PSYCH 103 UNIT 7 PRINCIPLES OF SAFE PRACTICE IN HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE

PSYCH 103 UNIT 7 PRINCIPLES OF SAFE

PRACTICE IN HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE

11075795 Inton, Maria Sophia Ernestine L3 Health and Social Care YR 2 Bryan Smikle

11075795 Maria Sophia Aludo Inton L3 Health and Social Care YR 2 UNIT 7 - Principles of Safe Practice in Health and Social Care Bryan Smikle

(AP1) Explain the implications of a duty of care in a selected health and social care setting.

Duty of Care is the legal obligation that you have when in the position to look after vulnerable individuals to protect them from harm and support them to lead a fulfilled life working to high standards and all legislations and policies.In the workplace, there are policies and procedures, agreed standards, codes of practice and other legislation a care worker should follow. In a care worker’s job role, you would be responsible for making sure the service users’ needs are met to the best of your ability as well as making sure the service user does not come to any harm and also making sure they are involved in their care plan. This include promoting service users’ choice and rights to the best of your ability. You would be responsible for assessing risks.You must remain professional throughout your role making sure you are adhering to confidentiality, keeping up to date and accurate records of the care you have or are providing to service users.Duty of care contributes to the safeguarding or protection of individuals by keeping individuals safe whether it is illness, abuse, harm or injury. This can be achieved by involving families, health care professionals and other external agencies into the individuals care plan.Duty of care is a legal requirement and there are policies, procedures, code of conduct and legislation around safeguarding and protecting your service users. Following this guidelines is showing that a setting is providing the best care possible.If you are doing activities with service user, you should always do risk assessments making sure that the service user is aware of any risks also.In childminding settings, the childminder is the key person. The key person should meet the needs of each child in their care and respond sensitively to their feelings, ideas and behaviour, talking to parents to make sure that the child is being cared for appropriately for each family.Duty of care is needed not only to the children, but also to their parents and families, who expect us to use our knowledge to care for their children. A high duty of care is needed for children because of their narrow ability to care

for themselves as they are still learning, and the younger the child the higher the duty of care is. The consideration should be even greater if a child is known to have learning difficulties or is known to have a medical condition which may make them more vulnerable than the average child to foreseeable risk of harm. If duties and responsibilities are not being met, the childminders are fully responsible and be held accountable for following negligence to occur.The EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) is the statutory framework that ensures all parents and carers that their children will be kept safe and will help them to succeed. This also helps to achieve the five stages of every child matters. Since 2008, it is a legal requirement to use the EYFS to meet the learning and development of all children in all early years setting which complies with the welfare regulations.In addition to that, to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and young people, childminders are expected to report assessments, receive advice and support from the appropriate people.

(Here is an example on how a duty of care is performed in a childminding setting. The given setting is based on where I had my work experience for 17 weeks.)

Maria’s Childcare Services

Within our setting, we:

• Carry out daily checks to ensure that the environment inside and outside

is safe before the morning session at 8am.

• Have a checklist of things to do (i.e. check all fire doors are unlocked, all

gates outside are locked, no wet floors and all plugs have safety covers etc) and tick them off when they’re done.

• Have daily rotas for change of nappies, dinners and lunches and

vacuuming.

• Contribute to ensure it is clean at the end of session and at the end of

the day and before and after meals we disinfect tables chairs to stop the spread of infection.

• Ensure that at least one member of staff in each room has been trained

in first aid and that we have the right equipment.

• To complete accident forms when an accident occurs and getting the

parent/carer to sign to say there have been made aware.

• Sign in and out every child that enters and leave the setting, we also

have one at the main doors for staff and people that come to drop or collect children.

How does the duty of care contribute to the safeguarding or protection of individuals? One part of my work is to always put the children and young people first, keep them safe and protect them from significant harm. We must follow the guidance of every child matters and promote safeguarding and the welfare of the children and young people. We should also ensure that the person caring for a child especially alone is suitable to do so and has a DBS check. Many things help us to provide the care to keep children and young

people protected and safe, some of them are as follows:

Risk Assessments - By doing risk assessments for all of the activities we do and for the playing areas ensures that if any risks concerning equipment, venues and activities will be found therefore reducing the risk of injury or harm to the children and young people. Also, spotting potential hazards and eliminating them. This includes germs and transferable diseases, we can