Equality and Diversity PDF

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Equality and diversity in health care which includes explanations of the legislation that employers must follow to promote equality and diversity....

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National initiatives and anti-discriminatory Task 1: The anti-discriminatory practice is important in health and social care environments because it promotes equality and it protects individuals from being treated unfairly because of a personal characteristic, such as ethnicity, religion, age, disability or social class. When this practice is promoted in health and social care environments it ensures individuals have access to opportunities and can contribute to society. The anti-discriminatory practice aims to stop putting prejudices into practice and create a safe environment. Health professionals working in health and social care settings can actively promote the antidiscriminatory practice and anti-discriminatory practice can be found in many different forms. 1.) Legislation: Legislation is legal framework that includes a set of guidelines that were formed by the government and it’s the law for organisations to implement them. For example, the equality act comes under legislation and it’s protected by the law. All organisations must follow the equality act because it eliminates discrimination against individuals and it protects their personal characteristic. Legislations promote anti-discriminatory practice by protecting individuals from discrimination and unfair treatment such as in the workplace. For example, a woman is treated differently in her work place because of her gender, the male employees belittle her work and call her ‘darling’ because they refuse to call her by her first name. This is sexism and an act of gender discrimination. Therefore, the employer has to identify and challenge discrimination by implement the legislation and following the guidelines. These include suspending the employees, taking legal action by reporting discriminatory practice, staff training and development. Legislations ensures that all individuals are treated equally and protected from any acts of discrimination. As a result, the woman employee will be treated as a member of staff and clear boundaries will be maintained by promoting the individual’s rights, choices and well-being. However, if the legislations are not followed it means that the law is also broken. Individuals may be prosecuted because legislations are implemented to protect vulnerable social groups in society. 2.) Codes of practice: Code of practice is a legal framework formed to actively promote anti-discriminatory practice. It is used as a rule book to give guidance on ‘how to provide care with equality and not to discriminate’. It is also used in training to ensure employees do not use discriminatory practice and give equal and fair treatment.Code of practice is used in organisations such as hospitals to ensure that health professionals have responsibility and promote the rights of the patients. For example, health professionals encouraging patients to take a look at their medical files because they have the right to know what information is stored about them confidently in the hospital. Health professionals have to address signs of discrimination by implementing government policies and procedures. 3.) Policies and procedures: Policies and procedures can actively promote anti-discriminatory practice by implementing principles and guidelines for service workers and service users to follow in order to treat or receive effective care. Healthcare professionals follow the policies and procedures given by

their employer and they are used to support them when working with patients to ensure that quality of care is received. It is used in the workplace to cover procedures like hiring, firing, training, promotion and carrying out disciplinary action. This is because it helps to ensure equal treatment and prevent discrimination against vulnerable groups in society. 4.) Charters: Charters promote anti-discriminatory practice by setting out objective rules and standards for organisation. Charter is used in organisations like hospitals to provide service users the best quality of care they can receive. For example, charters include the promise of the hospital. It is SMART goals that the hospital has to implement and everyone has to attempt to achieve it. This is because it lays out promises that is expected to be kept in the hospital. The charter includes guidelines that they expect service workers to follow in the hospital. For example, patients should be treated with respect, their dignity should be respected and it’s a promise to keep private information confidential. Also, all patients should receive equal and fair treatment because they have the right to consultation. Whereas, the patients should be respectful to the healthcare professionals and follow the hospital rules such as no phone calls in the building. As a result, it will promote anti-discriminatory practice because the charters ensured that the health of the service users were given the best quality of care, and equal and fair treatment is maintained. Task 2: The Equality act is influential in promoting anti-discriminatory practice because it states the principles of how to treat individuals equally and fairly. It is national initiative that is used to protect vulnerable social groups in society. These include, old people, sick people, woman, disabled people and children. For example, depression is a mental illness and it is considered as a disability. Disability is protected under the equality act and the disability legislation. Therefore, if an individual has depression and they are not in right mental state to work they are entitled to the right to take time off and receive the sick role. This is because they vulnerable to society and the equality act protects them from discrimination. Depression may not be seen as a disability to society and employers could refuse to maintain their rights. The equality act is implemented in organisations to strengthen anti-discrimination. Individuals with depression should be given the same equal opportunities in reaction to work as other disabled people. For example, The equality act promotes anti-discriminatory practice by ensuring that gender reassignment is now a protected characteristic that is protected under the equality act. Transgender people suffer from direct discrimination than other social groups. The equality act ensures that transgender people are given equal and fair treatment in the workplace, education, hospitals and public services.. For example, where a rule, policy or practice has a disadvantage towards transgender people and can’t be justified the equality act will protect individuals from indirect discrimination.So , if a transgender person is discriminated against as a guest or a member in a club they are allowed to take legal action because they are entitled to their legal rights to go wherever they want. The inittave makes sure that organisations implement the principles to prevent anti-discrimination and promote vulnerable individuals rights. The transgender person has a right to consultation because they are still a human being that deserves to treated in the same way as everyone else in the hospital receiving healthcare, but also recognise the differences as needs can be met in different ways.

