Discrimination and Social Care

1 M2,D1 Unit 2 Equality diversity and rights in health and social care M2 Assess the influence of a recent national policy initiative promoting anti discriminatory practice D1 Evaluate the success of a recent initiative in promoting anti-discriminatory practice In this criterion there will be an assessment on a recent national policy initiative and the way it promotes anti- discriminatory practice in health and social care. Individual’s rights within a health and social care setting include having access to services and medication.

Services should not unlawfully discriminate service users due to their race, gender, disability, religion, belief, or sexuality. Another right of an individual within health and social care is being treated with respect and dignity. No matter what the persons circumstances are when using health or social care services they should always be treated fairly and with respect defiantly if they are in a vulnerable state. Communication is also another right of an individual.

Every health and social care setting should have trained professionals who know how to convey effective communication to avoid assumptions and discrimination. As the patients or service users should feel comfortable talking to the staff and know what is happening to them or further plans. For example in a hospital setting once a patient has come out of a big operation a staff member should be able to effectively communicate with them and inform them of all the information that is needed to be given to them.

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Translators should also be part of any health and social care organisations or easily contacted. All the rights of individuals are included within the Humans Right Act (1998) and they should be applied to the fullest with no contradictory. National policy initiatives National policy initiatives are Laws put together by society rather than the government. They reduce and sometimes stop marginalisation and promote the rights of individuals, whilst meeting their needs.

The promotion of anti-discriminatory practice is done through the national policies by targeting areas where it is needed. For example the Human Rights Act (1998) and the Disability Discrimination Act (2005), both address anti-discriminatory practice in different ways by ensuring that individuals are treated with respect and dignity and all there other rights are received 2 when being supported by health and social care settings. Every Child Matters (2003) The national policy initiative that will be assessed is Every Child Matters (2003).

The aim of this national initiative is to extend services to improve children's life chances and help them with life time problems. This policy highlights the need for services, including schools and social workers and health professionals to work more closely to protect and support the needs and rights of all children. Eight-year old Victoria Climbie died from hypothermia on 25 February 2000 after months of sustained abuse at the hands of her foster-carer and Great Aunt, MarieTherese Kouao and her partner Carl John Manning.

Victoria visited health and social care settings many times during her being abused and she was complete discharged with no member of staff questioning her marks on her arms and legs and how she broke her leg. Also due to her race she had dark skin colour and therefor bruising was not as apparent. The poor 8 year old went through complete torture and abuse for many years of her life and the health and social care services failed her so many times.

Following Victoria’s death, the Home Office and the Department of Health invited Lord Laming who is very well known to work with social services and child protection came to a conclusion that there had been to many deaths of young children who have suffered abuse and completely been neglected by the health and social care services. Lord Laming’s report stated that Victoria’s death had been entirely preventable 12 key occasions were identified where services could have successfully interfered to prevent Victoria coming to further harm.

The 12 key occasions missed consisted of poor decision-making support for front line workers; and failure to share information within and between agencies. This is where multi agency working became more well-known and the every child matters policy (2003) was released with all the enquiries of lord laming which mainly consisted of the services working as a team and making sure that the health and social care settings make sure all assessments are done thoroughly.

The Every Child Matters Policy (2003) was formed through lord lammings enquiries and was closely related to the Children’s Act (2004). Through lord lamming this policy and legislation are able to protect children like Vitoria Climbie and the other cases such as Baby P. The Every Child Matters Policy (2003) promotes anti 3 discriminatory practice in many ways but the five main aspects are the: healthiness Stay safe Enjoy and Achieve Make a positive contribution Achieve economic wellbeing The first assessment of this national initiative policy is the development of healthy lifestyles in children.

The holistic approach is used in promoting health to adolescents and children as the following are looked at: physical, sexual health, exercise, controlling personal stress and having self-esteem. Mental and emotional health are two that are very important in promoting anti discriminatory practice within health and social care as they both are the main focus to what influences an individual’s behaviour and well-being. The next assessment is the safety of children this policy provides. The every child matters policy helps in ensuring that children stay safe from harm.

For example abuse in any form including discrimination, marginalization and disempowerment. This also includes all health and social care settings to make sure they follow the child protection legislation and criminal records bureau (CRB) checks for all staff in health and social care setting as they work with the most vulnerable of people. Protecting young people from bullying, harassment and other forms of discrimination is vital as it can have major effects on the child’s future life.

Around 1 in 2 children are effected by bulling during school and do unfortunately under achieve and sometimes even turn to suicide (bullying statistics 2009: online). The child matter policy help in promoting anti discriminatory practice in health and social care organisations to keep a clear understanding on how to stop bulling and train staffs in following legislations, policies and procedures to help and reduce forms of bullying and harassment within all different aspect sexual, physical or verbal. Achieving economic well-being is also included in this policy.

