Unit 504 Health and Social Care

Unit504
The health and safety at work Act 1974is the primary piece of legislation and is responsible for enforcing the act and a number of other acts relevant to the working environment. It also states that all staff should take reasonable care of themselves and others around them and for their safety risk assessments have to be done regarding all types of work we do or the equipment we use to see if it’s safe to do so.   All our legislations and policies and procedures are kept in folders in the manager’s office so we know where they are at all times and are relevant and up to date. We have health and safety, COSHH, RIDDOR, safeguarding, manual handling operations. The main health and safety policies and procedures agreed with the manager are to make sure all staff and service users are safe and away from any danger at all times. To enforce the health and safety law there are inspectors who have important       statutory powers, they can and do enter premises without warning and if they are not happy with the health and safety standards they can offer information, issue improvement notices stating what needs to be put right and also with a time scale. If the inspectors really are not happy then they can also issue a prohibition notice stopping activity either with immediate effect or a deferred effect and prosecute the most serious failings. The health and safety policies and procedures help by making sure everyone knows what they are doing in their work place so that anything that could harm staff members or a service user is correctly managed. All staff members in my place of work are continually being assessed to their level of competence within their own work roles. If it has been highlighted that they are not following procedures and policies then the following is put into action by the manager, for minor non-compliance, speak with the individual, establish whether the non-compliance is through miss-understanding, lack of knowledge or just laziness. Ask them...