AO1: Values and Individual Rights

Who were my Service Users?
My work place was conducted in a nursery called Lilford Day Care centre. I knew about the placement because I used to attend the nursery when I was younger. This meant I was already familiar with my surroundings, and knew majority of the staff which it made it easier for me to get along with them, and feel comfortable around them. As being a part of the staff for 2 weeks I had various tasks that I had to complete. I had to think of creative and imaginative activities that I could involve the children with that would help them with their learning skills whilst having a fun time. So activities such as baking, going to parks and constructing puzzles helped to engage the children. As the children I worked with were aged 1-3 I couldn’t make the activities too challenging so that they could take part. I had to make sure that I fully engaged with the children, getting on the same level as them so that they saw me as a friend rather than towering over them and displaying threatening body language, I always made sure I remembered this when speaking to the children.
What are ethics and values?
Values- “Values are a set of beliefs or views that people hold about what is right or wrong and reflect a person’s sense of what is good or bad” (skillsforcare, 2015) Values are elements within your life which you find personally important, we use values as a core guide in which to conduct your life in a way that is meaningful and satisfying for yourself personally. Values are also used to measure choices, they determine your level of satisfaction with your choices, even if decisions are not freely made but constrained by other factors. Values also have an impact on our decision making when it comes to factors such as when starting a relationship or friendship with others. For example, when starting a friendship with someone, we tend to gravitate towards people who share the same values as we do as it makes for the friendship to be much more natural as you would both share a common ground. It is also important that we constantly reflect on our values as they are constantly changing. In the senses that are values must have changed considerably from when you were a teenager and then maturing into a mature adult. This is because what you now value would differ from what you valued back then, hence why it is important that we constantly reflect on our values.
Ethics- “Ethics defines the elements essential to human well-being and proposes principles to be used as guidelines for generating an ethical culture. Ethics also refers to the specific values, standards, rules, and agreements people adopt for conducting their lives” (ethicalsociety.org, 2015) Ethics are also important as it acts as a moral guide, helping us to make decisions to increase the likelihood that you ensure no harm is done to yourself or others. It can help us to delay instant gratification for the best interest of ourselves and for others. Ethics are also important as we should view them as a code of conduct, and refer back to them in our life daily.

Why are Ethics and Values in a health and social care setting important?
Establishing good ethical standards in a health and social care environment is very important as it is the responsibility of the staff to ensure that the service users in their care receive the best possible care and are treated in a manner where they are given respect.

What is meant by Equality?
Equality- “Equality is about ‘creating a fairer society, where everyone can participate and has the opportunity to fulfil their potential” (faculty.londondeanery, 2015) Equality is all about giving every individual a fair and equal opportunity in life. Everyone should be treated in the same manner; nobody should receive more or less attention than another individual, as this would not be showing equality. For example, if there were 2 people applying for a job, and one of the candidates was the same gender race/ethnicity as the employer, they should not be given an upper hand to the other candidate who may be from another race and have a different ethnicity. Instead, both should be treated in an equal manner, and the job should be offered based upon their skills and qualifications that would be fitting of the job role and not based on their appearance. Equality is important as it allows for people to be treated equally in every opportunity which means that no individual is made to feel excluded or left out. Equality means that there should be no sense of discrimination or prejudice, as people should not be judgemental of others and pass unfavourable judgement, instead treating others in a positive and equal manner.

What is meant by Occupational Standards?
Occupational Standards- “National Occupational Standards (NOS) are statements of the standards of performance individuals must achieve when carrying out functions in the workplace, together with specifications of the underpinning knowledge and understanding” (nos.ukces.org.uk, 2015) Occupational standards are standards which have to be maintained at all times, most commonly in the workplace. Occupational standards are used to prepare job descriptions and specifications, determine recruitment criteria, develop training programmes, and assess the effectiveness of the training programmes and identifying skills gaps and training needs.

