation of policy (Barnes and Cotterell, 2012). Gross domestic product is a
very important factor and needs to be considered while formulating and adopting the policy.
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
CONCLUSION
The above report helps to understand the importance of various social policies in the social and
health care organization. It is connected to the wellbeing of society and helps to achieve good
health. In social care firm, such policies act as an advertising tool as it provides health care services
with more efficiency. An individual suffering from any disease or disability must provide proper care,
support and treatment and to cope up with different situations. And hence there is no doubt that
policies are very beneficial for the welfare of society.
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
REFERENCES
Allen, J., Balfour, R., Bell, R. and Marmot, M., 2014. Social determinants of mental
health. International review of psychiatry, 26(4), pp.392-407.
Aveyard, H., 2014. Doing a literature review in health and social care: A practical guide . McGraw-Hill
Education (UK).
Barnes, M. and Cotterell, P. eds., 2012. Critical perspectives on user involvement. Policy Press.
Becker, S., Bryman, A. and Ferguson, H. eds., 2012. Understanding research for social policy and
social work: themes, methods and approaches. Policy Press.
Bivins, R., 2017. Picturing Race in the British National Health Service, 1948-1988. Twentieth Century
British History, 28(1), pp.83-109.
Braat, L.C. and De Groot, R., 2012. The ecosystem services agenda: bridging the worlds of natural
science and economics, conservation and development, and public and private policy. Ecosystem
services, 1(1), pp.4-15.
Curtis, L.A., 2013. Unit costs of health and social care 2013. Personal Social Services Research Unit,
University of Kent.
Garthwaite, K., 2014. Fear of the brown envelope: exploring welfare reform with long term sickness‐
benefits recipients. Social Policy & Administration, 48(7), pp.782-798.
Griffiths, A., Beaussier, A.L., Demeritt, D. and Rothstein, H., 2017. Intelligent Monitoring? Assessing
the ability of the Care Quality Commission's statistical surveillance tool to predict quality and
prioritise NHS hospital inspections. BMJ Qual Saf, 26(2), pp.120-130.
Grindle, M.S., 2017. Politics and policy implementation in the Third World (Vol. 4880). Princeton
University Press.
Jenson, J.M. and Fraser, M.W. eds., 2015. Social policy for children and families: A risk and resilience
perspective. Sage Publications.
Langley, E., Hooley, T. and Bertuchi, D., 2014. A career postcode lottery? Local authority provision of
youth and career support following the 2011 Education Act.
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Unit 7 Social Policy AB721HSC7 Mont Rose College January 2018
Speed, E. and Gabe, J., 2013. The Health and Social Care Act for England 2012: the extension of ‘new
professionalism’. Critical Social Policy, 33(3), pp.564-574.
Winter, S., 2012. Implementation perspectives: Status and reconsideration. The SAGE handbook of
public administration, pp.265-278.
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