Duty_of_Care

Evidence Number | 1 | Form 6 Learner Performance Evidence Record for Holistic Assessment of Units Use this form to record details of activities (tick as appropriate) Observed by your assessor □ Assignments / Projects x□ Seen by a witness □ Questions □ Learner Reflective account □ Learner explanation □ Award: CYPS Workforce L3 Diploma QCF Candidate Name: Mike Smith Registration Number: Date: 23/11/11 Links to | Performance Evidence | Unit No. | LearningOutcome | Ass.Criteria | | 545454545454 | 1.11.22.12.22.33.13.2 | | Employers working in a range of professions and job sectors have a duty of care which can be defined, in legal terms as “a legal obligation imposed on an individual requiring that they adhere to a standard of reasonable care while performing any acts that could foreseeably harm others” (Law Society website). Unison extends its definition of Duty of Care to include “service users, your colleagues, your employer, yourself and the public interest.” More specifically, and relevant to my own work setting, Duty of Care is defined as staff being “responsible for the safety and wellbeing of all the children and young people we support” (HBBS Key Policies and Procedures handbook).My Duty is to support young in line with the Governments Every Child Matters agenda, i.e. in Being Healthy, Staying Safe, Enjoying and Achieving, Making a Positive Contribution and Achieving Economic Wellbeing. Furthermore my Duty of Care is made more acute by nature of the vulnerability of our service users - for example their lower levels of understanding, those with mobility and communication difficulties, lack of awareness of road traffic, and stranger danger, their often constant need for supervision etc.Key to how I carry out my Duty therefore is management of risk. This starts with the initial assessment carried out with families of the young person, along with input from key professional s such as doctors, social workers, teachers etc. I document the young person’s likes and dislikes, behaviour patterns and strategies to manage same (Individual Crisis Management Plans), health, medication and mobility issues, communication styles, personal care needs, dietary needs and preferences etc. This information results in the young person’s individual care plan and is the “bible” on which I base my Duty of Care to that person.Risk assessments are produced covering all the likely hazards, situations, activities and venues that the young person will/may face. These assessments are collated generically in the form of the HBBS Risk Management file and specifically as part of the individual care plan which I carry securely with me on every session. Care plans are also kept locked away in the office. It is important that care plans and risk assessments are updated on a regular basis to take into account changes in circumstances, behaviours etc. Different staff will often work with a young person and I have a Duty of Care to ensure I communicate changes to ensure consistent and safe working practices.Hand in hand with managing risk goes working safely which includes ensuring any equipment to be used, e.g. hoists, are in good order, child locks are always used on cars, first aid equipment carried and wheelchair users are safely secured on minibuses (I recently attended a training course where I learnt that a High Court ruling stated that, on this subject, we have a greater Duty of Care towards disabled bus passengers as they are more vulnerable to injuries and less capable of resisting forces involved in an accident) My dress should be appropriate (footwear, jewellery, protective clothing for personal hygiene and medicines administration etc.) I have a Duty when manual handling to ensure I adhere, for both our safety and the young persons, to procedures and skills gained from training courses.I have a Duty of Care when administrating medicines – to ensure that these are in date, administrated according to protocols and training methods, correctly signed and accounted for using relevant documentation by workers and parents with all paperwork being securely and confidentially stored. I regularly transport young people on sessions and my Duty of Care in this respect is to ensure young people are safe, child locks on (which is confirmed on our contact sheets see below), they sit so as to not endanger the driver, windows closed etc. I am responsible for daily safety checks on vehicles used and to ensure my own car is safely maintained.A vital Duty of Care I have as a support worker, in common with anyone who works with children and young people, is my role in safeguarding. The Government defines Safeguarding as “The process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development, and ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care that enables children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.” (Source: safeguardingchildren.org.uk) My Employer defines Safeguarding, in its Code of Conduct for employees, as us having a “responsibility to create and maintain a culture that will help prevent and detect inappropriate and abusive behaviour” and to “always place our role as carer above all other interests.”Practically speaking my Safeguarding Duty of Care is to help ensure that children and young people are safe from abuse and mistreatment. I recently completed an online training and assessment programme covering the subject of Safeguarding (100% pass mark) and learnt that it covers physical, emotional, domestic and sexual abuse and how to recognise signs and clues which indicated possible abuse. It is my Duty of Care to keep vigilant at all times, to keep up with refresher training on this subject and to act in line with my Employers “Whistleblowing