Health and Social Care Legislation in the UK: A Comprehensive Overview

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Table of Contents
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Reference........................................................................................................................9
Lo1
Health and social care is the term that describes the health and social care
services provided by the health care professional or the service provider to the
service seekers. It is a generic term used to define the whole health and social
care sector. With the growth in the heath care sector since last few decades due
to the introduction and advancement in medical sciences and technological field
there have also been complications with reference to the similar field. The
introduction of various laws, ethics as well as policies in the health and social
care sector have been a great guidance for the professionals, organization,
patients as well as the community (Curtis., 2013). It is important to follow the laws
and the legislatives in order to have better health care services and health
promotion.
To achieve better standard of services to the individuals with in the society, the
policies along with the legislature provide support to the health care practitioners
or professionals so that the people can be satisfied with the quality of services
provided. To achieve appropriate behaviour towards health care and its services
execution of legal policies and ethical issues in united kingdom. The
implementation of the legal infrastructure globally is done by the world health
organization that has the international authorities. Supreme powers are held by
the world health organization in order to manage and take a look on health care
law and services in other member countries. Having the specific goal and target

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concept will help in execution of law and other policies successfully (Gordon et
al., 2013).
Till the year 1997 national heath care services did not have any sort protection
and excellent health care services policies. In order to achieve this the
commission for health care improvement was introduced to form various laws
and apply regulations on clinical basics to national health care services. The
health care commission was formed to collaborate the services provided by the
commission for healthcare improvement (CHI) and national standard commission
(NSC) in the year 2003. The national standard commission is the organization
with authority for inspecting and evaluating along with maintaining domiciliary
concern. The execution of laws and various policies by health care commission
(CHI) was done by operational platforms, standard operating procedures, and
national operational policies. In order to provide appropriate standard of services
it very important for the health care professionals and other service providers to
follow and act according to the policies and laws under the legal framework. It
along with providing security and protection also provides legal rights to the
individual of the community with all dignity and respect (Carter et al., 2013). There
should be a proper health care plan in order to regulate appropriate services
world wide under a respect association or agency that can work at execution of
this plan. The laws and regulation that are made should be in such away that they
clear all the intentions and approaches of the accomplishment of the plan.
The heath and social care act 2012 is the act of parliament of United Kingdom. It
was formed in favour of individuals of the society. It provides recognition to the
national health services (NHS) in England till date. It seen that the national health
services NHS changed after the introduction of the health and social care act
2012. On April 1st, 2013 the main action of changes came out in force and effects
were seen in most parts of National Health Service NHS. The changes included
formation of clinical commission groups, health and well being boards, economic
regulations, regulation in quality of services etc (Taylor-Gooby.,2012). with the
introduction of health and social care act 2012 there were recognition of various

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other laws and regulations as well such as: the act of disability, mental health act
2017, data protection act 2018 etc. the government of UK acts collectively on all
these acts and policies in order to raise the standards of services and provide
equality in health and social care sector.
Three main sectors divide framework of law that are legislative, executor and
judiciary. With basic idea of providing standard quality of services to the
individuals with in the community it is necessary that appropriate set of
guidelines and framework provided by the various policies and legislation are
followed in the similar way by the health care and social care professionals and
practitioners. In UK the health care and social care system is well maintained
when it comes to following the legislative and policies (Nwachukwu, Orji and
Ugbogu., 2013).. These policies and legislation are found to be very old in UK but
they are well reformed and minute alterations are don eon regular basis. The
world health organization well handles the national agent of social and health
care for the individuals in the society. The government is up for making these
policies and laws to make sure tat better standards of quality and protection is
provided to the people of the country.
Legislation:
The process of enacting and making laws is called legislation. It is the set of
regulations and laws which are formed or created by authorities to maintain the
integrity, dignity and health of the individual of the community by also providing
safety, protection along with better health care service facilities (Taylor-
Gooby.,2012). In UK the legislation is created by the sources of authorities
internally as well as European union members. As the UK has many small divided
territories yet they all function in the same way and has a similar aim and goal
towards the health and social service of the people hence the legislature of UK is
thought to be divine.
Executive:

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Executive is the government branch, which is responsible for making decisions
and laws into effect. Facilitating laws and regulation in the system is the basic
aim of the executive sector of UK parliament along with the application on these
laws in the welfare of people when it comes to provide social and health care
services given by many health care organizations (Carder ET AL.. 2013)
Government of UK introduces an agency NHS (national health services) that is
funded publically and it is working to serve the people in health care sector by
justifying all the laws and policies set by the UK government or the wellbeing of
individuals social and health aspects. In order to provide clinical supremacy to
NHS (national health services there was the introduction of the commission of
healthcare improvement (CHI). To monitor and evaluate the rules and legislation
of social and health care organizations, the national health commission (CHI) is
the authoritative agency to take appropriate measures.
Judiciary
It is a court system that applies the laws and policies in the name of a particular
state. It can also be taken as mechanism for the resolution of disputes. In social
and health care sector it is important to have a system, which maintains and
monitors the integrity and justice of laws and regulars when it comes to legal
framework. The health and social care professionals and workers in the system of
judiciary are provided to follow code of conduct as it helps in improving the
quality of care and services provided to the patients and also prevents any sort of
issues if happening. The system works so that the protocols can be followed and
the dignity and safety of patients are maintained. This system aims and focuses
on strategic method or organised concept of working appropriately (González
Núñez., 2013.).