It also helps in promoting anti –discrimination by helping children grow good teamwork qualities that will stop them from not only discriminating but also stop others from discriminating. The influence of this policy allows settings like schools to prepare children for the skills and knowledge needed for employment and for living economically independently. It also helps children in developing self- confidence again 4 promoting anti -discrimination as the person being discriminated at can build a good relationship with themselves to prevent them from being effected by the discrimination which could lead to low self- esteem and isolation.

This assessment proves to have very positive outcomes on young children as it helps them be trained for the bigger world and allows them to see how they can get good carers and be financially competent. It also includes allowing children to be able to access opportunities for work experience and work-based learning to help them again for the future. On another assessment the child matter policy also includes the importance of children enjoying education and training, and the extent to which children make progress with regard to their learning and their personal development.

The influence of this aspect has major promotions to anti-discrimination as it educates children in understanding the wrongness of discrimination and how it is unacceptable in society. This also helps children in later life to have a better quality life as the children will feel as though they have achieved something and this can stop children in underachieving schools to simply by making sure that they are enjoying their lessons. This also reduces abscesses and overall improves assessment levels.

Teaching children to safeguard them from abuse and neglect can also have a very positive outlook as it is very unfortunate that t not all abuse are recognised and does not stop them either for example the baby p case. Also according child help 2012: online about 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse. This is the reason to prompting ways children have to psychologically overcome the battle of abuse. Also anti-discrimination can be promoted through a wide curriculum including in teaching children in many different cultures religions value and beliefs.

Education is a major promotion in anti-discrimination and health and social care settings can support it by allowing staff to be open mind when approaching children in whatever they do. For example when a teacher is to teach a lesson they should make it fun and exciting that will help the learner be more positive about what they are being taught and actually enjoy it. Advocacy this is usually for the most vulnerable of people therefore this policy uses advocacy to makes sure that the rights of children are given to them in any circumstance.

However the advocate needs to make sure they do not start to 5 talk and express themselves through their prospects but rather the individuals. This is also part of being an empathetic professional. Many children do need advocates as they are sometimes unaware of the issues going on around them. For example if a child is experiences discrimination from a teacher they may not see it as discrimination and not do anything about this is where an advocate can help. Advocates can also help children to be involved in planning their care and support with regards to their wishes, hopes and dreams.

Every health and social care setting needs to have in place policies and procedures that are followed one by the legislation or acts. All health and social care professionals need to abide by the policies and procedures of the organisation to make sure they meet their role in the appropriate way by following the regulations. The every child matters policy does promote this in there regulations and support every employer in doing so. This is done through efficient training and experience. This is part of the professional’s rights to be allowed to have the training that they may need during their practice.

This assessment does not only link with the ever child matters policy but all the other national policy initiatives. It has a great influence on the service users as the policies and procedures are mainly made for their benefits and safeguarding the individuals within the practice. The final assessment on the every child matters policy is the promotion of children’s welfare. This is linked to ant discrimination in many ways as it looks at ensuring every child has an equal opportunity no matter where they are from to achieve the best possible development they can.

Some children may have been deprived of opportunities and assistance in early life due to their background or money issues within the family. This policy helps in problems like that and provide free services for people who cannot afford it also the promotion of anti-discrimination is done through this by allowing a whole range of different children from different ethnicities, religions and overall values come together to gain the same skills and experiences that can be used latter in their adult lives. D1 in evaluating the every child matters policy there are many strengths and weaknesses.

Evan though it is a document from the government green paper there are still improvements made. 6 A strength of the every child matters policy is being able to promote antidiscrimination is through clear learner centred development strategies. A central aim of education in citizenship and personal development is to enable pupils ‘to become more self-confident and responsible in and beyond the classroom. For example behaving in a polite and respectful manner and also picking up litter. This is a promotion of anti-discriminatory practice as young children are taught on how to respect and care for people.

For example telling the children that every race, religion and age is the same and they should all respect each other. Also this is strength in implementing anti-discriminatory practice as citizenship lessons educate children in very important life skills such as political and public life. it also educates children in situations where they are vulnerable to abuse and how to get help quickly and safely. For example a stranger taking a teenage girl out to a meal is one of the first steps to rape or even gang rape.

Education is the strength seen in the lesson provided for students called citizenship as Hannah Richardson a reporter on BBC news states that there are chances of citizenship lessons to become non-mandatory however it has proven to be a great lesson and made some students truly flourish (2010: online) Strength of the Every Child Matters policy is that it also provided a good initial advice and guidance through this policy. Another strength that links to the citizenship lessons is the wide range of curriculum enhancement activities for learners.

