Essential Codes of Conduct Regarding Social Care Policies and Procedures in UK

The duty of a social care worker is very noble, as well as significant, as he needs to provide essential health-care services to the people of the society, who need them urgently. But it is important for all social care workers to have a thorough knowledge about the definite codes of social care policies and procedures, as prevailing in England. The common people also need to have knowledge about these codes, so that they have an idea about the exact functions of social care workers, whom they can call for help. 

Mandatory codes of conduct for the social care workers in England

• Social care workers should work only in the area for which they have competency or the types of tasks that are assigned to him. He should ask guidance from his superiors or senior colleagues, if he has any doubt about the nature of any assigned health-care task. If he finds any task too tough for him to do, he needs to report it to his superior immediately. But in all cases, he should be responsible for all the health-care actions taken by him and even the failures to take timely actions.
• The social worker should treat the people whom they are providing the required health-care with due respect and sympathy. He should take care of the best interest of the people he is helping, by guiding them to choose the amount of health-care support that they need for their well-being. He needs to help these patients to become capable of self-care, with the required health-care services. He should be careful to maintain the privacy of the people who are provided health-care services, as well as that of their family members.
• Every social worker needs to speak openly and respectfully to the people whom he is providing health-care services. He will continue his services, only if the concerned person is ready to accept it and give written consent in this regard. He needs to convince the ill people that all their matters will be kept absolutely confidential and they will receive fruitful services that will help them in regaining a normal life. The social worker should maintain a daily record of all the health-care and support services he is providing to the patient in his care.
• The quality of the health-care services should be the best, for which the social worker needs to improve his competence level, through regular training and development provided by his seniors.

Few Basic Measures Maintained As Part of the Infection Control Policy

The workers of National Health Services in England need to follow all the directives mentioned in the National Infection Prevention Control Manual, for checking the spread of any infection among patients whom they are handling regularly.  The most important chapter of this manual is its first chapter, which is named as Standard Infection Control Precautions (SICP) Policy that deals effectively with the infection control policy, and all its points are sincerely followed by all the NHS staffs.  The second chapter of this manual is titled as Transmission Based Precautions, which deals with the necessary precautions while dealing with transmittable diseases.  

Main constituents of the Standard Infection Control Policy

• The hygienic placement of patients in their rooms and in their beds.
•  The hygienic cleansing procedures of hands while handling patients, mainly with germ-killing soap and water, along with antiseptic lotion.
• The normal respiratory hygiene and some etiquette regarding coughing and sneezing in the presence of patients.
• Taking care of the personal protective equipment that are used in the medical treatment of patients.
• Hygienic management of all the personal care equipment, which are used daily by patients and their care takers, mainly in case of infectious diseases. 
• Adequate arrangements to keep the environment free from all kinds of pollution and infections, mainly in the rooms of patients.
• Checking about the regular hygienic cleansing of the bed linen of patients, as well as the other furnishings surrounding the patient that are often touched by him/her.
• All the blood or any other body fluid of patients, like mucous, sweat or saliva should be handled and disposed very carefully, to prevent any infection from the patient to others around him/her.
• Similarly all the waste products of the patient needs to be disposed, following all the safety norms mentioned in the SICP.

Hence, the NHS workers need to be well trained for taking all these safety measures, and in preventing all types of infections. Also, the social health-care service providers should be aware of these infection control measures. All the healthcare workers should be immunized against all infections, to save them from all kinds of trouble later.