Types of Discrimination and Anti-Discriminatory Practices

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There is a variety of national initiatives which promote anti-discriminatory practices: Some of these practices are provisions relating to, European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950, Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Mental Health Act 1983, Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, The Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, The Children Act 1989, Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, Disability Discrimination Act 2005, it is important in every work place and setting to follow these acts in order to prevent discrimination arising for both service users and providers.

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By following all these service users and providers will feel safe and valued in health and social care settings. This promotes discrimination by living by the rule treat others as you want to be treated-if you treat others with respect and do not discriminate they will more than likely treat you the same, this will then subsequently set standards and expectation for people to follow. For example- nurses wear the same uniform as that’s the expectation for them. Two of these acts I will go into more detail with and explain exactly why these acts in the health and social care work place promote anti-discriminatory practices.

When working in health and social care setting it’s also important to be aware of the types of discrimination that can occur so you can both act on it if you was ever to come across another person behaving in such a way and prevent yourself from behaving this way also. Therefore, promoting anti-discriminatory practices by being aware of this and making others aware to, these types are of discrimination are Direct discrimination: discrimination because of a protected characteristic.

Associative discrimination: direct discrimination against someone because they are associated with another person with a protected characteristic. (This includes carers of disabled people and elderly relatives, who can claim they were treated unfairly because of duties that had to carry out at home relating to their care work. It also covers discrimination against someone because, for example, their partner is from another country.)

Indirect discrimination: when you have a rule or policy that applies to everyone but disadvantages a person with a protected characteristic.

Harassment: behavior deemed offensive by the recipient. Employees can claim they find something offensive even when it's not directed at them.

Harassment by a third party: employers are potentially liable for the harassment of staff or customers by people they don't directly employ, such as a contractor.

Victimization: discrimination against someone because they made or supported a complaint under Equality Act legislation.

Discrimination by perception: direct discrimination against someone because others think they have a protected characteristic (even if they don't). You can no longer ask a prospective employee about their health before offering them work, unless you can prove you're doing so to check whether the employee can carry out an essential task (such as heavy lifting for a removals company) or to monitor diversity. You can screen health once you've made a job offer - but then of course you're opening a world of trouble if you rescind your job offer on the grounds of a disability, as you are then liable to be taken to tribunal too.

Race relations act 1976-2001:

This covers race discrimination in employment, training, education, housing, facilities and services and even advertising. In 2001 this act was amended to include discrimination by all public bodies’ e.g. council- Blackburn with Darwen social services. Direct discrimination occurs when a person is treated less favourably on racial grounds than he or she would treat another person, Could be defined as people with different skin colour, race, nationality or ethnic origin. This could potentially happen in the work place if an Afro-Caribbean was to only employ Afro-Caribbean or African works as this would be treating other ethnicity less favourable by giving them less favourable work or less paid work due to their race. This act is in place to prevent these things happening to people due to race as this could hinder their confidence with others in fear of being discriminated against or being given lack of opportunity, this legislation works by simply be prevented by having this act in place which gives prosecutions and punishments for not following it these prosecutions could occur if people did not know the correct terms to use to others and how to address people in the best possible way also you could help improve this by educating people on how they should and shouldn’t behave in the work place this this will help them be more educated and accepting of others, helping them to follow the race relations act. What is the mental capacity act 2005;

The Mental Capacity Act is designed to protect people who can't make decisions for themselves or lack the mental capacity to do so. This could be due to a mental health condition, a severe learning difficulty, a brain injury, or stroke. This act has many purposes as it helps to assist service users in the best possible way, some of these purposes consist of; Allowing adults to make as many decisions as they can for themselves. This gives the service user some independence and helps to make them feel less controlled by service provider helping them to build self confidence in the long run as they are not being restrained to others making decisions for them. This helps to prevent discrimination by not treating a person differently because of their disability treating them as you would any adults. Enables adults to make advance decisions about whether they would like future medical treatment. This helps the service user understand the treatment they are going through and the drugs/medication they will be taking without this they could feel unsafe as they don’t understand the medication they are being made to take, this helps prevents discrimination as it helps go with the service users rights of choice and right to protect their own body in case they didn’t want to go ahead with the treatment. An example of this act in use in health and social care setting is for example in a nursing home founded by the NHS a patient may have dementia and should still be able to make their own decisions such as what they would prefer for tea or if they would like to purchase something such as a TV, this will be giving the patient the right to their own choices and not restricting them too much. Also in this case they would need and advocate allocated to make important their decisions and care for them (e.g. daughter/husband). When all these things have been took into consideration it’s then made clear how important this act really is for the welfare of people with disabilities. It helps toward making them feel secure and not just another number as they can make their own personal decision on how they want things to go in the best way for them. Therefore promoting equality and reducing discrimination.

