P2: Outline how legislation, policies and procedures relating to heath, safety and security influence health and social care settings

Task 3
P2: Outline how legislation, policies and procedures relating to heath, safety and security influence health and social care settings.
In this essay i will be explaining how different pieces of legislation influence health and care. Legislation consists of laws made by parlement, or people given power by parlement, such as a govenor. Legislation shows us what we need to do in certain environments, for example what to do to make us safe and how to do it.
Health and safety at work act 1974
The Health and Safety at work act is a piece of legislation that is responsible for convering all health and safety in britain. However, the health and safety manager at individual establishments are responsible for carrying out the act and making sure everything is in cohearance with the piece of legislation. HASAWA influences health and social care in many different ways such as the protection it now gives to employers and employees, before this piece of legislation was made people had no legal protection whilst they were at work. HASAWA influences health and social as it tells the owner of a business, or establishment, what they need to be doing to make sure they are working in accordance to the legislation.
Everyone has the duty to comply with the act, this includes employers, employees, trainees, self employed, manufacturers, suppliers ect.
This legislation keeps people safe as it provides people with the instuctions to make their establishments safe for themselves and their employees. HASAWA tells owners to carry out a risk assessment which points out the hazards that need to be changed and/or fixed.
An example of legislation influencing a health and care setting is The Manual Handling Operations regualtion. MHOR is always thought to be the last resort, and only if there is a possibility of injury. Legislation tells emplyers and employees how to move and handle things appropriately and when it is and isn’t appropriate to move and handle things.
Employers must carry out risk assessments before opening a business to find if there are any faults or dangers to the customers or employees. There must be a health and safety policy written specifically for that setting and someone must be employed to be in charge of health and safety. Everything in the establishment must be insured incase accidents occur.
Employees must take responsibility of your own and other peoples health and safety and not do anything that could cause someones health and safety to be put at risk. This influences the setting as it keeps people working or entering the setting safe and gives them the appropriate instructions to keep them as safe as possible. It keeps people safe as it provides instructions and regulations that must be followed to keep everyone safe, and if everyone follows these regulations and instructions then their safety and health will be safe.
Food Safety Act 1990
The Food Safety Act 1990 is a frame for all food legislation in Britain. Responsibilities for food businesses include: Ensuring you do not include anything in food or remove anything from food making it a hazard to the health of people consuming it. Advertising food in a way that isn’t misleading or false.
The food safety act influences health in many different ways, it gives environmental health the right to inspect the quality of food, the place it is prepared and the place it is served and if it is not up to standard they have the power to close the establishment, in extreme cases. Before the establishment is closed down they are served a notice of improvement or be temporaraly closed until the standards are back up.
Without the Food Safety Act food would be able to be served to you in any conditon, and if you became ill from that food you could not retain any form of compensation because there is no legislation telling the establishment how to cook, prepare and serve food safely.
Employers and employees must make sure food is safe to eat, make sure they don’t add, remove or treat food in a way that makes it harmful to eat, make sure the quality of the food is the same as it is advertised or expected by the customer, Keep track of where the food was bought, if unsafe food is discovered it needs to be recorded and removed and tell people why the food has been recalled. There must be hand wash at all sinks and hands must be washed before touching food, after touching food, after using the toilet, after touching animals, after touching your own skin and hair, after sneezing or coughing and after touching raw food.

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995
RIDDOR is the piece of legislation that states all injuries, diseases, illnesses need to be reported to either the health and safety executive or the local council. RIDDOR is put in place so that health and safety executives can look at where the risks occur and can take steps to prevent them.
There are of course only certain injuries and dangerous occuurences that need to be reported, things such as violence at work, gas leaks, injuries that have occured during work or in the work place. RIDDOR also benefits people who have been injured at work and want compensation, health and safety executives follow up on the case and evaluate if the acdicent was because of the employee being put at risk or if they didnt follow procedure.
The employers responsibility is to maintain the safety of their employees customers and they have the responsibility to report if an employee or customer has been injured whilst at work or in the establishment.
Without RIDDOR, injuries caused in the workplace could not be claimed upon and the hazard could not be found and removed, if the hazard isn’t removed then people will be continuously be getting injured. The incidents need to be written in an accident book and should inlude the date and time of injury, the name of the worker, a description of the accident, action taken and the result.

Slips, Trips, Falls
Slips, trips and falls are the most common causes of major injuries in the work place. Most trips are caused by uneven or un-maintained floors, and slips are usually cased by wet floors. However, slips, trips and falls can be prevented if the right preventions and procedures are put into place and followed.
The employers responsibilities are to make sure the floors serface is even and maintained, decreasing the risk of trips, all obstructions in hallways and on floors are removed and stored properly, this also decreases the risk of trips. All spillages should be immediately cleaned up using the appropriate method, usually a cloth or mop, and a wet floor sign should be appointed if needed, this decreases the risk of slips. Staffs responsibilities are to wear safe and sensible footwear which have good grip, and they must also keep their work stations clear and tidy, also both staff and service users have the responsibility to report obstructions and spillages if not recognised.
The policy put in place ifluences health and care as it prevents the risks of slips, trips and falls, without it there would be no procedures to influence staff to remove the risks, such as obsticles that may cause trips. If staff, employees and the service users don’t follow the policies put in place then the risks of accidents will be raised, and if an accident does occur and they haven’t followed the procedures they were responsible to follow then they can’t claim any form of compensation.