Health and Social Care

This front sheet must be completed by the learner where appropriate and included with the work submitted for assessment.
Unit 3: Health, Safety and Security in Health and Social Care
Course: BTEC Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care

Learner Name

Assessor Name: Fola Oyebola
Internal Verifier: Jayne Boyns
Lead IV Sampled? (Y/N)
Pre-Issue IV Date:
Assignment Title:
Hazards in settings
Assignment Ref: 3a
Issue Date
Week beginning
30/9/13
End Date:
Week beginning
04/11/13
Actual Hand-in Date:

Unit/ AC Ref
Assessment Criteria
Achieved
Evidence Location
Comments/feedback from assessor
P1
Explain potential hazards and the harm that may arise from each in a health or social care setting
Yes/No

P3
Carry out a risk assessment in a health or social care setting
Yes/No

M2
Assess the hazards identified in the health or social care setting
Yes/No

D1
Make recommendations in relation to identified hazards to minimise the risks to the service user group
Yes/No

Learner’s comments:

Learner’s declaration:

I declare that this is my own work. I understand that assignment malpractice such as plagiarism (copying), colluding or other forms of cheating will incur a heavy penalty in line with College and other policies. I have properly acknowledged the books, texts or other material quoted or used in this assignment. I am aware of the college appeals policy and assessment policy in the Student Handbook.

Learner’s signature:
Date:
Assessor’s general comments:

Name:
Signature:
Date:
Internal verifier’s comments on assessment (if sampled):

Name:
Signature:
Date:

Learning outcome:

1. Understand potential hazards in health and social care
2. Be able to implement a risk assessment

Task 1
Scenario: You are working and supporting individuals in a health or social care environment [e.g. residential home for older people or individuals with learning difficulties, day centre or a nursery]. Your manager has agreed to have a small group of learners from a local college to undertake some work experience. The learners have a general knowledge of basic hazards but not specifically related to health and social care environments

a. Write a report that identifies a range of potential hazards and hazardous activities in the health and social care environment and explain the potential harm that could arise. [P1] Minimum 500 words]

Task 2.
Scenario: Your manager has asked you to help them to carry out and document a risk assessment for an activity for a group of service users.

Choose an activity, then:

Write a short account giving an overview of the activity
Carry out a risk assessment of the activity – you could use the template provided[P3]
Accurately assess the identified hazards [give reasons for your assessment] [M2]
Make recommendations in relation to the identified hazards [these need to be evidence based [D1] Minimum 1000 words

Amy Fyson
Health and Social Care Level 3 Subsidiary
Health and Safety.

Task 1
The potential hazards that may arise during a health or social care environment.
-Wet floors/Spillages
-Unlocked doors
-Medication unattended
-Hot drinks
-Untidy rooms/floors
-Low door handles

In both a Nursery and a care home wet floors and spillages are a huge hazard to anyone; they could slip/trip and seriously injure themselves.

In both a nursery and a care home also unlocked doors are also a hazard, children could potentially open the doors to escape, or trap fingers or feet and also unlocked doors in a care home is very hazardous as they could also escape and injure themselves in the process.

Unattended medication is mostly very hazardous in a care home setting where elderly people are in need of certain medication, the elderly may misread the medication and think it is theirs and have some sort of reaction to it, or possibly overdose. This is why medication should be attended or in best cases locked away.

Hot drinks should not be unattended at all, especially not in a nursery where small children are able to reach as they could scold themselves or even drop the mug/cup causing even more danger to the other children and even the staff.

In both a care home and nursery untidy rooms, and messy floors should not be allowed purely because of the fact it makes it easier to trip and injure yourself and also the build up of bacteria is not good.

In both a nursery and care home low door handles should not be allowed, especially in a nursery because the children would possibly be able to open them and escape and also trap fingers. Door handles should not be in reach to little children.

How to prevent the hazards;
Wet floors/spillages- be careful with drinks, cleaning products etc. To ensure that there are no spillages at all to lower the risk of slipping. If they are spilt then make sure a wet floor sign is put down immediately and to be cleaned up very quickly before any accidents happen.

Unlocked doors- Make sure they are all locked to prevent people escaping or injuring themselves, if not then ensure there are staff members at the doors that are capable of stopping anyone that tries to get past without consent by family or staff.

Unattended medication- All medication should be locked away in a cupboard and the keys should be on a member of staff or locked away in the staff room.

Hot drinks- hot drinks should be put up somewhere high so the small children are unable to reach them and injure themselves or injure other people.

Untidy rooms/floors- there should be a cleaner or a member of staff that cleans the rooms regularly to prevent any injuries and also a build up of bacteria.