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(image souce: https://slideplayer.com/slide/6675774/)
UK is known as the land of laws. The process of making a law In UK follows
various steps, the bill which is the new proposed law is to be agreed by both
houses of parliament and then receive royal assent from the queen once the first
reading, seconding reading and the third reading is done before, then the acts of
parliament eventually makes a law in UK
The area chosen for the health and social care service is mental health care of the
people of United Kingdom. In UK earlier the people who were facing mental
illness or had some mental disorder were not recognised by the society. People
use to think that there is no use of preserving such people with mental illness
and disability (Stoto., 2013).. The behaviour change of such people was taken as

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a ghost possession use to their ill deeds and hence no quality in the health and
social services were provided to them. With the change in scenario and the
introduction of various policies and law by the government of UK the mentally
disabled people were given recognition under the mental heath act 2017 and
social and health care act 2012 (Mechanic., 2012). These acts were introduced to
give equality of rights to the people dealing with mental illness in the society and
fulfilling all the requirements and demands they have for a healthy living. The
implementation of this framework described that how different bodies like school,
colleges, public health workers, local authorities work together to improve the
services which are provided to the mentally disabled individual, in the health and
social cares sector providing special attention to such patient and training health
care professionals to handle such mentally ill patient providing them with various
resources is required at this hour.

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Lo2
In the health care and nursing sector of an individual practice there are several
code of conduct and legislations. The ethics towards the quality of the care
provided and the safety of care provided ensures that every particular aspect of
this is patient centred and is in favour of the needs and requirements of the
patients. The policies and legislation by the government plays a major role in
providing the standards of quality services to the service seekers. These policies
are all about the ethical care and services, which are provided to the service
seeker where the patient is considered as a person first and then a service user.
The implementation of proper and appropriate legislation and policies can solve
situations where the ethical care is questioned and in in dilemmas (Nwachukwu,
Orji and Ugbogu., 2013). For instance if a person is unable is unable to take any
kind of decision regarding his wellbeing due to lack of mental capabilities then
the health care supports or professionals seem to have rights to take respective
decisions for the individual under the mental capacity act for his better health.
And this rule with in the legislative is seen to be a tombstone in order to manage
various ethical dilemmas and questions that can end up destroying the whole
social and health care policies and regulations.
The health and social care ethics has seven important principles that include:
efficiency, education, beneficence, autonomy, proportionality, non-maleficence
and justice to the patients (McKee., 2013). The need of system to implement
policies and evaluate them as become important with the changing environment
in health and social care this also ensures appropriate relationship between
service provider and service user. Better patient satisfaction in receiving quality
services as well as better framework of staff was achieved after the
implementation of various policies and legislation in social and health care
sector. And hence this depicts that the formed policies and legislation have

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shown a very important in advancing safety and protection to the service seekers
along with the service providers.
The main aim of the legislation is to provide health care services with utmost
safety and security (Lavoie., 2013.). The government of UK has come up various
policies and laws in health and social care sector. The major purposes of these
policies are to provide best quality of services to the patient. The legislation
policies that are introduced by the national health services are:
Equality act, 2010
Health and social care act, 2012
Social value act, 2012
Acre act, 2014
Privacy law
The government of UK also implied other acts and policies like:
Care act, 2016
Access to health record act, 1990
Access to medical report act, 1988
Adult support and protection act, 2007
Social services and wellbeing act, 2014
The legislative key provided by mental capacity and mental health care is:
Mental capacity act, 2005
Adults with incapacity act, 2000
Mental health care and treatment act, 2003
Mental health act, 1983

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Mental health order, 1986
The abortion regulations, 1991 and the controlled drugs regulation 2009 were
other obligatory public healthcare systems.
(image source: https://www.bgs.org.uk/policy-and-media/social-care-a-summary-
of-the-framework-and-bgss-policy-engagement)

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The health and social care act, 2012
it explains most of the policies of United Kingdom in the legislative key for the
national health services improvement and advancement in superiority (Stoto.,
2013). Under this act, the department of health, clinical commissioning groups,
public health England and National Health Service gathered together to work for
the health inequalities in England, UK. For the benefits of public social and health
functions the act shoes different modifications and alterations with reference to
local health care authorities.
(image source: https://www.sochealth.co.uk/links/campaigns/health-and-social-
care-bill-2012/)

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Equality act, 2010
It came in consideration as the replacement of disability discrimination act, 1995.
In order to protect the individual of the society in UK from the inequality against
gender, sex, cast etc. this act was executed. The nine features that are secured by
this act are: sex, race, age, gender, disability, marriage, religion, pregnancy and
sexual orientation (Redfern and Sinclair., 2014). The basics functions of NHS and
CCG in order to reduce inequality practices were to guide patients towards
appropriate health services and to recognise their rights in health care sector.
The social value act, 2012
This was recognised on 31st January 2013 the main aim of this act is to enhance
and promote advantages of the set of population which are under uncomplicated
condition and ensuring that the services given to them are in appropriate order
(Darnell., 2013).
Privacy law
The privacy law states that the information of patients regarding their history and
other medical concerns should be kept low key and when disposed no
information should be acknowledged and should only use used in professional
cases (Martínez-Pérez, Torre-Díez, and López-Coronado., 2015).

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Reference
Carder, M., McNamee, R., Turner, S., Hodgson, J.T., Holland, F. and Agius, R.M.,
2013. Time trends in the incidence of work-related mental ill-health and
musculoskeletal disorders in the UK. Occup Environ Med, 70(5), pp.317-324.
Carter, M., Thompson, N., Crampton, P., Morrow, G., Burford, B., Gray, C. and
Illing, J., 2013. Workplace bullying in the UK NHS: a questionnaire and interview
study on prevalence, impact and barriers to reporting. BMJ open, 3(6), p.e002628.
Curtis, L.A., 2013. Unit costs of health and social care 2013. Personal Social
Services Research Unit, University of Kent.
Darnell, J.S., 2013. Navigators and assisters: Two case management roles for
social workers in the Affordable Care Act. Health & social work, 38(2), pp.123-126.