Unit 3 Assignment on Health and Social care

Program	Diploma in HSC
Unit Number and Title	Unit 3 Assignment on Health and Social Care
QFC Level	Level 5

Introduction

Health and social care organisations are operating and planning based on the requirements and needs of society, along with the specific issues regarding the health of individuals. The role of health and social care organisations is typically based on the environmental and geographical position of a specific area that influences the decision-making and resource planning to accomplish the objectives in a more professional way. The report will explain the influence of external environmental factors, along with identifying how organisations can act based on the external factors. In the next section, the report will compare and contrast various forms of structures of health care organisations as well as their influence on the service delivery of the organisation. The last report will explain the term leadership along with its influence on the operational activities of the organisation. Apart from that, the report will assess the contribution of leadership in healthcare organisations to accomplish the objectives of the patients, along with the management.

 

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Tasks 1 

 

1.1 Impact of external factors on health and social care organisations

On the background of the given scenario, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is a United Kingdom charity that has the strong support of volunteers with active involvement of individuals in Asia, Africa, and the UK. The Chief Executive of Voluntary Service Overseas, Dr. Philip Goodwin, is described as being positive and driven by a mission that seeks to inspire creative thinking in individuals. In contrast, one of the fields of utmost concern for the charity is HIV and AIDS programs, which is sadly classified as a new initiative and reported separately from the general efforts of health care, which currently involves 7 per cent of volunteers (Morita et al., 2023). The leadership of the organisation is committed to challenging conventional thinking from a wide range of perspectives and is open to challenging the views of all stakeholders. The following describes the key external factors that have a significant impact on the activities of health and social care organisations.

Political factors

The government has set various policies and regulations for national and local-level health care organisations, affecting the functional activities of the organisations directly. With the change in the style of working by the government, the regulations are also affected. For instance, community diversity and the government's style of working and monitoring affect the current style of working of VSO.

Real-World Illustration/Practitioner Perspective: A recent policy change in the UK government's policy environment, as observed through an increased focus on domestic volunteering in the context of Brexit or alterations to international aid financial allocations, has direct implications for VSO's funding mechanisms and operational priorities. For instance, if the Department for International Development (now part of the FCDO) reallocates its financial resources, VSO needs to rebalance its programmatic focus or seek alternate sources of funding. Such an occurrence necessitates continuous monitoring of policy documents like the UK Aid Strategy. These politico-external alterations trigger organisations like VSO to undertake extensive strategic planning to understand and react to the external environment, as prioritised within the context of healthcare operations strategy (McLaughlin et al., 2022, p. 2).

Economical factors

Both the nation's economic condition and the organisation itself play a pivotal role in determining the development and decision-making process of healthcare organisations like VSO. Economic instability significantly influences the business partnerships of healthcare organisations (Nguyen and Nguyen, 2025). Economic determinants decide the quality, demand, and operational practices of healthcare organisations.

Mini Case Study/Practitioner Insight: Describe the implications of rising living expenses and inflation in the United Kingdom (Office for National Statistics, ONS inflation data). For Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), this means increased operating costs associated with its activities back home in the UK, increased travel expenses for volunteers, and likely reduced disposable income for individual donors. A practitioner within a similar charity organisation can describe the necessity to resort to making tough decisions, for instance, a cut in overseas roles or an increased level of fundraising events, to sustain the delivery of services amidst economic downturn. The economic impact of health crises, such as those leading to increased indebtedness, as described by Nguyen and Nguyen (2025), also further emphasises the likely vulnerability of the target groups for VSO, thus increasing the need for their services while potentially limiting the sources of funding locally. This finding is consistent with the identification that human health capital largely contributes to economic development, thus the widespread economic impact of health interventions (Wang and Wu, 2025).

Social factor

Social aspects, such as beliefs and values in society, have no control over the health care function since these activities cannot be altered. Besides that, future planning is mostly dependent on social change.

Practical Illustration/Practitioner Perspective: Although core values, like compassion, remain unchanged, social trends profoundly influence the provision of healthcare services. The COVID-19 pandemic, for example, transformed public attitudes toward health, disease prevention, and the importance of community care. VSO, along with other health charities, experienced a massive surge in demand for mental health services and digital literacy among vulnerable populations during this pandemic. This created an urgent need for a real-time shift in their volunteer training procedures and program development, addressing unfolding social demands, thus mirroring broader societal shifts in health priorities (WHO, COVID-19 response). Moreover, changes in demographics, for example, the growing ageing population in the UK, determine the type of health and social care services required, thus focusing attention on elderly care and management of chronic diseases. The PESTLE analysis model suggests the importance of understanding such sociocultural forces in successful strategic planning in public health (Morita et al., 2023).

Technological Innovation

Technology is still central in the delivery of health and social care services, with the quality and effectiveness of the services not being compromised. Technological innovation and its implications directly impact remote services, strategic planning, relationship management, and smooth resource use.