Policy” (see below) if I know or suspect abuse is, or has, taken place. If I could not immediately make contact with my line manager then my Duty of Care would be to contact Social Care Direct.I am responsible for conducting myself in a professional way at all times, both on and off duty. This Duty of Care to young people covers things like ensuring I maintain professional boundaries (no sharing of personal phone numbers, contact on social networking sites, taking young people to our own homes, guarding against showing favouritism etc.), confidentiality of records and conversations, leading by example when working with impressionable young people etc. We have a duty to ourselves to protect ourselves from physical harm or allegations of bad practice, abuse or misconduct. An example of this would be attending to the personal hygiene needs of BJ where it is imperative that two members of staff work together correctly using hoisting equipment and changing materials ensuring he feels safe and is able to preserve his dignity.Conversely we have a duty of care to report any concerns we have about the malpractice of others when, in our professional judgement a young person’s safety and wellbeing is threatened. This could include not adhering to “best practice”, improper conduct, not adhering to Health and Safety regulations and guidelines, abuse/neglect of service users etc. The mechanics for this are contained in the Councils Whistleblowing Code of Practice which forms an important part of induction training for our roles. Our Duty is to report incidents and examples to our line manager in the first instance and to be confident that in doing so we are not going to suffer reprisals. Our reports should thorough and include detail of background information, people concerned, locations, dates, times etc. We also have a Duty to support young people and families, where appropriate, to “blow the whistle”.I have a Duty of Care towards the parents and carers of the young people I support, to members of the Public when working out in the community, to colleagues and to myself. Working in partnership with parents my Duty is to have regular communication about the young person about any changes in health, behaviour, likes/dislikes etc. This is carried out formally via periodic reviews and updating of care plans and risk assessments, and informally by way of feedback and general chatting at the end of a session. After every session with a young person I complete a “contact” form which describes what we did, where we went, what we ate, any behaviour issues, any medications dispensed, times, dates etc. This is signed by both myself and the young person’s parent/carer and then kept securely on file in the office. As well as being of use to the parent it is also a factual record of events which provides Duty of Care to me should anything be challenged or disputed in the future. It is very important whilst out in the community to show respect for members of the public for health and safety reasons. Many of our young people have challenging behaviours and I need to be vigilant at all times, for example when taking GC to a public soft play gym I have to be careful that she does not bully other children. When eating out with JR I do not let him serve himself at the salad bar because his tendency to spit is a public health hazard.As mentioned previously it is important that, for the good of the young person, I share all relevant information on them with colleagues who also work with them to ensure a consistency of working practice, to share ideas, to update risks and incidents etc. This is done via completing contact sheets to which we all have access, discussions in team meetings and supervisions, reports and informal talks.Adhering to all the areas of Duty of Care set out above contributes significantly to ensuring safe practice and a safe environment for the children and young people I support. Despite the contents of care plans and risk assessments the children and young people I work with will occasionally try/want to behave and do things in a way, or in a situation, that causes conflict or dilemmas between their individual rights and the Duty of Care outlined previously.Unison deals with this topic and the following extracts from section 7.9 of their Duty of Care handbook highlights the dilemmas and possible conflicts I face in my role:“sometimes staff or services can become averse to taking any sort of risks withpeople in their care. This can be detrimental to service users and trap them in dependency, limit their autonomy, or at worse make them institutionalised.Positive risk taking is an approach which is popular in social care… … It allows service users to take decisions about their own lives,even if those decisions could result in risks or mistakes. It aims to find a balance between allowing people the choice to take risks and feel in chargeof their own lives…. this needs to be balanced against the duty of care. If the service user was allowed to take a risk which resulted in harm – then the practitioner would need to be able to defend their decision by demonstrating that they had undertaken a thorough assessment, all reasonable steps had been taken to avoid harm, decisions had been recorded and procedures carefully followed.”Furthermore the Code of Practice (section 4) for Social Care Workers states that, “as a worker you must respect the rights of service users while seeking to ensure that their behavior does not harm themselves or other people” and that this includes “recognizing that service users have the right to take risks and helping them to identify and manage potential risks to themselves and others…”It is sometimes easier than others to help young people