Low door handles- the door handles should be fitted higher than usual so the children cannot reach them; this also applies to the elderly that may not always be aware of their surroundings. The door handles should only be in reach for the members of staff that work at a nursery or a care home setting.

520 words

Amy Fyson
Health and Social Care Level 3 Subsidiary
Health and Safety

Task 2

Taking children out to the park.

If you are a Carer of children then you have to consider the safety of them. If you take children to the park you have to be aware of allergies, medication needed, asthma, etc.
If the child has a bad reaction to something, you need to make sure you know what that child is allergic too and also you need to know how to deal with the allergic reactions.
If they have medication, you need to know the times they have it, when they last had it etc.
If the child has asthma you need to ensure they have their asthma pump on them at all times in case of any asthma attacks, and if they are to have an asthma attack you will need to know what to do and how to deal with the child in the process.

Potential Hazard
Who is at risk?
Risk Rating 0-5
Preventative Measures
Responsibilities
Asthma Attack
The child
4-5
Asthma pump
Have asthma pump with you at all times.
Falling Over

The child
3
Tie shoe laces, watch where you are going.
Tell the child not to run etc.
Panic Attack

The child
4-5
Breathing and Mind methods.
Calm them down.
Child Goes Missing

The child and also Adult
5
Keep your eyes on him/her at all times.
Do not take your eyes off the child/children.

When taking children out you have to ensure that they listen to you, it’s no use going out if the child/children do not listen to you specifically as it is very dangerous, they need to know where they are going, what they are doing, how they will behave etc. Children need to understand the dangers of going out and being careful. Many accidents happen.

You need to take precautions, for example stop at the roads, hold the hands of the babysitter/carer or even older siblings, look before you walk as there could be a fast car round the corner or something like that; these are all the precautions you need to take before crossing a road as it could lead to something very dangerous. Make sure their shoes are tied to make sure they don’t trip over and injure themselves. Don’t let them go on any apparatus too high, it must be age restricted because it may not be suitable for them. They may lose grip or fall and potentially harm themselves.

Ensure that they have suitable clothing on, for example if it is winter then a coat, scarf, gloves, hat, jeans etc would be acceptable and nothing short sleeved and nothing uncovered, whereas if it is the summer and it is a hot day then short sleeved clothes, maybe shorts and also sandals but you have to make sure sun block is put on as some children are very fair and burn easily in which that could be a massive risk to the child.

In order to ensure the children are safe, they need your full attention every minute of the day obviously to ensure the child/children do not go missing. Also you simply cannot child proof everything hence why babysitters/carers are hired. You will not be able to take your eyes off a young child for a second without them putting themselves in potential danger and obviously if a child is old enough to understand the dangers of the outside then they should be taught on how to act/behave and how to keep safe.

Assess identified hazards-
-If a child’s shoe laces are untied that child is then at a risk of falling over and injuring themselves, so therefore the shoe laces should be tied.
-If a child has asthma and they do not have an asthma pump on them then that child is then at risk of having an asthma attack and not being able to help it, so therefore the carer/babysitter should make sure that the asthma pump is with them at all times.
-If the child does not have the suitable clothing on then the child would be at risk of possibly getting sick, or the child could possibly have heat stroke etc, so therefore suitable clothing is a must and also sun block.
-If the child falls over by tripping or falls off something then wet wipes should be brought out at all times in case of this so that if the child scrapes their hands of knees, it could reduce the risk of getting infection etc.

If the child was to have a panic attack you could talk to others and share their worries as to why the anxiety is high, or the child could try to do some breathing methods, or possibly some mind methods to help him/her to calm down and to be able to deal with their anxiety better. They could also go for walks on their own if they where age appropriate to avoid large groups of people, they could do all of this in order to be able to handle and control their panic attacks.

If the child was having an asthma attack he/she could possibly try not to run around as much to reduce the risk of losing their breath, they don’t even have to run around to have fun they could just play some sort of game or talk to friends, this would prevent asthma attacks. Also when children are nervous they tend to breathe a bit heavier than they normally would, so maybe doing some exercise on confidence boosting so they don’t get so nervous around other people. Doing this could help them handle and control their asthma attacks also.

To ensure that the health and safety of the children remains, you should follow the instructions and risk assessments made to help you with caring for children who are unable to care for themselves, as they may be too young. Keeping a child safe is mostly common knowledge; just teach them everything you would do if you were looking after yourself and then it comes naturally and then caring/babysitting becomes easier to do. Both of the jobs come with very dangerous risks that you just overlook.

1023 words

Amy Fyson