Nyasha Simms Unit 3 health
Nyasha Simms
Unit 3 health, Safety and Security in Health and Social Care
Assignment 2 – Legislation
35940
Pick the date
Legislation is laws that are put in place by governors to help regulate, sanction or grant people. It helps to outline the responsibilities of stakeholders such as the authority to protect and organise the general public. Policies are written out laws of a company or organisation which states how they want their company to run and everyone which is a part of it must follow and what is expected of them. Procedures are the instructions put in place that tell you how to carry out the policies set. For example, if the fire alarm goes off in an elderly care home then everyone needs to be safely assisted out of the building following the procedures and polices step by step. This influences the health, safety and security in a care setting because by having these policies and procedures in place it helps to aid everyone even the staff to ensure everyone is safe from harm or any injury. If the policies and procedures are not followed or are not even put in place the health and safety of service users are at great risk and the staff would could possibly be putting the clients in life threatening situations. So the fire policy and manual handling needs to be firmly in place and it needs to be acknowledged by all service users and stakeholders.
1) The Health and Safety at Work Act (1974)
This is the primary legislation which covers all occupations and organizations in the health and safety sector in Great Britain. This ensures that every employer has the responsibility for everyone on the premises for example the other employers, workers from other organizations and service users. Before opening a business or even allowing people to work there everyone must carry out certain risk assessments and the safety and health policies must be acknowledged and be put into place. This means all employees must have the right training and use the correct equipment, they must also have insurance so this could be public or liability. This act simply promotes safety of every individual so they can do their job properly also, it reduces the amount of risks in the workplace. This act also states that to promote the safety of an individual it is essential to record all accidents and incidents so a trend or pattern can be noted so a solution to prevent this can occur. So this occurs in every single health and social care setting it being a day care centre, hospital, school, GP or nursery. For example in a hospital everyone has the responsibility to care for the patients there but also themselves and the people around them as they have so many liabilities and need to carry out their duty of care correctly .
2) Manual Handling Regulations (1992)
This is an act that ensures that all employees should try and avoid manual handling operations for example lifting large or heavy items. So every lift should be planned and assessed to reduce the risk for example lift items which you are able to independently and keep the load close to your body and try to avoid repetitive lifts. This more promotes the safety of the individual that is carrying the load for example in a laboratory those who lift and handle harmful substances and heavy items such as gas cylinders that can cause injury to the head, hands or feet. Manual handling has not been banned but it has taken different precautions for example redesigning the tasks or providing mechanical assistance. So in a health and social care setting for example in an elderly care home the workers need to make sure they are able to lift and assist patients and if not there is a machine for example a stair climber or assisted rails in the bathroom. It is essential for all staff to be fully trained to assist the elderly to reduce the risk to themselves and the patient. They also need to carry out specific assessments in order to help consider the following factors of:
-how does the patient require to be held and moved?
-posture needs to be correct to reduce damage to both persons
-the amount of space around the operation
-material of the floor and if there are any items which you can potentially slip or fall on
-if the individual has the strength capability
-any existing health problems of the employee
3)The Data Protection Act (1998)
This is an act where the procession of data which identifies people is kept safe and secured as it is the main piece of legislation that governs the data protection. It has been put in place so business or the government only get certain sectors of personal information and it is used fairly and only used for limited, specifically stated purposes. For example in a school all personal information should be secured and withheld unless necessary, this can include both manual paper records and digital records for example the names of staff and pupils, addresses and school grades. Schools must identify the ICO and failure to do so is a criminal offence. In every school in order to process personal data it needs to be explained to parents or staff or even the pupils the purpose for example to facilitate education or to arrange school trips. Even then all data should be held for no longer than the purpose it was originally collected for also with this security measures need to be put in place for example shredding information, installing software that encrypts any personal information. For example in a health and social care setting in a nursery every single childs’ personal information is stored away from the public so there is no risk to the child or even the parent at that matter. This could include abduction or breach or personal information that could be potentially harmful if it got into the wrong hands.
4)COSHH Regulations
COSHH is a law that requires a controller to prevent the employees’ exposure to the hazardous substances by providing training for employees, risk assessments, planned emergencies and providing control measures to reduce harm to health. COSHH covers substances that are hazardous to our health these can come in the form of any product containing a chemical, dust, vapour, gases or biological agents. Under COSHH regulations, eight principles apply these are to operate processes that reduce the spread of hazardous substances, take in account of all the way a person can be exposed for example inhalation, skin absorption and ingestion. Also, to control the amount or exposure, choose the most effective control options which minimises the spread of these substances; provide personal protective equipment wherever the amount of exposure is. Another principle is to regularly check all control measures for effectiveness and inform but also train all of the employees on the risks and hazards. Finally the last principle is to ensure all control measures do not increase the risk to health and safety bit simply decrease or eliminate it. COSHH assessments should often take place, by doing so you can see if there any exposures so substances and see how they are harming your health so you can note it down and start to come up with what control measures you will prefer to take. In order to prevent the consumption or harm to someone’s health due to these substances you can substitute it with another substance which creates less or no risk. For example substituting glue in a nursery or school that has no harmful chemicals within them so if a child accidently eats it or gets it on the skin it will cause no harm. Another example could be in a hospital a nurse needs to be trained in using very toxic and harmful substances and should always be aware and implement the regulations when handling harmful substances that can cause harm to them and other patients. For example someone working on a ward should undertake risk assessments prior and provide suitable personal protective equipment that should be allocated in clean and safe storage if its re-usable, if not it should be disposed of correctly and also report incidents.
5)The Food Safety Act (1990)
This legislation ensures that all food that is consumed is quality and is not misleading in any way for example all products should be labelled to clearly show the product. The food safety act is an obligation to treat food intended for human consumption and must be “of the nature, substance and quality demanded”. So the advertisement must be correct and any announcement or presentation must also relate to the product. Also, there should be an authorised technique that involves nothing but natural processed or reproduction in addition there needs to be an authorised officer that is qualified to the health authority and it needs to take place in an authorised environment because the exportation is the most important as it is the main food source. Good food hygiene is essential as it prevents cross-contamination and can possibly harm people and this is an offence as special regulations need to be taken. For example in a nursery it is essential that food is always prepared under sanitary conditions and there is no exposure to the risk of contamination and all employees must comply with the food safety policy. So all food must be prepared in sanitary conditions and should be cleaned separate from the hand washing and dish washing sink environments.