The equality act promotes anti-discriminatory practice by supporting vulnerable individuals in society who are placed in the lower class. For example, these individuals may live in deprived areas and suffer from poor health. They are looked down by society and treated unfairly. The equality act ensures that they are not treated different because of their deprived circumstances and limited from opportunities that could improve their health. There should be GP’s in deprived areas where deprived individuals can receive healthcare and have the same equal opportunity as others in higher social classes to be able to gain knowledge on ill health. Task 3: Social groups are protected by the equality act. It is implemented in organisations through training and education. This is to prevent anti-discriminatory by teaching individuals how to treat people from different backgrounds. For example, muslim women are only allowed to be treated by a female doctor due to their religion and health professionals must not discriminate and discard their beliefs. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the employer to implement the equality act onto the employees during their training before employment. Depression has become a protective characteristic that is listed under disability, disabled individuals are protected by the equality act. The legislation states that if an individual has a disability they have the right to take time off work if it is putting pressure onto their health. Mental health should be taken seriously at the workplace because it can affect work performance. The equality act reinforces the sick role in organisations because it supports people with disabilities. However, there may be difficulties when implementing this initiative. The Equality act influences schools to provide accessibility and extra support for people with a disability. For example, disabled students may be unable to reach their full potential due to of their disability and teachers may not empower them to achieve like other students or treat them differently So, it’s important teachers follow the guidelines of the equality act and not treat students differently due to personal characteristics. Disabled students deserve the same opportunity as students without a disability and they should not be discriminated against. There may be difficulties when implementing this initiative because of lack of training and knowledge. Employees may not be aware of their discriminatory practice because the employer failed to promote anti-discriminatory practice during their training. For example, the employer did not implement the equality act by not giving out leaflets that explains the influence of equality promoting anti-discriminatory practice. To make this initiative succeed the employer could include role plays into the training where there is a situation that an employer treats the woman employer unfair because of her gender and belittles her work with sexist comments. The employers in the training should discuss the situation and how they would resolve the gender discrimination against the female employer by deciding that the woman employer should confront the employer and if it does not work she should report to the employer or HR. This initiative influences anti-discrimination because owners of restaurants and public places are not allowed to ask women to stop breastfeeding. The equality act protects women from the discrimination they face for breastfeeding. It enables them to feed their child without feeling embarrassed and reinforces their rights as a mother attending to their child’s needs. The initiative is used to help women feel comfortable breastfeeding in public because they

fear being sexualised, labelled and bullied. It reassurances women that they are not doing anything wrong but simply feeding their feeding their child. The equality act states ‘it is discrimination to treat women unfavourably because she is breastfeeding’.Therefore the initiative influences the normalising of breastfeeding in public and teaches society that women have the right because it is their body. It applies to anyone in society that provides services, facilities and access to the public. It has become against the law to stop women from breastfeeding and treating them differently. As a result, it is lawful for a service provided for the public to refuse to serve an individual breastfeeding a baby because they are entitled to their legal rights and as women are seen as the vulnerable groups of society they need the protection and the support from the equality act. It must be implemented in organisations, so they can stop mothers from being discriminated against or harassed because of breastfeeding a baby by the employers making sure the employees have training. This is because they can become aware of the protection from discrimination given to breastfeeding mothers under the equality act. There might be difficulties when implementing this initiative because women may feel uncomfortable to breastfeed in public due to bad past experiences from breastfeeding so may avoid having to breastfeed in public. Therefore, they are not aware of their legal rights because the initiative may not be able to offer full protection because they still suffer from sexual comments from men and their situation is not taken seriously because people may not be aware of women's rights to breastfed in public due to lack of education. This can result in women feeling uncomfortable and not feeding their hungry child because they fear hateful comments. To make sure this initiative succeed is to ensure that society is educated and made aware of women. Task 4: The equality act ensures that organisations provide equal quality of care. However in society there will always be discrimination and it will be difficult to stop it. Therefore, society should implement goals to help eliminate discrimination in the workplace, hospitals and public places. The equality act reinforces employment tribunals where employers can take legal action against their employer. This is because employees are protected by the law and the have the legal rights to sue their employer if they are not treated fairly in the workplace. The weakness of this national initiative is that women can get paid less than men. They are discriminated against because of their gender and are not seen on the same level of men in the workplace. This is due to the capital system that makes it difficult to get rid of discrimination. Employers should implement equal pay in the workplace because it is one of the principles protected under the equality act. Another weakness of this national initiative is that it doesn’t protect all employees. For example, employees who work for a minimum wage can be given zero hours contract . This can leave a negative effect on employees from the lower class because receiving minimum wage with zero hour contract may not be enough to support their living conditions because they are called up to work when they are needed by the employer and sometimes there’s no guarantee of work, which means not getting paid. Therefore, individuals in the lower class who work under zero hour contracts will struggle to make a stable income and afford to provide for their basic needs. For example, poor housing conditions in the winter and are at risk of poor health. A strength for this national initiative is

