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LO1 Explore the legal framework within which health and social care practitioners operate

 

 

Key Dates

Formative assessment Dropbox opens in week 6                                                                                          18/10/2021

	Key Dates
Semester starts	11/09/2023
Semester ends	01/12/2023
Formative Assessment Dropbox Opens	16/10/2023
Formative Assessment Dropbox Closes	05/11/2023
Final SUBMISSION box opens on	06/11/2023
Final SUBMISSION box closes on	03/12/2023
Summative Feedback will be given on	05/01/2024
Referral Dropbox will open from	16/12/2023
Referral Dropbox closes on	19/01/2024
Referral result declared	On going within two weeks

 

Introduction

Health and social care practitioners are regulated by, and must adhere to, a range of law and policy when working within the most common settings of health trusts, primary care and other public authority settings. Even those working in voluntary, non-profit and private organisations will require a sound understanding of law and policy in order to practice proficiently, safely, ethically and legally. This unit develops students’ knowledge and appreciation of the need for them to be thoroughly informed about, and compliant with, relevant law and policy. Further to this, the unit presents opportunities for students to apply relevant law and policy in practice settings, both actual and realistic, and to consider the place of codes of practice and ethics in their day-to-day work.

The Learning Outcomes in this unit build progressively from core underpinning legal principles and perspectives to national and international law on key topics within health and care practice. Students will investigate the legal and policy framework related to health and care practice in different settings, leading to opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and skills through targeted assignments.

Students will evaluate the relative weight of, for example, codes of practice and organisational policy, and will develop an understanding of how to access advice and guidance if unclear about a path to follow. Students will consider how legal and ethical frameworks are interpreted and applied to different settings within the community, hospitals and other areas of health and care. Students will apply this learning to explore the relevance of legislation, codes of practice and organisational policy to their own and others’ practice.

The knowledge and skills developed in this unit will support students in understanding how and when to access advice and guidance on legal issues relating to health, care and support service practice and provision. On completion of this unit, students will have acquired a good working knowledge of the way that legislation supports the development of policy and underpins ethical practice in health and care settings. This will support progression in employment and continuing higher education in areas related to health and social care.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit students will be able to:

1. Explore the legal framework within which health and social care practitioners operate

2. Describe key legislation, national and organisational policy of fundamental importance to the health, care or support service practitioner

3. Interpret the law in relation to key ethical and professional Practice Themes in health and social care

 4. Apply law and policy in line with regulatory and ethical requirements in a relevant practice setting.

Assignment Title: Law, Policy and Ethical Practice in Health and Social Care

Task A: Submission Format

This submission will be in the form of a ‘Staff Regulation Handbook’. You may choose to include figures/diagrams and graphs that will be relevant to your work. The recommended length of this submission is 2500 words, although you will not be penalised for exceeding 2500 words. Where appropriate learning theory and additional research must be used and referenced according to the Harvard Referencing system. The work must include a bibliography for all referenced work using the Harvard referencing system.

 

Unit Learning Outcomes

LO1 Explore the legal framework within which health and social care practitioners operate LO2 Describe key legislation, national and organisational policy of fundamental importance to the health, care or support service practitioner

 

Assignment Brief and Guidance

Scenario: You were awarded with “Star of the Year Award” by MRC Care Home, where you work as a deputy manager that provides dementia, nursing and residential care in London. Given that trust, the organisation has appointed you to manage the induction of the new care assistants employed in the organisation. As part of your role in this new appointment you are to produce ‘Staff Regulation Handbook’ to improve staff awareness of theirs and setting legal responsibility by completing the following activities. Aim: The aim of Staff Regulation Handbook is to explore the legal framework within which health and social care practitioners operate that should also integrate description of the key legislation, national and organisational policy of fundamental importance to the health, care or support service practitioner. Activities: To achieve the aim of the Staff Regulation Handbook effectively, you should EVALUATE and analyse the relationship between ethics and the law and their impact on health and social care practitioners, including your own professional responsibilities, towards protecting the rights and maintaining the wellbeing of users of health, care or support services in own country. To support your analysis, you will need to summarise, at the same time, the key features of the different levels of law and policy. It would be good practice to include specific and evaluative examples (some of which must be drawn from your own experience) to help the new care assistants understand this in more practical terms. Then you should EVALUATE the relationship between ethics, key legislation and national policies and their impact on organisational policy and practice towards protecting the rights and maintaining the wellbeing of users of health, care or support services in own country while reflecting on ways in which specific tasks in health, care or support service practice meet national professional standards within a legal framework. To support the evaluation of the impact on policies, you need to compare national and organisational policies against national professional standards.

