Care homes are therefore abject to the provision of health and safety policy, employers and employees have defined duties to ensure the health and safety of themselves, service users, visitors and contractors (HOSE, 2001). LOL In health and social care organization, there are different systems put in place for communicating information e. G. Risk assessment, infection control system, machinery system, first aid system, environmental control system, medication control system and training.
Employers must have a health and safety poster as a sign of communicating health and safety at workplace, the fire exit signs must be kibbles to everyone in case of emergency, and is another way of communicating health and safety and there should be signs of warning, caution, wet floor, infection bin etc (Shrank 2012). A risk assessment is the investigation and identification of the likelihood of an undesired outcome or incident happening. Risk is anything that is likely to cause hazard or have the probability to cause harm, while hazard is anything that have the potential of causing harm(Nolan, 2009).
In a workplace, in other to carry out risk assessment, we must first identify the hazard, decide who might be harm and how, evaluate the risk and decide on recreation, record findings and implement them. Review your assessment and update if necessary every month if the risk is high and every three to six months if the risk is low. Employers and directors of the workforce are under a statutory duty under the health and safety at work Act (1974) to prepare and keep revised a written statement of health and safety policy, if the organization employ five or more employees(Tutee, 1996).
Health and Safety Policy template provides a framework for recording how health and safety issues are managed within health organization. All employers have a duty of care to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees and must assess risks at work. The policies are reviewed when there is change of management in an organization, when there is changes in government legislature and when an accident happened at workplace (Collins, 2009). Responsibility is a duty or obligation to satisfactorily perform or complete a task.
It is the responsibilities of the employers to write a health and safety policy statement, carry out risk assessment to identify risks and how they are managed, revived free health and safety training, ensure appropriate warning signs are provide, provide free personal protective equipment (PEP) and protect the health, safety and welfare of employees. The manager should appoint and train a first aid representative, fire safety representative, infection control representative etc in case there is an emergency at the workplace.
Employers must carry out risk assessment, have a first aid box under the health and safety (First Aid) regulations 1981 and the minimum requirement for any workplace is that at all times there should be at least one first aid appointed person who will aka charge if there is an emergency, ensure that work equipments are properly maintain, ensure that plants and machinery are safe and safe systems are set and followed, and ensure that staffs are trained on how to use equipment and the equipment must be checked regularly to make sure they are in good working condition.
Employees must ensure their own health and safety at work, and to ensure their actions do not adversely affect anyone else (Hughes and Ferret, 2008) It is important under the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981, that workplace must have first-aid provision. The minimum requirement for any aerospace is that when people are at work, there should be at least one trained first-aid appointed person who will take charge in an emergency before the arrival of the paramedic.
A first-aid box should be provided and should contain only items that a first eider has been trained to use, and must be checked regularly and first-aid sign should be display (HOSE, 2001). The control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1994 (COACH) require employers to prevent or control exposure to hazardous substances at work. Employers are required to carry out an assessment of health risk faced by their employees, and o prevent, or control the exposure of their workplace to hazardous substances. Employees should be trained about the risks and the precautions to be taken (Shrank, 2010).
Fire Precautions Act 1971 (as amended by the fire safety and safety of places of sport Act 1987) requires strict control of fire in the workplace by making sure fire-warning signs are visible, maintaining fire-fighting equipment, training of staff on what to do if there is fire and fire exit doors are free from obstructions etc. (HOSE, 1993). Health and safety increase awareness of regulatory requirements and reduce the chance of committing any offence, it improve health and safety performance and reduced the cost associated with accident and incident at workplace.
Employees will improve their relations and morale when there is good health and safety in place. Health and safety performance increase staffs motivation, reduce the cost associated with accidents and incidents. However health and safety is expensive to maintain; it cost money to buy and maintain health and safety equipments and to give employees the necessary health and safety training (Shrank, 2012). 102 A Care plan is a written record of the arrangements for a person’s care or treatment. Re plan contains every information about a patient. Care plans are developed jointly by social worker, care home manager, GAP (Nolan, 2009). The aim of the care plan is to assess the need and risks of the patient concerned and make appropriate plans. Every patient must be risk assessed, and is one of the information that will include in a care plan. The management of health and safety at work regulations require risks to be assessed in an areas of work.
Risks to the people you support, yourself and other people must be assessed. Health and social care organization has a legal duty to ensure the health and fatty of employees and service user by identifying hazards and putting control measures in place to reduce risks. Environment is under risk assessment, health and social care workers need to do environmental risk assessment to identify potential hazard at workplace e. G. Wet floor, water spillages, uneven carpet, open windows etc.
Intruder alarm, CATV to monitor people, book for signing in and out and warning signs should all be in place in health and social care environment. In fire safety risk assessment, there should emergency procedure, evacuation point in case of fire, fire equipments should be checked regularly and keep escape routes clear (Stretch and Whitehorse 2007) Policy is a set of rules in an organization that is bounded by law; policy gives definite guidelines on how, when and where things are done in an organization.
