“Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health and morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”
This means that everyone has the right to what they need and the right to keep things they want to keep private, private. In a health and social care setting this mean that people who want to keep things about their past to themselves they are entitled to do so.
A code of practice is simply a list of rules set down by professional bodies, which must be followed by law, these rules are put into place to protect and promote the interests of service users. They produce guidance for employers and workers related to promoting equality and diversity in practice. They set out the responsibilities of employers in regulating social care workers and supporting workers to adhere to and meet the requirements of the code and to take action should they fail to do this.
An example of a code of practice is the “General Social Care Council (GSCC)” This is followed by all care workers to make sure that Employers are responsible for making sure that they meet the standards set out in this code, provide high quality services and promote public trust and confidence in social care services. The code states that “
- As a social care employer, you must make sure people are suitable to enter the social care workforce and understand their roles and responsibilities.
- As a social care employer, you must have written policies and procedures in place to enable social care workers to meet the GSCC’s Code of Practice for Social Care Workers.
- As a social care employer, you must provide training and development opportunities to enable social care workers to strengthen and develop their skills and knowledge
- As a social care employer, you must put into place and implement written policies and procedures to deal with dangerous, discriminatory or exploitative behaviour and practice
- As a social care employer, you must promote the GSCC’s codes of practice to social care workers, service users and carers and co-operate with the GSCC’s proceedings.
This promotes anti-discriminatory practice at Peacehaven house as it helps to provide high quality social care services that promote public confidence and trust.
A charter is a legally binding document used in an organization or institution to specify its purpose.
An example of a charter is the charter used by “The Cedars Rest Home” It states:
“Our Philosophy of Care is centred on the individual’s right to achieve and maintain Privacy, Dignity, Independence, Choice, Rights and Fulfilment regardless of physical or mental capabilities.
The Following are the basis of our approach: -
1. Privacy - The right of the individual to be left alone or undisturbed, and free from intrusion or public attention into their affairs.
2. Dignity - The maintenance of personal dignity and independence, irrespective of their physical or mental infirmity.
3. Quality of Care - The provision of skilled, sensitive and sympathetic care to enable all residents to achieve the highest possible quality of life.
4. Respect - Respect for social, emotional, religious, cultural, political and sexual needs.”
After that it then goes on to talk about the rights of the care home. A charter like this is put into place to help prevent anti-discriminatory practice as it controls what happens in the care home. For example at Peacehaven house if a charter was put in place, it would mean that all members of staff and residents must follow it one such rule might be for the staff to respect all patients for their individual needs and for patients to respect staff.
A Policy is a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes.
An example of a Policy which could be used in a health and social care setting could be the policy for anti-sexual harassment at NISH which is a company which creates employment opportunity for people with severe disabilities. Here is a quote from the policy
“NISH strives to maintain a workplace that is free from intimidation, coercion, or harassment, including sexual harassment, of any employee. Accordingly, it is NISH’s policy to prohibit harassment of an employee by another employee or supervisor on the basis of sex. The purpose of this policy is not to regulate our employees’ personal morality. It is to ensure that, in the workplace, no employee or supervisor harasses another individual on the basis of sex. While it is not easy to define precisely what sexual harassment is, it certainly includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours and other visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, such as uninvited touching of a sexual nature or sexually-related comments. Depending upon the circumstances, harassment can also include improper joking, teasing or other unwelcome conduct that creates an unprofessional and hostile work environment.”
This sort of policy could be used in a place such as Peacehaven house because it means that no-one could be discriminated against because of there sex or be harassed because of their sex, for example if a male patient was harassing a female member of staff (or Vice-versa) they could be warned and reminded of the anti-sexual harassment policy.
Another example of a policy used in a health and social care environment would be the equal opportunities policy, an quote from an example of one of these:
“It is the policy of English Partnerships to ensure that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex, race, marital status, disability, age, part-time or fixed term contract status, sexual orientation or religion, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements that cannot be shown to be justifiable. The organisation is committed not only to its legal obligations but also to the positive promotion of equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment.
(b) The organisation recognises that adhering to the , combined with relevant employment policies and practices, maximises the effective use of individuals in both the organisation’s and employees´ best interests. English Partnerships recognises the great benefits in having a diverse workforce with different backgrounds, solely employed on ability.
(c) The application of recruitment, training, and promotion policies to all individuals will be on the basis of job requirements and the individual’s ability and merits.
(d) All employees of the organisation will be made aware of the provisions of this policy.”
Putting a policy like this into a care home such as Peacehaven house would help prevent people being discriminated against because of their of sex, race, marital status, disability, age, part-time or fixed term contract status, sexual orientation or religion, so this means a person cannot be not allowed to apply for the job because they are a man or because the are a Muslim and so on.
