Describe how health and safety legislations, policies and procedures promote the safety of individuals in a health or social care setting.

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M1: Describe how health and safety legislations, policies and procedures promote the safety of individuals in a health or social care setting.

There are many legislations, policies and procedures that are put in place to ensure and promote health and safety in all health and social care environments. These can include legislations, laws or acts that are legally passed by the government such as the data protection act (1998) and the control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) 2002. A document that enclose rules and regulations of what should be done in a workplace environment is known as a policy and should be followed by all staff and service users in all workplace environments especially a health and social care setting, policies can include illness and safeguarding. Lastly there are also known procedures that all workplace staff and service users should follow in the case of an emergency or otherwise. A policy is a set of steps that should be followed to ensure the maximum safety of all individuals. Procedures can comprise of the outing and end of day routine.

The data protection act (1998) is a law passed by the government which prevents information in relation to identifiable living individuals being stored or acquired without consent and reason. The principles include, ensuring that any data collected is only used for the sole purpose for which it was collected. Information should not be kept for any longer than it is necessary. This legislation protects all individuals within the United Kingdom, regardless of any discriminatory factors such as race, age or sex. This would be important in a health or social care setting, such as the nursery I did work experience, and would promote health and safety in this care setting. An example of this includes, all data about the service users in the nursery, the children, is kept locked away from all unauthorised persons so that only approved persons can access the data. This is promoting the safety of the children ensuring that the legislations are followed. Data protection is important in the nursery to ensure that all information accessed by any individual is not later used for any reason besides or outside aiding their role in the nursery to educate the children. (, accessed April 23rd 2012)

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The control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) 2002) is a legislation also passed by the government which requires all employers to assess and control the exposure of hazardous substances for the safety and protection of all staff and service users. This would be done by doing a risk assessment of the premises to first identify all areas of improvement needed, and then implementation to put those improvements into place, this would then be followed by further assessment at a later date, to review whether the risk has been eliminated or controlled as much as within your capabilities at the ...

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