Responsibilities of Organisations towards people who work in Health and Social Care settings

• The Health and Social Care Act (2008), and the linked regulations of 2014, require that registered providers of care services must ensure that they have sufficient numbers of appropriately qualified staff to meet the needs of their service users at all times. They must all provide or support training and professional development to ensure that their staff can carry out their caring role.
• In social care settings, new  staff are required to complete an induction programmme and to meet the requirements of the Common Induction Standards (2010) within 12 weeks of commencing their new job. This requires the manager to ensure that all new employees undrstand how to implement the codes of practice in their workplace and how to meet the current National Occupational Standards (NOS) for their role. 

• NOS describe best practice.
• They are standards of professional practice that should be met in the workplace.
• The NOS for people working in the health and social care sector are applicable throughout the UK and were updated in 2012.
• The NOS underpin the codes of practice in the care settings and the curriculum for the training of practitioners and cover the standards that are also included in the codes of practice for professional bodies, for example the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)  

• In order for health care practitioners to maintain the high standards required in the sector, they need to continually update their skilld.
• This will ensure that they are following the best practice and most up-to-date procedurees, based on recent research.
• All memebers of the GMC, the NMC and the HCPC are required to complete regular professional training to remain on their registers.
• It is the responsibility of care managers to ensure that support staff who are not members of professional organisations also regularly update and extend their skills.

Internal and External Complaints:

• Where allegations of poor practice are made against staff, this will normally initially be adressed through the organisation's internal disciplinary systems.
• However, in more serious instances the regulatory body, for example the GMC, NMC or the HCPC may be involved.
• In extreme circumstances, for example in cases of assault or death thought to be caused by nigligence or active abuse, the police may also deal with the complaints.