For example, health and safety policy, infection control policy, manual handling policy, medication policy, confidentiality policy, first aid policy etc. When staffs receive the necessary health and safety training in health and social care settings, it will reduce accident and injuries to staffs and service users, it will reduce sickness and absent of staffs from work, it will reduce sick pay, abuse and litigation. However if staffs are not trained in health and safety, it will increase accident and injuries, it will increase sickness, abuse, absent of staffs and litigation.
Another policy to be looked at is manual handling policy, if employees are trained in manual handling, it will reduce accident and injuries to service users and staffs. However if employees are not trained in manual handling, it will increase accident and injuries to service users and staffs (Collins, 2009). Dilemma is a situation in which there are two choices to be made, the chooser must abide by the code of practice in order to make choice ethically impossible.
Dilemma is a complex situation that evokes personal opinion. For example, when a service users refuse to take medication, the care provider need to ask the service user why he or she is refusing to take medication and the service user needs to be informed why it is important to take the medication, the care provider must listen to the service user reason for refusing to take the medication. If the service user reason for refusing to take medication is the problem of swallowing e. G. He service user do not like to swallow medicine, this should be reported to the line manager, and the nurse or are should suggest to the manager to provide alternative means for the service user. For example, by providing the service user with a liquid medication, in view of the fact that the service user do not like to swallow medication. The care provider must record the incident. Another example, is situation where a service user refuses to use the hoist, in this case, the provider of health and social care should explain to the service user the reason why the service User should be hoisted.
If the service user still refuses to be hoisted, then the team leader must port the problem to the line manager and the line manager will have to invite the relatives and make them understand the situation. The line manager will have to reach an agreement with the service user, and the service user relatives in the present of a social worker by making sure the service user sign the disclaimer form (Stretch and Whitehorse, 2010).
The health and safety legislation assigns responsibility to employers and employees for ensuring that workplace are healthy and safe. If an organization fail to comply with health and safety laws, the organization may be issue a legal notice-improvement and probation deices by health and safety inspector for breaching health and safety laws. An improvement notice states that the law is being breached and may include directions about action needed to resolve the problem. A probation notice may be issued where there is an immediate risk to health and safety.
The organization may be prosecuted for breaches of health and safety law, which may result in substantial penalties or fines. Imprisonment may also apply for serious offences where an employer or employee breaches duty of care, knowing that their action is likely to endanger another person health and safety. The organization may lose their investor; the company or bank that gave them loan, they may lose their insurer and the image of the organization may be tarnish and it may lower the morale of the employees (Russell, 2012).
ALL Monitoring and reviewing health and safety policies and practices is very important in health and social care organization, because it helps the organization to identify the number of incident and accident that is happening in the organization by monitoring and reviewing incident and accident report; by reviewing the management report regarding incident and accident that appended in the organization. For example, if an organization realized that they had forty accident at beginning of the year, and they review the report and find out that the number of fall the residence had was forty.
The organization will now set up a policy; incident and accident reporting policy, the policy will outline their procedures. One of the procedure is that employees must follow the risk assessment that is being laid down for all the service users, because if the employees follow the risk assessment of each service user, the chance of accident occurring will be reduced. The organization have to review the policy manual, but before the policy manual is review, they have to call the employees to a meeting to find out the reason for the problem, the problem could be from the service uses or from the equipment.
The organization have to audit their systems and know the date they were checked and tested, and audit their incident and accident report to know if there is any enhancement or if it behind that is another way of monitoring health and safety policies and practices, and Spot check need to be carry out UN announce to check on the employees f they are working according to the organization health and safety policy and procedures.
Another way of monitoring health and safety policies and practices in an organization is by designing a semi structure questionnaire, which will be given to the employees, family members and service users to get a feedback. If the feedback is positive, that means everyone is happy with the services provided by the organization, but if the feedback is negative, that means that the employees, family members and service users are not happy with the services. Then the organization have to pick on the point that they are not happy with ND develop on it (Hughes and Ferret, 2009).
Positive health and safety culture in an organization means that everyone in the organization behave the same way, believe in one thing and do the same thing. For example the organization have their policies and procedure put in place for safe system of work. The health and safety positive culture is that everyone in the organization must comply to the policies and procedure of the organization, and the manager has to show example by practicing what is written down and the employees will comply and follow the example laid down by the manager.
If an employers and employees promote health and safety positive culture in an organization, that means that they are promoting positive culture and therefore the environment will be safe for everyone. If an organization promote a positive culture, it will reduce the occurrence of incident and accident rate, and the spread of infections in the organization and it will create new entrance for new business. For example, the service users family members will recommend other people to the care home. Promoting health and safety positive culture will also promote and protect the organization reputation.