What is the GSCC code of practice?
The General Social Care Council (GSCC) is the social care workforce regulator for England; it was established in October 2001, under the care standards of 2000. The GSCC works to improve the care of social care services to benefit the individuals who use the service; they do so through regulation of the workforce and through its contribution to social work education. The GSCC has three main functions. * Issuing and distributing codes of practice for social care workers and their employers * Maintains the register of social care workers * Regulates social work and education training
As a person within the social care setting it is of importance that you protect the rights and promote the interest of your service users, this includes treating each person as an individual, so respecting a patient’s individuality and understanding their specific needs and being able to effectively administer the correct treatment. Supporting the service users rights and to control their lives and make informed choices about the care they receive. So it is of importance that you are constantly making the patient aware of any decision making, so that the patient is able to give their own input and decide whether they feel as if it would be beneficial to them. Respecting and maintaining the dignity and privacy of the service users. It is essential that we keep the information strictly confidential. Only sharing personal information between yourself and the patient, by spreading the patient’s confidential and private business the service user would be violating their dignity as personal and private information is being passed around without the informed consent of the patient.
Also being able to respect different cultures and values, in a health and social care setting such as a hospital, it is often that nurses and doctors are in the presence of patients who have all kinds of different backgrounds and cultures. As someone within the health and social care profession, it is important that each patient is treated with the same respect and equality and made to feel as if they are of importance and treated equally.

What is the care value base?
The care value base are a set of principles that every health and social care setting need to ensure that they follow in order for the service they provide to be successful and effective when caring for the service users. The basis of the care value base is to ensure that it helps to improve the quality of life for the service user whether it is an elderly patient or a young child. The care value base is set into 7 stages:
1. Promoting anti discriminatory practice- This ensures that care practitioners show respect and dignity to the service users regardless of their religion, sex, age and race/ethnicity. The way the patient is cared for should not be affected by any of these factors, it is the care practitioner’s duty to administer excellent care that the service users deserve and require. At my work placement I had to keep the care value base mind, by making sure I respected each of the children no matter what their ethnicity or culturally background was. Instead I used the fact that the nursery was so diverse to bring all of the children together through their backgrounds by having activities that would enable them to express their nationality.
2. Marinating confidentially of information- Confidentiality- “Confidentiality is the protection of personal information. Confidentiality means keeping a client’s information between you and the client, and not telling others including co-workers, friends, family, etc.” (Sie.learning, 2009) this means that any information that the service user provides to the care practitioner is treated with the utmost confidentiality and treated with privacy and respect. However in some cases, even if the information given may be private in also can have a right to be shared with someone in authority. For instance if a patient tells the care practitioner that she has been a victim of domestic violence, it is then the care practitioners duty to inform someone immediately to make sure the patients wellbeing and safety remains protected.
In my placement, it was important that the children’s personal details remained confidential and the information was only to be shared between members within the establishment. Information was not to be passed onto people outside, as this would be breaking the confidentiality and respect of the children.
In another health and social care setting, such as a hospital, it is also important to keep the information of the patients private and confidential and let the information be to your discretion only, this would entail no passing on of information as this is breaking one of the main focusses in the care value base.
3. Promoting and supporting individuals’ rights to dignity, independence and safety- This may mean that at times the service users may feel inferior and at the mercy of the care practitioners because they need to rely on them in order to get better, this may be hard for some patients to have to let their guard down and trust their wellbeing in the hands of someone else as they may be used to taking care of themselves. It’s the care practitioner’s duty to be able to empower and boost up the confidence of the service user and ensure to them that they still have their rights.
For example, at a residential home, it would be important for the care practitioner’s to keep in mind the respect and dignity of the patients, as care practitioners are constantly having to aid and accompany the elderly which at times may feel like a burden or an inconvenience. The care practitioner would need to ensure that they are constantly empowering and building up the confidence of the elderly to make them feel as if they have a say in their rights and what type of care they should receive.
4. Acknowledging a Person’s beliefs and identity- This principle means that the care practitioner should always acknowledge service users beliefs and make sure that their duty of care falls in line with the person’s belief and identity. For example Jehovah’s Witnesses do not accept blood transfusions of any kind. This would mean that the care practitioner’s would have to try and offer an alternative solution which still fits into their beliefs.
For instance, at my placement, there were children who were Muslim and Jehovah’s Witnesses, this meant that I had to respect and appreciate the different beliefs of the children. When it came to activities such as making seasonal cards for family or if it was one of the children’s birthday, then it would be my responsibility to find different activities for the children who did not involve themselves in such practices and keep them busy in different activities.
5. Protecting individuals from abuse- this principle is quite similar to that of maintaining confidentiality in the sense that if a care practitioner has been told of anything that has impact on the mistreatment of the service user, or they can visibly see for themselves without being told that the service user has accounted some harm. Then it becomes of vital importance that the care practitioner takes immediate action in ensuring the safety of the service user, for instance withholding information about the whereabouts of the service user to the abuser. Also by making sure that the service user is relaxed and comfortable in their current environment and immediately alerts the attention of a higher important figure even if the service user may be against it. At the end of the day, the safety and wellbeing of the service user should be the care practitioner’s number 1 priority at the time.
6. The promotion of effective communication and relationships- This principle is extremely important because in order for the service user to receive the best care possible, then it is important for the staff in the environment to be able to get along despite any personal issues they may have with one another, they should keep it professional at all times.
At my placement, I got on really well with the staff as they cared for me when I was younger, so it was easy for me to be able to interact with the staff and build up friendships with them because I had known them for so long.
In a hospital it is vital for the staff to be able to get along with one another because the patient is able to see the interaction between the staff members, if the patients were to view the staff members constantly arguing it could make them feel quite uncomfortable. This could have an effect on the quality of care they receive because the staff member may be harbouring anger which may have an effect on the patients’ health.
7. The provision of personalised care- This principle could be considered to be the most important out of the 7 principles in care value base because in order for the service user to get better or become allocated in society it’s important that care practitioners provide personalised care for them because every person is different and suffer from various problems some maybe physical others could be mental so it’s important that care practitioners provide care that will specifically help that particular service user something that will benefit them personally and will make them better not care they provide someone else.
Why is it important for care workers and service users?
The care value base is so important for service users because it reassures them that their quality of life will be improved and that they would be receiving the best possible care possible granted that each 7 principles are taken into account. Health and social care practitioners encounter a wide range of people on a regular basis, who experience a wide range of differing care needs and problems. So it is important for care practitioner’s to be able to use the care value base when administering care to patients. The care value base is important for the service users as they want to feel valued and respected knowing that the care they are receiving is tailored to how they are individually, as not everybody can be administered the same care as everyone is different and experience different problems

