1.1. Explain what it means to have a duty of care in own work role

1.1. Explain what it means to have a duty of care in own work role

Unit 3 –Duty of Care in Care Settings

L.O 1 – Understand how duty of care contributes to safe practice

A duty of care of your role means you are legally and ethically bound to the welfare, health and safety of everyone you are working with or supporting. Duty of care is also a fundamental aspect of professional practice in a care environment and provides context for everything you do to support and protect individuals.

A duty of care is primarily a legal duty, demanding that you must act in a way that will not cause harm, abuse or neglect to those you have a duty to care for or, those you care about in your professional environment. This will mean you will need to ensure you are always acting with a reasonable standard of care in doing your duties. No matter if you are providing direct support or undertaking regular tasks or making decisions, this is undertaken under your duty of care. Reasonable care involves sticking to agreed policies and procedures, make decisions according your best practice and procedures, and never act outside of your competency or training.

In practice, the duty of care includes responsibility to:

1. Protecting individuals from harm: Proactively identifying and managing risk, reporting potential hazards, accident or incident promptly, and making sure that all of your actions are in the best interest of those who you provide care for.

2. Following procedures: Adhering to organisational procedures, documenting accurately and completely, ensuring confidentiality, and ensuring that incidents are recorded and reported formally.

3. Promoting well-being and respect: Ensuring everybody is treated with dignity and respect, undertaking the duty to promote independence and choice, and promoting the individual physical, emotional, and mental well-being.

4. Effective communication: Sharing essential information with colleagues, ensuring that handovers are thorough, and listening to the individuals in terms of their choice, need and preferences.

5. Maintaining professional competence:  To stay aware of those changes and advancements, maintains the competence and capability to provide the safe and effective care required for those people.

If you neglect your duty of care,-for example, failing to consider potential risks, not reporting concerns you have, or acting outside of your skills and capabilities criminal, civil and disciplinary ramifications could occur-or damage to others, disciplinary action, loss of trust.

At the end of the day the duty of care is all about making safety and well-being the most important things in all decisions and actions, and using integrity, empathy, and professionalis and doing it every day in your jobs

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