Disability discrimination act; 2005-2006

The disability discrimination act is designed to end discrimination that may face many people with disabilities of various forms such as immobility, mental disabilities or physical disabilities. This act helps people who have these troubles and want to get on with their life as best as possible whether it is in the work place or services provided to them by the health care system. Throughout this act it entails people with disabilities having rights in the areas such as, Running of public transport services, such as buses and trains- the government makes these more accessible and easier to get from a to b with disabilities, making things such as local councils, schools and hospitals more accessible for them so they can make sure no matter what their disability people can rather access for the service or work for it. When the act was emended in 2006 it was made sure Public bodies, like hospitals or local councils, now have to do a lot more to make sure that they don’t break the laws that protect disabled people, and give disabled people fair chances. This act can be enforced in health and social care setting such as dentists its essential that a patient with a disability is able to access your practice to enforce this you should ensure corridors are wide enough, if there are stairs there is a lift in which a wheelchair would fit, there is a suitable exit for anyone in a wheel chair in case of. This would be respecting all their rights and promoting anti-discrimination by setting an example to other practices and making the service user feel safe and valued. To conclude this section on who, how, where, and when acts are used in every day health and social care settings, I feel that it’s shown to everybody just the importance of the acts and the impact it has on both service users and providers to make them feel safe and valued, causing them to have more confidence in the system. These acts promote anti discriminatory practices and raises awareness on how people should and should not be treated no matter what their individual traits may be. The government has enforced these legislations in England to make sure every individual is receiving the correct and equal treatment from practices so the best care is given to them. By promoting this through practices such as hospitals it will help to promote anti-discriminatory practice nationwide and set standards and examples of how professionals and non-professionals should behave towards one another. M2- Assess the influence of a recent national policy initiative promoting anti-discriminatory practice.

The main influence I think in the health and social care system is the equality act 2010, this act helps preventing discrimination in Great Britain and promoted anti-discriminatory practices especially in areas to do with health and social care, this policy is a great guideline for practices to follow in order to meet service providers and service user’s needs. What is the equality act and why do we need it? Equality is used to protect service users and providers from discrimination and unfair treatment it’s also used to help promote anti-discriminatory practices and makes others in Britain aware of why discrimination is wrong and why everyone deserves to be treat as an equal. This act is good for many reasons; People enjoy life more if they are treated fairly. The country is richer because each and every person can do what they are best at. It is easier for people to live side by side and get on with each other if everyone is treated fairly. Without the equality act we would still be experiencing things such as, many women being paid less than men for the same kind of work. Clever children from poorer families wouldn’t do as well at school and in later life would struggle at finding a job due to the government not helping them as much, and they may receive poor health care which would also limit their chances in life. disabled people would be a lot less likely to have job as the without the equality act in place services were less expectant of disability’s and providing for them as it costed the system more money. People of different races would find it harder to get a job as racism was still shown and no prominently accepted by everyone by promoting racism through the act now though people know it’s not accepted and will try there best the help ethic minorities get jobs and be accepted in social care settings. many lesbian and gay people would worried about asking the police for help in case they are treated unfairly as they felt as though they was not accepted in society and by services providers and users before this act came about. This initiative is influencing my local area by making establishments such as hospitals more aware of equality issues which is helping to make it better for staff and service user a few examples of this in recent newspaper articles are; Bury Council is one of Britain's top gay-friendly employers The local authority was the top performing council in the North West and gained particular recognition in the latest Stonewall workplace equality report for its Dignity at Work policy. Stonewall stated that the council has “a robust commitment to fostering a workplace culture where all employees are treated with dignity and respect”. The council is now listed as number 54 in Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers list which showcases the progress being made in many workplaces towards full equality for Britain’s 1.7 million lesbian, gay and bisexual employees. This shows to me that governments initiative policies are helping make health and social care providers provide an overall better service, by not discriminating against anyone for their individual traits. This is just one example of how the equality act helps people to be treat to the best possible standard everyday by services, as well as being a promotion of an anti-discriminatory practice showing how by promoting equality it influences people in society and society’s work places to make a change. http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/archive/2014/02/12/11006078.Bury_Council_is_one_of_Britain_s_top_gay_friendly_employers/

Another way to make sure the equality act is being followed and anti-discriminatory practices are being promoted throughout Britain is by in the work place higher members of staff enforcing the equity duty this is a law for public bodies telling them they must think about how they can make sure their work supports equality. For example, in their services, through their jobs, and through the money they spend. Public bodies already need to think about treating people of different races, disabled people, and men and women fairly and equally. But this becomes even more important when employing and treating patients, as everybody in this setting needs the best possible level of equal care to ensure they feel safe and valued. Equity duty for example would cover a woman/man who is on maternity leave, the government has a legislation which states that when a woman/man working in a health and social care setting is having a child they should still be paid for their time off so they can spend time with the baby and support their partner, this is an equity duty ensuring that whether you are a woman or man working for a service you get maternity or paternity leave paid and it will not hinder future job opportunities. The equality acts state work places should obey by these set of legislation; “Your rights during pregnancy: you have the right to health and safety protection for you and your baby. You have the right to reasonable paid time off for your antenatal care. You are protected against unfair treatment and unfair dismissal because of your pregnancy (The law says that it is sex discrimination to treat a woman less favourably on the grounds of her pregnancy or because she wants to take or has taken maternity