Equality and diversity

I am going to look at the different types of legislation within health and social care proffessions and how they may promote anti discrimination.
Legislation are laws that have been made by a legislature or other governing body. These protects peoples rights within society. The different types of legislation are: The Sex Discrimination Act 1975, The Mental Health Act 1998, The Race Relations Act 2000, The Children Act 2004, The Ability Discrimination Act 2005 and The Age Discrimination Act 2006.
The Sex Discrimiantion Act is an act which out laws discrimination against gender and marital status. This law protects discrimination from happening within these different areas, redundancy people can not be made redundant because of their gender, employment people can not be not employed just because of their gender. Education everyone is entiltled to education whether they are male or female. Transport, everyone is entiltled to the same transport facilities whether they are mae or female.Wider society means that people are treated equally within society no matter which gender they may be. Whether someone is male or female they have to be paid the same amount. Male and female are both entiltled to equal training. Male and female are both entiltied to the same rights when it comes to recruitment and also when they are dismmised. This act promotes eqaulity and equal opportunities for men and women. However the act was ammended in 2008 to allow for transexual. Equally helps to make sure that people are treated fairly because people like employers can not discriminate people because of their gender. For example if a man was paid more then a women even though they had the same job role just because they are male then this would be against the sex discrimination act. Also The Equality Act 2010 says its unlawful to discrimate against you because of your sex which means that if people form different genders have to be paid the same amounts within the same jobs. This means that people will not be left feeling marginalised because they will be treated fairly to other people around them. However the glass ceiling still occurs because once women get to a particular age like 30 employers are reluctant to employ them as they are at the age that they might be starting to want a family. Also there are still male and female dominated proffessions so discrimination still takes place in these situations.
The Age Discrimination Act means that people can not be discriminated against because of their age in any profession. For example a person can not be discriminated against because of their age when it comes to recruitment and employment. Also a person can not be discriminated against because of their age when it comes to the opportunities for trainining or promotions. A person can not be discriminated againanst because of their age. This mainly applies within job situation but people be discrimiated against for their age within any environment. This act is in place to make sure that people do not get discriminated against for their age and this can be helped by making sure that the law is in place and if someone sees age discrimination they must report it and do anything they can to prevent this from happening again within the future. This law is in place to make sure that everyone of any age is giving equal opportunties. However in some situation positive discrimination can take place because if someone is not old enough or too old to be in a situation they cant let them be in that situation.
Disability Discrimination Act means that people can not be discriminated against because they have a disability and this prevents this type of discrimination happening in my health and soical care environment whether they are physical or learning environments. Although people discriminate against people with disabilities all the time without even realising just because they are different or look different or speak differently some how we treat them differently without even noticing. Yes some of them need more help then others and not all of them can look after themseleves in the way they want to. This doesnt mean that they should be treated dis respectfully just because they dont look the same as everyone else. They are still humans and still deserve the same equalty as everyone else. This law is in place to protect these people from being discriminated against. This protects people from being discriminated against when it comes to employment and dissmissal. This also means that an employer has to change their facilities to make sure that they are disabled accessed and this is against the law to not allow for people with disabilities to access all your facilitlies within busiensses. This is to give people with diasbiltity all the same opportunities as everyone else around them. By doing this it will help to improve the person with disabilities self esteem as they would feel like they belonged more within the situation. However also people have the rights to their carers.
Disability discrimination act helps within a nursery setting because the nursery has to make sure that they have disabled access to make sure that anyone can access their facilities and that no one is treated differently within that particular envrionment. They also have to make sure that all their staff are fully trained to be able to deal with these particular circumstances. They have to make these changes because otherwise they would be breaking the law. Also if they have disabled access they are more likely to attract more customer towards their business. However at the same time they are on the right lines within the law which is all that matters. They have to abide within the law to make sure that they treat all the children that come to use their services are equally cared for this also means that the parents are happy and the companies get lots of customer satisfaction. They also need to make sure that all staff have training skills to be able to deal with any kind of disability so that no child is treated differently to any otherwithin the nursery setting. This means that they are all treated the same.
Service providers of the Discrimination and Equality Act
The Disability Act affects the service provider because they have to change thier facilities to be able to take any child that wants to join their nursery. If the facilities are not suitable for someone coming to join the nursery this means that the company has to change their facilitlies so they are adaptable for the child to attend this could include changing the way the builiding works so that everything within the nursery is accessable to the child. Although this can be very costly and time consuming a company has to do this under the law. They would also have to train their staff so that they were sutiable to deal with the disability of the child so they have the same opportunities as all the other children. However training also takes up a lot of time and would cost the nursery a lot of money.this also affected them because if they dont make these changes they can be procescuted because by not making there faciluities accessable they are breaking the law. Also they may have complaints from people wanting to join their facilities because they are not happy that these changes havent already been made . They would also have to follow all the policies and procedures to do with the Disability Act. This may also have an impact on their staff because they need the training and they may not want to deal with this type of situation, this could also cause finacial difficulties.