 

Task B: Submission Format

This submission will be in the form of a report. You may choose to include figures/diagrams and graphs that will be relevant to your work. The recommended length of this submission is 2500 words, although you will not be penalised for exceeding 2500 words. Where appropriate, learning theory and additional research must be used, and referenced according to the Harvard Referencing system. The work must include a bibliography for all referenced work using the Harvard referencing system

 

Unit Learning Outcomes

LO3 Interpret the law in relation to key ethical and professional Practice Themes in health and social care LO4 Apply law and policy in line with regulatory and ethical requirements in a relevant practice setting

 

Assignment Brief and Guidance

Scenario: Whorlton Hall was a 17-bed independent hospital based in County Durham, which provided care for people living with a learning disability or autism and complex needs, and for people who had additional physical or mental health needs and behaviours that challenge. It was inspected by CQC on several occasions and was given a good rating on 2017. Subsequent inspections, however, were not published by the CQC. It was following a BBC panorama documentary in 2019 which threw light onto the abuse, poor treatment, and failure of care to vulnerable and at-risk patients which had been going on for a number of years (including in 2017 when CQC gave a good rating). As this is a recent case, a number of resources are available to provide a foundation for your critical incident analysis. It will also provide opportunities to demonstrate your learning in legal, ethical and policy issues, especially as this is a recent example of systemic failure between regulatory bodies, service providers and staff. Activity: To support your critical review, you will be using your work placement or recent experience in a suitable healthcare setting and Whorlton Hall case study (detailed above) to answer various activities. With reference to this case scenario, you are required to write a report to CRITICALLY REVIEW ways in which health, care and support service practitioners can ensure currency and compliance with relevant legislation and national policies through ethical practice. To support the review and at the same time, you also need to analyse specific and recent health and social care national and international legislation or national policies in relation to their importance in informing rights and responsibilities of health, care or support service practitioners to provide equitable, fair and safe treatment/care. You should also demonstrate safe and healthy conduct by discussing how you implement different and relevant legislation and policy in own practice. Finally, to enhance the quality of your critical review, and based on the above selected law, policy and ethical considerations, you are required to describe their relationship and explain in detail how their impact might result in difference outcomes with reference to this case scenario.

 

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria
Pass	Merit	Distinction
LO1 Explore the legal framework within which health and social care practitioners operate		LO1 and LO2   D1 Evaluate the relationship between ethics and the law and their impact on organisational policy and practice towards protecting the rights and maintaining the wellbeing of users of health, care or support services in own country
P1 Summarise key features of the different levels of law and policy P2 Describe the relationship between ethics and legislation in relation to the work of health and social care practitioners	M1 Analyse the relationship between ethics and the law in terms of their relevance to own professional responsibilities as a health or care practitioner
LO2 Describe key legislation, national and organisational policy of fundamental importance to the health, care or support service practitioner
P3 Describe the relationship between key legislation and national policy, of direct relevance to health and social care practice   P4 Compare national and organisational policy against national professional standards in terms of their impact on health and social care practice	M2 Reflect on ways in which specific tasks in health, care or support service practice meet national professional standards within a legal framework
LO3 Interpret the law in relation to key ethical and professional Practice Themes in health and social care		LO3 and LO4 D3 Critically review ways in which health, care and support service practitioners can ensure currency and compliance with relevant legislation and national policy through ethical practice in relation to a real case scenario
P5 Explain how specific national and international law influence and inform the equitable and fair treatment of others in health, care and support services P6 Implement different and relevant legislation and policy in regard to safe and healthy conduct in own practice	M3 Analyse recent health and social care legislation or national policy in relation to its importance in informing rights and responsibilities of health, care or support service practitioners to provide safe and equitable care
LO4 Apply law and policy in line with regulatory and ethical requirements in a relevant practice setting		D4 Evaluate own role and practice in facilitating and empowering an individual to communicate their changing care needs in health, care and support services
P7 Describe different communication methods used to provide appropriate support to different individuals to meet and review their care needs   P8 Apply appropriate communication strategies in identifying and responding to the needs of different service users in a health, care or support service	M4 Demonstrate safe and clinically effective practice within own professional boundaries when communicating with different service users and staff in health, care, or support services   M5 Analyse own capacity for positive and person-centred risk-taking when supporting an individual to maintain their own identity to meet their ongoing care needs

 

GRADING DETAILS

 

Achievement of a pass grade

A pass grade is achieved by meeting all the requirements defined in the PASS assessment criteria for each individual unit.

Achievement of a merit grade

All the PASS assessment criteria and MERIT grade criteria need to be completed within a unit to achieve a merit grade.

Achievement of a distinction grade

All the PASS assessment criteria, MERIT and DISTINCTION criteria must be completed within a unit to achieve a distinction grade.

ALL GRADES ARE PROVISIONAL UNTIL INTERNALLY VERIFIED AND UNTIL EXTERNALLY CERTIFIED BY EDEXCEL.

THIS MEANS THAT A GRADE CAN BE CHANGED AT ANY POINT UNTIL EDEXCEL CERTIFIES IT

As per Pearson policy, you are only allowed two submissions per module. One for final submission and another one for referral. Failure to achieve a grade pass after a second submission will result in you having to repeat the module in the next term.

 

Any re-submission or late submission (unless authorised due to mitigating circumstances) will be capped at a PASS grade only.