The importance of confidentiality for service users?
It is important that those working within the health and social care profession maintain the confidentiality between themselves and a patient as each individual has personal battles and struggles they may be going through, as the service user would see the person taking care of them as someone they feel as though they can trust, they are more inclined to share personal information as they have grown to build a rapport. The person looking after the individual should show respect and decency by keeping personal conversations private and confidential between themselves as the information was only expressed to them. To go and share out such information would be a high breach of the service user’s dignity as information would be passed around without the knowledge of the patient.
Confidentiality links into the 2nd care value base of maintain confidentiality of information, this involves treating any information expressed to you by the service user should be treated with the utmost care and respect, by valuing them by keeping their information private. The one time when this care value may be breached is when the service user may be in danger, even though the service user may not want the information to be shared, it is important that the information be passed onto a higher figure to assist the patient.
For example, if a patient was suffering from domestic abuse and told the doctor/nurse this information, although she may want it to remain between the two of them, it would be ethically wrong for the doctor/nurse to be withholding such information as this may even put the patient in greater danger. Instead it would be their duty to make someone aware of the patient’s circumstances and help assist in any way possible.
Other than such circumstances arising, it is of high importance that a service user’s information remains private and confidential as they have entrusted such information with the person taking care of them, therefore they may feel as if their privacy should remain confidential and should not be shared with others under any circumstances. If the doctor/nurse was to breach the service user’s wishes, without a valid reason, then this could lead to distressing the service user further as you have broken their trust as well as their right to privacy. This would make it much harder for the patient to build up a rapport again. This could essentially means the service user is not benefiting from the best care provided. As the GSCC states, its purpose is to help improve the care of those who use the health and social care setting.

Effective Communication for service user’s rights