An Illustrative Example/Professional Perspective: The rapid pace of Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancements in the healthcare field is a case in point. AI solutions are being applied to diagnostic testing, personalised treatment plan design, and automating administrative tasks. For Volunteer Services Organisation (VSO), this may mean the use of AI-powered platforms to enhance volunteer recruitment and deployment or the adoption of telemedicine solutions to provide remote healthcare consultations in disadvantaged communities. But it also raises issues with regard to beneficiaries' digital literacy and issues of data privacy ethics (NHS Digital, AI in healthcare). The ability to tap technology to provide far-off services and data-informed planning is critical for charitable organisations operating in different geographical locations. The use of ChatGPT in public health, studied by Morita et al. (2023), also illustrates how technological advancements result in opportunities and challenges, compelling organisations to innovate their strategic interventions.

Legal Concerns

The governance of legal competence in the context of equal opportunity, anti-discrimination, and the NHSLA regulatory framework has a significant influence on VSO in that it enhances patient trust in the quality and procedural integrity of the responding healthcare organisation to the VSO (Morita et al., 2023).

Real-life Example/Practitioner Insight: Recent legislative changes to protect data, e.g., the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), have significantly influenced the management of sensitive patient and volunteer data by health and social care organisations. VSO has to have strict compliance in order to preserve trust and prevent heavy fines. This involves having strict data security measures, having staff trained regularly on handling data, and publicly publishing data usage policies to stakeholders. Non-compliance, as recognised by regulatory agencies like the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), can cause serious reputational loss and financial penalties. Adherence to regulatory guidelines is essential to preserve public trust and operational integrity, as also suggested by the compliance requirement in surgical safety procedures (Rahmadani et al., 2025).

Ecological Determinants

The alterations in the environmental conditions, coupled with inadequate waste management practices, are impacting the operation of charitable trusts. Moreover, the broadening environmental agenda is affecting the service development and delivery strategies.

Practical Illustration/Professional Perspective: The more frequent occurrence of extreme climatic events with climate change (Met Office, UK climate data) has the potential to disrupt the operations of VSO, particularly in areas prone to natural disasters. This disruption may lead to emergency response interventions, rebuilding of health facilities, or healthcare management of health conditions caused by climatic events, for example, malnutrition and waterborne disease. Additionally, the international appeal for sustainability demands that VSO measure its own carbon footprint, for example, volunteer travel and material procurement, thereby influencing its operational activities and collaborations. The extensive implications of environmental determinants for human health resources and economic development enhance the interdependence of such elements (Wang and Wu, 2025).

 

1.2 Organisational response to external factors

Health and social care organisations VSOs are examining the external conditions as well as reacting to the challenges based on their capabilities and availability of resources. According to observation, it is identified that the top management of VSO is predicting the conditions as well as taking alternative options for managing the issues. Now, to manage the external factors such as political, legal, environmental, technological and economic changes, the organisation has another plan (McLaughlin et al., 2022). The various departments of VSO are coordinating with each other and putting the changes into practice with delegation. For economic and environmental changes, the organisation has appointed advisers and agencies that are predicting future conditions, which assist VSO management in making the prior plan for fund allocation and arrangement of resources.

Practitioner Insight: VSO's forward-looking approach to economic forecasting, for instance, includes working with economic advisors and leveraging market intelligence for predicting patterns of funding and potential inflationary pressures. This approach allows the organisation to diversify funding sources, seek multi-year grants, and create financial reserves as an economic shock absorber to economic shocks. In addressing environmental challenges, they can work with local environmental groups to implement environmentally sustainable business practices among their field operations, such as the promotion of green waste management or the use of renewable sources of power in their facilities. Such strategic planning is in line with the principles of effective healthcare operations management, which espouses the need to react to external forces (McLaughlin et al., 2022, p. 1).

In reaction to the challenges and determinants affecting organisational processes, the management resorts to legal frameworks to respond to the challenges. The involvement of employee relations and other stakeholders helps VSO management to respond positively to the challenge of reducing the impact of technological changes through the implementation of training and information on the new processes. It helps VSO to be prepared for changes and value the values and beliefs of the community that have low impacts on the health care services, considering the fact that such functions do not change (Rahmadani et al., 2025). In addition, future planning heavily relies on social changes.

Real-Life Example: In response to the impact of technological changes, VSO can initiate a continuous professional development program among volunteers and staff, focusing on digital literacy, cybersecurity guidelines, and ethical use of artificial intelligence in health interventions. This program ensures that their human assets are strong and skilled at the effective use of new technologies. For instance, with the growing demand for remote consultations during the pandemic, VSO could have invested in secure video conferencing tools and trained volunteers on their usage, thus ensuring continuity of service delivery in the event of geographical barriers. Evidence submitted by Rahmadani et al. (2025) on the compliance of surgical safety checklists emphasises the importance of continuous learning and team culture building in adapting to new guidelines and maintaining quality of care, a principle applicable to other organisational responses to external circumstances.
 

Conclusion

The above research indicates that external factors, including political, economic, technological, environmental, and legal factors, have a major impact on the management functions and operations of VSO. The report explains the impact on services and delivery strategies used by health and social care organisations. The report also depicts the efforts of the organisation to address the changes and challenges brought about by external factors through the adoption of various strategies. The use of real-life situations and practitioner experiences explains how health and social care organisations, like VSO, navigate successfully through a dynamic and ever-changing external environment through strategic planning, flexibility, and ongoing learning.

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Author Bio

Authored by Dr. Eleanor Vance, a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) with 15 years of experience in health policy analysis and non-profit healthcare operations, specialising in international development and community health initiatives.