• Present your work in one business report style which should include a cover page, table of contents, introduction, conclusion, reference list, foot or end notes and appendices if any
• Include the reference code of this assignment on your assignment submission front page.
• Sign the Learner’s Statement of authenticity in the cover page. Failure to do so may result in the submission being declined.
• Ensure the following information is in the footer on every page:
  • Your name
  • The production date of your submission
  • The code number of your assignment brief
  • The page number (Each page must be numbered at the bottom right-hand side)
• Spell-check the document and make sure there are no grammatical errors as it may result in the submission being declined.
• Complete all the tasks in a Holistic manner as set in the brief and without separating the assessment criteria to avoid a potential referral.
• Create your own titles and sub-headings to structure the work without copying the assessment criteria verbatim.
• Produce clear specific reasoning and arguments in support of your answers.
• Submit your work in a single work processed document of not more than 5000 words for all learning Outcomes. This word limit is only for guidelines and is not applied to grading.
• You must include a bibliography at the end to show where your information was sourced.
• Your sources must be identified using the Harvard referencing system. The words used in your bibliography will not be included in your word count.
• You must use Arial, size 12, 1.5 line spacing and black to format the text.

To access any feedback (formative/summative) you will have to access Moodle and open your assignment. You will have to click on the blue comment box in the righthand side and the feedback will appear within the text. You might have to click on the blue bubbles to see the feedback.

Extension and Late Submission

If an extension is necessary for a valid reason, requests must be made in writing using a course work extension request form to the head of department. Please note that the lecturers do not have the authority to extend the coursework deadlines and therefore do not ask them to award a coursework extension.

The completed form must be accompanied by evidence such as a medical certificate in the event of you being sick.

Plagiarism and Collusion

Any act of plagiarism and collusion will be seriously dealt with according to the regulations. In this context, the definition and scope of plagiarism are presented below:

‘Plagiarism occurs when a student misrepresents, as his/her own work, the work, written or otherwise, of any other person (including another student) or of any institution. Examples of forms of plagiarism include^[1]:

• the verbatim (word for word) copying of another’s work without appropriate and correctly presented acknowledgement;
• the close paraphrasing of another’s work by simply changing a few words or altering the order of presentation, without appropriate and correctly presented acknowledgement;
• unacknowledged quotation of phrases from another’s work;
• The deliberate and detailed presentation of another’s concept as one’s own.’

All types of work submitted by students are covered by this definition, including, written work, diagrams, designs, engineering drawings and pictures.

‘Collusion occurs when, unless with official approval (e.g., in the case of group projects), two or more students consciously collaborate in the preparation and production of work which is ultimately submitted by each in an identical, or substantially similar, form and/or is represented by each to be the product of his or her individual efforts.

Collusion also occurs where there is unauthorised co-operation between a student and another person in the preparation and production of work which is presented as the student’s own.’ (’Carroll, J and Appleton, J. (2001) Plagiarism – A Good Practice Guide.  Oxford Brookes University/JISC, Oxford).

In any case of plagiarism or collusion, the student might be called for an interview to explain the reasons for the similarities and to defend the submission. This may result in the submission to be downgraded and/or the unit having to be repeated

All submissions for assessment must be submitted on Moodle to generate a Turnitin Report on plagiarism.

The maximum Turnitin score admissible is 15% but a submission can be referred with a lower score depending on the size of the submission and size of the text highlighted for similarity.

The limit on AI detection has been set at 50%. If a submission is over that allowance, the submission could be rejected and awarded a Referral.

Assignments with high similarity will be automatically referred for reworking and resubmission.

Including pictures of text (apart from the cover page or table of content) or pictures of any other type of information (diagram for example) without a citation and a Harvard Reference could be deemed to be an attempt of malpractice and could trigger an automatic referral as well as a malpractice procedure.

Any student might be called to seat through a viva with the lecturer to confirm any parts of the submission through an interview which will then form part of the summative assessment.

Recommended Resources

Textbooks

AVERY, G. (2016) Law and Ethics in Nursing and Healthcare: An Introduction (2nd Ed.) London: Sage Publications Ltd.

HERRING, J. (2016) Medical Law and Ethics (6th Ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press

 

Websites

www.gmc-uk.org                                                      General Medical Council UK regulator for registered medical practitioners, including students (Guidance)

www.gov.uk gov.uk                                                 Government website of national policy in England (Guidance)

www.gov.wales                                                        Government website of national policy, law and practice in Wales, including links to NHS Wales (Guidance)

www.hcpc-uk.org                                                     UK regulator for Health and Social Care Professionals (Guidance)

www.health-ni.gov.uk                                             Northern Ireland, Department of Health Government website of national policy, law and practice in Northern Ireland, including links to NI Health and Social Care Trusts (Guidance)

www.legislation.gov.uk                                           UK Legislation UK-wide government website on legislation, often with explanatory notes (Guidance)

www.nmc.org.uk                                                      Nursing and Midwifery Council UK regulator for nurses and midwives The Code of Practice (Guidance)