For example educational visits in and out of the country, musical art at lunch times similar to sports and extra curriculum activates such as work experience and working enterprise day are all good ways in promoting anti-discriminatory practice within schools as it again educates students on a wide range of ideas rather than what they just read from text books. For example taking student to Auschwitz in Poland to learn the horrifies of the concentration camps rather than reading it from a text book allows them to see how far discrimination went and how it killed up to 4. million people according to The nizkor project (2011: online) Allowing students to experience and see rather then read and hear can make them more passionate about the whole subject. For example world war 2. A third strength of the Every Child Matters Policy in promoting anti discriminatory practice in health and social care is the different health and social care services 7 working together. Also known as multi agency working. Multi-agency working provides benefits for children, young people and families because they receive tailormade support in the most efficient way.

The main positive parts in multi-agency working that help in promoting antidiscriminatory is through early identification and intervention which would have again helped previous cases such as Victoria Climbie and baby P. Easier or quicker access to services or expertise is another part of what makes the multi-agency working more sufficient and can save children from situations in time to spear their lives. This also promotes anti-discrimination as it does not marginalise children in poverty it is an overall strategy to help all children.

Overall multi-agency work creates a better quality of service whether the child is using the hospital; dentist or a social worker the different agencies and professionals putting their work together gives a higher chance of the child being in safe hands. However there is also weakness seen in multi-agency work that differ the effects of promoting anti discriminatory practice. For example challenges for workers of creating new professional identities in the growing communities Of practice in other words professionals become confused in where they stand within the agency.

This can cause negative behaviour and in some cases lead to discriminatory practice completely defeating the purpose of promoting anti discriminatory practice. For example if hospital agency joins with a social care agency there may be tension between what each member of staff is eligible to say to the rest of the group and where they are higher than the social workers as there manager or below them. Another weakness of, multi-agency work is the professionals background and form of language.

As many health and social care professionals use jargon that suits there profession for example medical jargon for move a limb or some other body part away from the midline of the body would be abduction and ABG - arterial blood gas reading. Certain abbreviation can cause difficulties in promoting anti discriminatory practice in the setting as other agencies may feel that they are not being told in full of the case. For example social workers may not understand medical jargon and therefore feel that there agency is being left out and not considered.

Weakness seen of the education stream the every child policy enquires went there where positive but there also stands negative or weakness that where seen. Evan 8 though Ofsted did believe that the curriculum was boosted by citizenship OFSTED (2012: online) some students felt that they did not want to do the subject as they had heard most of it before. As an eight-year-old said recently, “It‘s so boring when they keep telling you that making the world a better place means picking up litter and not killing whales‘. BBC News (2012 online) again anti-discrimination is not seen to be prompted if the pupils feel that they do not want to do citizenship as it will benefit them in the least possible way. Also this will lead to an effect of discrimination known as disempowerment as the children may feel they are not given a choice in what they want to and do not want to learn. Overall this criterion has shown the assessments and evaluations of a national policy initiative which is the every child matters policy (2003) that are mostly linked to the Human Right Act (1998).

The practices mentioned are very important to be fulfilled in a child’s life for them to have a positive outcome in the adult life. The Human Right Act is the central for health and social care settings. As employers need to be aware of them in any situation to protect all patients and service users of health and social care. Bibliography Edexcel (2011) Unit 2 (online) available at: www. edexcel. com/Pages/Home. aspx accessed 13/02/2012 Stretch. B and Whitehouse. M (2010) Edexcel health and social care level 3 Essex person education limited.

Accessed 15/02/2012 Department of education (2012) every child matters: change for children (online) available at: www. education. gov. uk/publications/standard/publicationdetail/page1/ DfES/1081/2004 accessed 13/02/2012 The Excellence Gateway Treasury (2012) Every Child Matters (ECM) (online) available at: http://archive. excellencegateway. org. uk/page. aspx? o=167914 accessed 12/02/2012 Sen Help advice and info (2011) Every Child Matters (online) available at: www. specialneedshelp. co. k/about-every-child-matters accessed 13/02/2012 Bullying statistics (2009) welcome to bullying statistics (online) available at: 9 www. bullyingstatistics. org/ accessed 13/02/2012 NSPCC (2011) statistics (online) available at: www. nspcc. org. uk/inform/research/ statistics/statistics_wda48748. html accessed 14/02/2012 BBC News (2003) Victoria Climbie: chain of neglects (online) available at: http:// news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/uk/2700427. stm accessed 14/02/2012 BBC new (2010) teachers fear for future citizenship lessons. (Online) available at: online www. bbc. co. uk/news/education-11502537 accessed 14/02/2012 10

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