However if an organization do not comply with positive health and safety culture, that means that they are breaching health and safety positive culture, and practicing a negative health and safety culture will lead to the reverse of earlier mentioned advantages (Backhouse, 2013). Before I started health and social care management course, though I have been working as a health care assistant in a residential care home, I did not know that if an employer or employee breaches health and safety law, that the consequences may be fine, litigation or imprisonment of the employer or employee who breaches health and safety law. En was working in a residential care home, before I started this course, I use to lift service users that are meant to be hoisted without using hoist, even when the risk assessment clearly stated that the patient must be hoisted. Now my perspective towards service users has changed, now follow the policies and procedure of health and safety at work place, since realized the consequences of not complying with health and safe policies and procedure. Even before now, I did not know the important of wearing protective clothing to prevent the spread of infection.
For example by wearing apron, gloves ND mask before attending to every patient, and also to wash my hands before and after attending to a patient. Now I know that if I do not wear protective clothing, I may be exposing myself and others to the risk of contacting infection and also the risk of spreading it. And previously, I do not like to attend training, but now, I found out that if I do not attend training, I may be losing my skills and now for health and safety, every procedure and policies has to follow, and if I fail in any of these, it may lead to dismissal or penalties.
I will also do an appraisal to identify my strength and weakness (Taylor, 2005). This essay discussed the important of health and safety in health and social care organization in relating to the policies and procedure in health and safety, and how to communicate health and safety. It also discussed the duties of employers and employees in health and social care organization, monitoring and reviewing health and safety policies and practice and practicing positive health and safety culture. Total words count 2, 775 REFERENCES Backhouse, J. (2013) Essential health and safety study skills. New York: Rutledge.
Collins, S. (2009) Health and Safety: A work book for social care worker. London: Jessica Kinsley. Health and Safety Executive (2001) Health and safety in care homes. UK: HOSE. ISBN 978071762082 1. Health and safety Executive (1993) Health and safety in Residential care homes. I-J: Crown. ISBN 071760673 2. Hughes, P. And Ferret, E. (2009) Introduction to health and safety at work, Fourth edition. Oxford: Rutledge. Hughes, P. And Ferret, E. (2008) Introduction to health and safety, Third edition. Oxford: Rutledge. Nolan, S. (2009) Illustrated dictionary: Health and social care. Essex: Henchman. Russell, B. 2012) Workplace Health and Safety handbook (Online) Available from: www. Framework. As. Gob. AU/ upload_files/hrs_handbook. PDF. [Accessed 30 May 2013]. Shrank, J. (2010) Health and safety at work: An essential guide for managers, Ninth edition. London: Kananga Page. Shrank, J, (2012) Health and safety at work: Key terms. Oxford: Rutledge. Stretch, B. And Whitehorse, M. ( 201 0) BEET Level 3 Health and Social care Book 2. Essex: Pearson Education. Stretch, B. And Whitehorse, M. ( 2007) BEET National Health and Social care Book 2. Oxford: Henchman. Taylor, B. (2005) Effective Environmental Health and Safety Management using the team approach.
New Jersey: John Wiley. Tulle, S. (1996) Health and safety in care homes: A practical guide. England: Age concern. APPENDIX 1 Divine Care Home have more than five employees, this include the Manager, Deputy Manager, Nurses, Supervisor, Team Leader and four careers. Below is Divine Care Home Health and Safety policy statement. This is the statement of general policy and arrangements for: Home CEO- Leo Joe Overall and final responsibility for health and safety is that of: Manager Divine Care David Mac Day-to-day responsibility for ensuring this policy is put into practice is delegated to: Paul Reel – Deputy Manager
Statement of general policy Responsibility of (Name / Title) Action / Arrangements (Customize to meet your own situation) To prevent accidents and cases of work-related ill health and provide adequate control of health and safety risks arising from work activities Relevant risk assessments completed and actions arising out of those assessments implemented. To provide adequate training to ensure employees are competent to do their work Paul Reel Deputy manager Staff and subcontractors given necessary health and safety induction and provided with appropriate training.
To engage and consult with employees on ay-to-day health and safety conditions and provide advice and supervision on occupational health Juliet Carl Supervisor Staff routinely consulted on health and safety matters as they arise but also formally consulted at regular health and safety performance review meetings or sooner if required. To implement emergency procedures – evacuation in case of fire or other significant incident. You can find help with your fire risk assessment at: (See note 1 below) Escape routes well signed and kept clear at all times. Evacuation plans are tested from time to time and updated as necessary.
To maintain safe and healthy working conditions, provide and maintain plant, equipment and machinery, and ensure safe storage / use of substances Deputy Manager Toilets, washing facilities and drinking water provided. System in place for routine inspections and testing of equipment and machinery and for ensuring that action is promptly taken to address any defects. Health and safety law poster is displayed: At Reception First-aid box and accident book are located: Accidents and ill health at work reported under RIDER: (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) (see note 2 below)
