Policies and procedures are very effective. In the following assignment I will evaluate the effectiveness of policies and procedures for promoting health, safety and security. Policy states “all accidents are to be recorded in the company’s accident book at the particular place of work.
” (Bright Horizons, 2008, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Health, Safety and Welfare Policy. This policy is very effective. Due to this policy if a child in a nursery was to hurt themselves, staff would have to deal with it according to policy and procedures.They would deal with it using their first aid training and then writing it up in the incident book (what happened and how they dealt with it) and report it to the child’s parent.
If this policy was not there staff would deal with the child according to their own ideas and the way they think it is best and instead of making things better, they may make the situation worse. They would not write it up in the accident book, because the accident book would not even exist, because there would be no policy saying that every nursery must have one.They might not tell the child’s parent, because they would be afraid of what the parent would say and if the parent would take further action. Therefore this could get the nursery and themselves into severe trouble.
The child or the child’s parent could say that the staff caused the injury on purpose and because there is no report to show evidence that the staff did not do it, further severe procedures could be taken. This would cause many problems for the staff and the nursery, therefore this policy is effective, because it ensures that staff and the nursery are not at risk and that children are not at further risk.This follows on to another policy which states “ensuring that all company facilities are fit for purpose and, as far as reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to the safety and health of children, employees, visitors, clients, contractors, and other persons who may be affected by the company’s activities. ” (Bright Horizons, 2008, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Health, Safety and Welfare Policy, pp3).
In order for this to take place risk assessments must be carried out.In a care home, the job for carrying out risk assessments will be given to the staff, “appoint competent people (often themselves or company colleagues) to help them to implement the arrangements. ” (Stretch, et al, 2007, pp122). That is one of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 policies.
The risks assessments are carried out to identify the risks and hazards and to plan ways to minimise the risks from happening. Each staff would be in charge of assessing the risks of different things, for example the risk assessment for manual handling may be done by the senior care worker.The risk assessment can be done for indoor or outdoor. A risk in a care home could be the service user getting into the bath.
Therefore they would follow it up with meetings that the employer would hold, to discuss the ways in which they could minimise the risk of the service user getting into the bath. In the meeting they would firstly discuss the risk and why it has occurred, through this they would know the way in which to deal with it. Secondly according to policy they would follow the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, however not every staff has this training.Therefore they would identify who does and who doesn’t and those who don’t would be sent on a training course.
This is linked to another policy which states that the employee must be given the opportunity to go on training. However staff at a nursery may be more available to go to training than staff at a hospital, because they may have less to deal with and worry about. For example though there are more staff at the hospital, the staff there have to deal with more life threatening situations.On the other hand nursery staffs rarely have to deal with life threatening situations, so are more able to come out of the nursery for training and this is where the effectiveness of the policy kicks in.
Due to the nursery surroundings, being smaller than the hospital surroundings it is expected that the risks in a nursery will be less than at a hospital. Therefore the risk assessment identifies the risks in both surroundings and enables staff from both environments, to take action through meetings.This would allow them to identify how to impede the risks from occurring, or how to decrease the risk. Therefore this would allow surroundings to be safer for service users.
Nevertheless during their meeting they can discuss other ideas of minimising the risk of service user getting in to the bath, such as a special chair, within the bath, if the person is disabled. They could also place bath handles at the side of the bath so that the service user has balance and support to get within the bath. In some way the policies link together.The risk assessment is carried out and identifies the risk (in a care home the service user getting into the bath), as the risk is linked to the manual handling, staff would follow the manual handling policy in order to minimise the risk.
Due to these policies, the service user will find it much easier and safer to have a bath, because they would feel secure and stable, due to the handles being at each side of the bath. If these policies were not there, then it would be more than likely that service users, would hurt and injure themselves as they get into the bath.Staff would only notice when the accident would occur and that is where the effectiveness of the policies kick in. Because of the risk assessment policy, they would have identified already the risks and hazards of the care home and carried out meetings to prevent the accident from occurring.
Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995 states: * “Food areas are kept clean and good standards of personal hygiene are maintained * Foods are cooked thoroughly * Foods are kept at the right temperature * Cross-contamination is prevented. (Stretch, et al, 2007, pp121) Therefore in a hospital when preparing the food for each service user, they must follow this policy. In a hospital there are many people with different belief’s, culture and ethnic background’s, this is especially related to food. In a hospital when it is time for them to make the food, they must ensure that the above policies are followed.
In a hospital there is not just one meal, but many different one’s so that each individual can pick according to their belief, culture and ethnic background.This policy is very effective, for example if there was a Muslim service user they would not appreciate it if there food was prepared with the same chopping board as pork was, this is because of their belief’s. Hence the reason, why they have different chopping boards, for different and specific things, one for raw food and one for food which is ready to eat. Some individuals choose to be vegans or vegetarian, therefore “cross-contamination is prevented.
” (Stretch, et al, 2007, pp121). This is one of the reasons why this policy is effective, because it respects each and every individual’s belief.On the other hand many problems can arise as opposed to the nursery or care home. The reason for this being is because of the surroundings of the hospital as opposed to the nursery and care home.
In a hospital there are more service users to cater for than in a nursery or in a care home. Due to the number of people, this will cause many different styles of eating and mistakes will be made due to human error. However as there are less people in a care home and a nursery, the styles of eating will be less and similar. Therefore it will be easier for staff to give the correct food to each individual, without mistake.
The reason for this being is, because staff is constantly visualising the service users in the nursery and in the care home. This includes supervision at times when they are eating. Staff in nurseries and care homes, usually have a closer relationship than those in a hospital, because the service users are there for a long period of time. Therefore they are more aware of each individual’s style of eating and if the individual gets the wrong food, they will be quicker to recognise than necessarily those in a hospital.
Food areas are kept clean and good standards of personal hygiene are maintained, Foods are cooked thoroughly and Foods are kept at the right temperature” (Stretch, et al, 2007, Health and Social Care Book 1 pp121) is another policy. Due tot his policy, accidents such as food poisoning can be prevented. Patients are in the hospital to get better and to recover, however this can be impeded by, the food they eat. If the food they eat is not cooked properly, then it could affect the patient’s immune system and cause them to deteriorate in health rather than getting better.
However, because this policy is in place, it allows the staff who cook the food to take care, to wash their hands thoroughly when cooking the food and to wash in a separate place from where they cooked the food. If these policies were not in place individuals in the hospital would become worse, rather than recovering from their previous status, due to the food that they are eating. In worse circumstances it could even result to death, because of their previous condition. Therefore this policy proves to be effective not only for health, but also for the individuals’ beliefs.
For example vegetarians do not have to worry about their food touching meat as there are different food boards, for different types of food. On the other hand although this policy is effective, there would be difficulty in monitoring this policy. One of the reasons for this being is because they now have food which looks like meat, but is not. Due to human error they could mistake the real meat, for the fake one and give it to an individual in the hospital, who is a vegetarian.
The vegetarian would probably, be able to tell the difference and this would lead to complaint and maybe further action, such as persecution. Another reason could be because there are so many people and so much food ahs to be made to feed all the individuals, the food may not be cooked properly. This could be because of time and situations that arise, for example, food falling on the floor, staff having to throw it away and cook more. In a rush they may not allow the food to cook thoroughly and when the service user eats it, this could relate to food poisoning.
The patient would become worse, instead of getting better and once again result to further action against the hospital. Another reason could be just as the food fell on the floor, instead of staff putting it in the bin and making some more, to save time, may just put it back on the plate and allow the patient to eat it. This could bring problems to patient’s health, especially in a hospital, where blood goes on to the floor, people are sick etc. This could even cause the staff to get infected and once again result to further action.