that it individuals from the vulnerable groups of society have access to equal opportunities in the workplace. For example, during a job interview a disabled individual should have their CV read and given the same opportunity to apply for a job like other individuals in upper social classes who are not in vulnerable groups. This is because it helps to eliminate ableism in the workplace. Another weakness is that old people are discriminated in work and pushed to retire because of their age. This is an example of age discrimination, discrimination against older people. Individuals who work at their old age at risk of injuring themselves at work and employers want to avoid being sued due to accidents that happened in work that could have been prevented if the individual as younger. Task 5: 1.) Difficulties that may arise when implementing anti-discriminatory practice in health and social care settings is discrimination by accident. A employee may have not received the correct amount of training to cover anti-discriminatory practice and how to treat people from different cultural backgrounds. They have may not meant to discriminate against another employee simply because they were not educated enough or open minded. It is the responsibility of the employer to implement anti-discriminatory practice during training and make aware of the consequences if it is not followed. It can be discrimination by accident if the individual is willing to receive extra training to learn from their mistakes, implement antidiscriminatory practice into the workplace and become knowledgeable to call out mistreatment in the workplace. Difficulties that may arise when implementing anti-discriminatory practice in health and social care settings is cultural differences. This is because there is a difference in language, culture and values when health professionals come across patients from a different background as them. Therefore, they may have different views on the discriminatory practice the organisation implements. For example. A patient with a different cultural background may believe that using a discriminatory practice is unnecessary because in their culture women are not supposed to be treated as the same as men. Women are lower than men and are not entitled to the same equal rights as men. A difference in language can lead to misunderstandings because the health professional can find it hard to understand the patient expressing their needs. This is because of their thick accent and they might misinterpret their needs and not take the situation seriously due to the lack of understanding. 4.) To overcome difficulties that may arise when implementing anti-discriminatory practices in health and social care settings is promoting the equality act. This is because by promoting equality in health and social care settings it will ensure that service users are treated fairly and healthcare professionals know how to treat service users from different cultural backgrounds. Service users treated with equality can overcome difficulties when implementing anti-discriminatory practice in health and social care, In health and social care settings, a healthcare professional can break codes of practice. Codes of practice serves as a rule book that provides guidance on how to give quality care with equality and not discriminate. However, when nurses are overworked due to the hospital overcrowding it can be impossible to follow the principles of the code of practice implemented. For example, if the hospital is busy and there’s not enough of doctors and a shortage of medication it could lead to patients not being treated equally. This means that nurses might prioritize patients and put their needs above other patients which can worsen

the condition of the ignored patients. A muslim patient requests a female doctor and there’s a shortage of female patients, her needs may be ignored and she could face discrimination for following her religion. A nurse could disrespect her religion and refuse to meet her needs which could worsen her condition. Staff development and training can overcome the difficulties when implementing antidiscriminatory practice. Healthcare professionals who work in a care home can break codes of practice and not be aware due to lack of training through employment. This could mean that it may have been accidental discrimination because of lack of knowledge of antidiscriminatory practice. Therefore, receiving feedback from colleagues in the care home will help healthcare professionals who discriminate accidentally to develop and improve their knowledge. The equality act can be broken by a care worker and they treat the service users unfairly. This can make the service users feel a loss of confidence. To overcome this, another healthcare professional should confront and challenge the worker. However, this can cause conflict and worsen the situation so it’s important the approach is calm and direct. For example, the healthcare professional can challenge the healthcare professional that was discriminating by simply stating what they believe they did wrong. The only way to stop the discrimination is if everyone who witness their colleagues discriminate is if they are willinging to report it through confidential reports. They could agree with the confrontation and apologise to the service users and receive extra training. Therefore, this means that the difficulty has been overcome but if the colleagues becomes aggressive and denies. Then the only way to stop the problem is if everyone who witnessed their colleagues discriminate is to report it through confidential report. As a result, the employer should interfere and see both sides of the argument. This means that the employer should not take sides but l...