identify risks depending on their levels of understanding and communication skills.I support AM, who has ADHD and developmental delay, to go swimming. He loves diving and always wants to push the boundaries, pleading to go off the top board. He tells me that it is “up to him” but I have to repeatedly remind him that it could result in serious injury, that it would be my responsibility if anything happened to him and to divert him to safer alternatives whilst still having fun. I have recently become aware that AM is smoking weed at home. Whilst he is exercising his rights in his own time and environment I still have a duty of care to offer conflicting health advise if he brings up the subject during our session.Conversely many of our young people do not have the capacity to understand risk of harm nor advice given to them and we have to act in their best interests to ensure their safety and wellbeing. Road safety and stranger danger are common areas where I find conflict and dilemma arising between a young person’s rights and Duty of Care. JB will resist your attempt to hold his hand whilst crossing a road and it sometimes feels uncomfortable to insist on this. However he has no sense of danger and would walk in front of a passing car if allowed so it is obvious that Duty of Care has to prevail in that dilemma. JC is a very sociable young man and would think nothing of chatting to strangers when he went to a public toilet. My dilemma in this case is to balance the dangers surrounding his vulnerability with maintaining his right to privacy, social interaction and respecting his personality.I have never had a young person reveal or allege abuse but if I did, and if they asked me not to tell anyone then I would have to deal in the correct manner with a conflict/dilemma situation according to Safeguarding codes of practice training and other systems for raising concerns.Parents occasionally put me in situations of potential conflict by asking me to work in certain ways which go against best practice, risk assessments etc.JR`s mother asked me to take him to the barbers for a haircut during one of our sessions. Whilst this seemed a reasonable request I had to decline as no risk assessment was in place. I have had cases where parents have said that it is ok for their children to travel in the front seat of my car because they are allowed (i.e. have a “right”) in theirs. Where we have clearly identified that the young person’s behavior may present a risk then this conflict is easily dealt with by sticking to our Duty of Care. Where not, however, it becomes a dilemma which can often be sorted directly with the family by compromise, negotiation around rules etc.I had an instance with FH when he asked me if I was on Facebook. I advised him that I was not allowed to communicate with any young person I worked with online. This was a conflict between adhering to what FH thought was a perfectly reasonable request and maintaining professional boundaries whilst not upsetting his feelings and “rights” to communication.Some conflicts and dilemmas are easy to resolve but for others I know that I can seek advice from other sources. This would include line management, supervision, health professionals, school staff, advocacy services, counseling services, other colleagues, trainers etc.I have direct experience of how to respond to a complaint. When working with HR, who is autistic, in a public park I had an incident when he grabbed a member of the public’s hair. After apologizing, listening to her concerns and grievances and trying to explain I advised the lady that she had the right to complain. I gave her the direct phone number and address of my line manager as well as my own details and advised her to follow up any phone call with a letter.As part of initial assessment of a young person coming on Service we advise parents/carers how to make a complaint, the procedures and stages involved, who will be dealing with their complaint and how to appeal any decision made.The stages of the complaints process are set out in my employers “Guide to complaints about Children’s Services” leaflet.Stage 1, Local Resolution, states that, in the first instance parents should attempt to resolve any issues with the member of staff they normally deal with. If that cannot be done to their satisfaction then they should contact the staff members Manager who will arrange a meeting to talk about concerns. If they are unhappy with the outcome of this meeting they can contact the complaints team. They will get a written acknowledgement within two working days and a full written response within ten. If this were to take longer then they would be kept informed of progress by a case complaints officer.If they are not happy with that response they can move to Stage 2, Independent Investigation. This involves making a written complaint, within twenty days of the date of the response letter. This can be made to the complaints team by letter, fax, e-mail or telephone. An investigator who is paid by the Council but not a staff member, will investigate the complaint. They will meet the complainant, who can be accompanied by another person, to initially discuss matters. The investigator will then interview all staff involved, read all relevant documentation and keep the complainant informed. The resulting report will be read by a senior Family Services manager who will send out a written decision and a copy of the report to the complainant. The Stage Two process should be carried out within 65 days from the initial meeting with the Investigator, any longer and the complainant will be kept informed and asked to support an extension. | Learner signature Date Assessor signature Date Witness signature Date