DUTY OF CARE

Duty of Care

Duty of Care

1.1 Duty of Care in own work role

Everyone should be aided and facilitated to live in an environment that is free from injustice and abuse-free. A due diligence (duty of care) is a legal obligation to a person requiring they comply with the standard of reasonable care to perform all acts that could undermine predictable to others (Bruce, 2011, pp.34-45).

A negligent act could be unintentional but careless or intentional that results in abuse or injury. A negligent act is breaching the duty of care. If an individual has evidence that you have been negligent, you are likely to be disciplined. You could lose your job and you could have legal action taken against you.

Examples how we do this in professional setting. Within our setting we carry out daily checks to ensure that the environment inside and outside is safe before the morning session starts.

We have daily cleaning rotas to ensure the session is clean and we are stopping the spread of infection.

Ensuring that staff has been trained in first Aid and that we have the right equipment. To complete accident forms when an accident occurs and getting the parent/carer to sign to say there have been made aware.

Body forms to indicate if a child comes in from home and the parent/carer tells us of a mark on the child or a member of staff notices a mark on them the form is then signed by the parent/carer at the end of the session (Corkin, 2011, pp.201-218).

1.2 Duty of care contributes to the safeguarding or protection of Individuals

It is the responsibility of ensuring safety of every individual. All employees should report any concerns about their abuse. This may be evidence or suspicion that a bad practice of their colleagues and managers, or abuse another person, another employee or the family of a person or with friends. Local authorities have Safeguarding Adults policies and procedures that are published on their websites or available from their Safeguarding team. It links closely with the duty of care.

Assess risk

By ensuring risk assessments are been carried out within a setting to make sure all equipment and toys are safe and the equipment is age appropriate for the children in our care. Assessing the setting and making sure there are no potential hazards like hazard materials being left out or electrical sockets being left uncovered. Ensuring the setting is clean to stop the spread of infection. That food is stored properly to stop cross-infection and the kitchen is always clean to stop the spread of bacteria and germs (Bruce, 2010, pp.45-59).

Have boundaries for behaviour

Having set boundaries and clear expectations of what behaviour is expected from the children in our setting. We have are golden rules which we talk about at circle time to reinforce them. During free play we reinforced sharing, turn taking and praise for positive behaviour.

2.1 Potential conflicts or dilemmas that may arise between the duty of care and an individual's rights

During the work you may find ...