Describes the legislation and Organisational requirements in care settings such as Queensland that ensure good practice in dealing with confidentiality.

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Health, Social Care & Early Settings

National Level 3

B. Describes the legislation and Organisational requirements in care settings such as Queensland that ensure good practice in dealing with confidentiality. Includes information about:

Legislation:

  • Data Protection Act
  • Access to Personal Files Act
  • Access to Medical Records Act

Organisational requirements:

  • Policies
  • Procedures
  • Recording
  • Storage
  • Security

Data Protection Act:

Data Protection Act is relevant to all health, social care and early years’ settings such as nursing homes or child care homes as it is a law which is set by the parliament in the UK which explains how to handle and deal with private information of others. It explains that the private information should be kept private from people who do not have the authority to look at the information they are not suppose to look at such as personal details, this act is works very strongly in care settings and only data controllers can have the right to look at it. If an individual wants to look at their personal information they will have to seek permission first. Personal data that is kept must be kept up to date and no linger then necessary for particular reasons such as when there is emergency and they need to contact that individuals family. This Act is applied to all sort of personal information such as business information, credit card details, health records and social service records. All the information should be kept private as it’s only for data controllers use as its protecting service user’s confidentiality in care settings.

Data Protection Act has eight principals which are:

  • Should be processed fairly and lawfully.
  • Obtained for particular and lawful purposes-
  • Enough, relevant and not excessive.
  • Accurate and up to date.
  • Not kept any longer than necessary.
  • Processed in agreement with the data subject’s rights.
  • Securely kept.
  • Not transferred to any other country without enough protection.

What does the Data Protection Act 1998 apply to?

The Data Protection Act 1998 applies to personal information. This is data about living, identified or identifiable individuals and includes information such as names and addresses, bank details, and opinions expressed about an individual.

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when Data Protection Act is applied to the care settings, it gives every service user some rights relating to their personal data and how to access it which are very important for every individual if Data Protection Act is applied to their settings, these rights are:

  • The right of gain access to their records – this right gives them the right to see what information is written about them.
  • The right to prevent third party using their personal information- this right gives every individuals to ask others not to use their personal information if they don’t give permission. This request can be made in written.
  • The right to have their personal information corrected – this right gives an individual to have their incorrect or misleading personal information corrected which is helf by the setting.
  • The right to prevent quick decisions – this right allows that individuals to stop important decisions about them being made quickly.

Data Protection Acts is applied to Queensland as they have service users who want to keep their confidentiality. Every service user has different needs and problems so some of them might not want to share these with other. Having this legislation applied to Queensland will have good quality practice when dealing with confidentiality. If this legislation isn’t applied everyone’s information will be all over the place and soon there will be frauds that will pretend to come in as service users and steal their identity also service users confidentiality will be broken which is against the law.

Queensland residential home has great quality practice which keeps personal information private at all times.  It is a well prepared home which updates its staff skills so when there occurs any problem they can face them. When Data Protection Act is broken at Queenslands they face a lot of problems. Last year one of the service users broke the law as she sneaked into a care workers office and had a look at her friend’s mobile phone which she wouldn’t tell her. When the care workers found out they were very annoyed at her and told her not to do so in a calm tone so she understands properly.

Access to Personal Files Act:

“The Access to Personal Files Act 1987, gives you the right to see certain personal information held about you on Social Services records.”

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Access to Personal Files act is made from Data Protection Act. It is an act that allows service users to access their own personal files and records which are held by the professional care workers at their nursing homes. These care workers are known as data controllers. Service user at anytime can request to see their personal files kept by the care workers, if a service user request to see their own personal information held by the act, they have the right to contact their GP for their medical records and their data controller who keeps their personal information such as address or telephone number.

The Act has no objection to a family member or friends if they want to see that individual’s personal file only under one circumstance which is to ask permission from that individual. The Data Protection Act gives every service user the right to their personal information changed if that information that is held by the data controllers is wrong or misleading. The information which is held by the data controllers must be safe and used fairly, the information must always be up to date information and kept no longer then it’s needed.

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Queensland residential home allows service users to have an access to their personal information held by the data controllers, they have to request their information and the data controllers have the right to hide any information that is not relevant to them. However, if they want to see their medical records they have to contact their own GP’s for their records which they might have to pay minimum 50 amount of fees. Queenslands does not give permission to family members to look at their person’s personal file without their permission. Service users in Queenslands have the right to change any ...

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This is a relatively good essay though it suffers a bit from trying to include a lot of information. Although the data is correct, it is often repeated several times. It would have benefited from a plan before writing to help avoid this issue. It could be extended by demonstrating understanding through application. Eg. the writer could have explained more about how policies were used in the setting to ensure that the legislation was followed. This would greatly enhance the work. ****