However on the positive side for the nursery this would mean that they have a high standard of education for everyone that attends the nursery. Also this would increase the reputation of the nursery because they would be attracting more people. Aslo by offering the facilities to more disabiled access they would also increase their intake. This would also stop discirmination within their nursery which means that they are following all the correct policies and procedures. Also this means that will have improved faciltiies which would open lots of new opportunities for the nursery. This also would improve the satisfation of the parents bringing their children to the nursery which would mean that they would keep using the nursery and recommend them to other people which would also help with the intake of children. This would also increase motivation for the staff as they would be more satisfied with their work. They would have few complaints ast they would have good positive national reviews and their wouldnt be discrimination againat other children within the nursery.
Service users of the Discrimination and Equality Act
The benefits for the children and parents using the nursery because they would be following the Disability Act because they would be treated fairly amongst the other pupils.Thus would also mean lots more opportunities for them to be seen as normal as possible and they would feel included with the other indiviuals. This also means that they would also be easier access and independence within the nursery. The staff would already be aware of the childs need so they would be fully taken care of and they would be fully taking. The nursery would be offering them a more inviting service. This improves self esteem , increase awareness of rights for them and self concept. People would be more tolerant which would make other children more inviting for them. Also it would make the staff and other children would be more approachable and inviting.
However the negatives for the users would be that they act may not be implemeneted quickly and that they would, not all staff would be fully aware of their needs straight away. Also the facilities may be poor quality of standard so they may not be suitable. Also they may feel intimidated by other people around them.
All business have to have a statement of intent which shows what the will do in any case of discrimination and when it takes places what they will do about the situation and how they are going to prevent it from happening again in the future. For example they will include what the nursery does to prevent it from happening and this will normally include a few points of what they will do to encourage all the children to get along and make sure all the staff are fully prepared. They would also include the training courses that they are going to send their staff on so that they are able to concentrate on the correct things. So they are fully prepared they would also have to make sure that keep confidentiality at all times to prevent complaints and discrimination against children or parents which attend the nursery. They would also have to make sure that the hygiene of the nursery is in correct order so that their are no complaints from children or parents .It would also include their policies for recrutiment and that they will not discriminate against people because they may have a diability. So they have to make sure that they have policies and procuedures. They would have to have these policies to make sure that they have rules in place that show what they will do if discriminiation takes place within a health and social care environment. They also need this to show what they will do to make sure that they show that they will send all their employees on training courses and that staff will be fully aware of all the children’s needs. And make sure that they keep confidentiality.They also need to make sure that they have the correct environment and they will state this within all the different aspects of what they will do. The benefits of having policies and procedures are that it shows people that are wanting to go to the business that they are prepared to have the correct procedures in place so that they can attract more people. It also shows that they are aware of all the legislation anf that they are fully up to date the Disability and Equality Act and that they do implement the law within the working environment. The policies that they would have in place would be online so that anyone can see their what they are willing to do to abide with the law. They would also have to make sure that they know which foods each child can have in order to respect their religion for example muslims can not eat pork as it is against their religion and the nursery have to be aware of this and make sure that they do not give children food which are against their religion.
The strengths and weaknesses the Discrimination Equality Act and this helps to improbe the standards , awareness and equality.This gives a good a good image for the business which could also late help to increase their profit. This is because they are taking in more children which then means that they will later be able to keep improving their facilities to abide with the law. Also if they have more money as a company they would be able to give the children the best care possible to prevent discrimination from taking place. Another would be that all the staff are fully aware of what they need to do without breaking the law. However the weaknesses of having these policies are that not eveyrone wil see them as they are online so not everyone will be able to see their policies. They could also make sure that all children had suitable transport to get to the nursery and that they have easy access to the building. They would also have to make sure that will treat the deaf and the blind equally to all the other children within the nursery. However all the changes will cost a lot of money which may make this difficult for the nursery to provide the best facilities needed. This would then help the children to feel like their voice is being heard and that they are equal to everyone else. They would also have to improve their self esteem which means that they will feel better about themselves because they are in a good environment. This is good for the nursery because this helps to promote equality and shows their awareness of the children and their rights. They would ensure that they follow their rights and that they keep confidentiality at all times.