When staff are just starting out on their NVQ and SVQ in Health and Social Care, or when new staff who have qualified from abroad start working in the UK they can be uncertain and confused by the different terms, such as policy, regulations, legislation, etc. NVQ and SVQ Assessors can also be uncertain of the differences.

In many ways the starting point to understanding the differences is actually Government policy.

The Government decides it wants certain things to happen in health or social care. Examples could include:

** more older people to be cared for at home, rather than in residential care

** more children, who are looked after by local authorities, to be cared for in foster care or adopted

** more adults with learning disabilities or mental health problems to be assisted into employment

Whatever the intention the Government’s aim becomes a policy. Sometimes this policy is a Green Paper or a White Paper.

The Government then has a choice as to how it pursues its policy. From the Government’s perspective it will rely on other organisations to actually apply the policy on a day to day basis. If the policy relates to health it is an NHS organisation. If the policy relates to social care it is likely to be local authorities that have to apply it or the local authority will have to make clear to organisations it contracts work to that various expectations need to be met.

The Government can get local authorities or NHS organisations to apply the policy in one of several ways. These include:

** by publishing the policy as ‘statutory guidance’. Local authorities have to follow statutory guidance issued by the Government. In England one example of this is the policy on protecting vulnerable adults titled “No Secrets”

** by offering lots of money! The Government says it will give local authorities lots of new money to be spent on certain policy initiatives. One example of this is the Sure Start and Children’s Centres initiative. When it started the policy was driven by money

** by introducing legislation that gives the local authority the power to do something or making it a duty to do something. A power means the local authority can do it if it wants to. A duty means the local authority must do it. An example of this is direct payments. The Government originally introduced direct payments as a power. But then the Government made it a duty so that local authorities must offer direct payments (since so few direct payments were offered when it was only a ‘power’)

Acts of Parliament

The Government may therefore decide to introduce legislation. This is the classic Act of Parliament.

In recent years legislation has got increasingly detailed and specific. Even with this detail, legislation can be quite cumbersome. It is also quite an involved process to introduce it. Therefore the Act of Parliament usually gives the Secretary of State (in England) or the Scottish Minister the power to make regulations and/or a code of practice.

Regulations (Also Known as Statutory Instruments)

Regulations are also called Statutory Instruments. Regulations are laid before Parliament but are not debated. They are considered law although not quite as strong as the original Act.

Regulations can be altered more quickly and are now extensively used (for example health and safety regulations).

Statutory Guidance

In addition the Secretary of State or Scottish Minister has the power to issue statutory guidance to local authorities. Local authorities are under a legal duty to follow this guidance. In other words the local authority social services or social work department must follow this ‘statutory guidance’.

Code of Practice

The Secretary of State (or Scottish Minister) could also issue a code of practice relating to an Act of Parliament. These codes do not have the full weight of law but they explain and clarify the law and offer guidance on good practice. They are often realistic and applied and can be very useful.

Good Practice Guidance

The Government department (either in England, Wales or Scotland) could also issue good practice guidance. This is not the same as statutory guidance. It is often meant to be read by social workers, first line managers (and others) since the guidance commonly gives case scenarios explaining how service users should benefit from any recent changes in the law.

One complicating factor in understanding the present legal framework in social care and children’s services is that often one Act of Parliament does not fully replace a previous Act. Commonly an Act of Parliament amends or alters an existing Act. Keeping track of this can be very difficult.

Therefore for social care staff (including staff working with children) who are NVQ or SVQ Assessors or are starting out on their Health and Social Care NVQ or SVQ some of the best resources are the law handbooks from Kirwin Maclean Associates.

These law handbooks are updated every year. They are focused and applied.

There are specific books for:

** staff who work with adults in England and Wales
** staff who work with children in England and Wales
** staff who work with adults or children in Scotland

These books make clear the way laws have been amended and what new laws have been introduced. Social care staff working on their Health and Social Care NVQ or SVQ who are worried about questions from their NVQ or SVQ assessor need worry no more. If your assessor asks you about what national or European law or legislation you are working under you will find the answer in the book relevant to your area of work.

These books are equally useful for social workers or social care staff who have recently arrived in Britain from other countries. They give you an overview of social care and social work law.

All of the above mentioned Social Care Books can be found at: http://www.kirwinmaclean.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Towland

It is the limitation engendered by an in depth study of individual subject matters and specialized disciplines that shortchange us in understanding the otherwise comprehensive and integrated natural reality. As much as it is imperative that every reality and phenomenon is studied from every angle and perspective, seen a piece at a time and condition it is of paramount importance that at the end or anywhere and everywhere it makes sense that it be looked at in a generalized and comprehensive manner.

It has become a common scene and experience to observe a reality by specialty and confine our vision of it to the same spectacle by which we trained to look at and interpret. Such a narrow vision of specialized training has its merits of course as it has its demerits or drawbacks. Since the major intent of this writing is not to indulge in the merits and demerits of specialized studies it would make better sense to jump to the intent of the paper and leave the reader with short introductory note as it is.

This writing and its unconventional heading is provoked by the issue of the legal and illegal transnational and transcontinental human movement of the 21st century and the ragging discussion thereof. For the traditional disciplinarian and one who had always the way of looking at physics and social studies or geography, which ever category you want put human social movement and thermodynamics, this surely might sound an unlikely marriage of different species. Nonetheless, there are times when the marriage of the unlikely fits and serves a purpose and a condition better, or perhaps, these relations explains this social dynamics better than any other the writer of this article knows.

The relation between social dynamism and physical dynamism and the apparent interrelationship need be seen I feel, as one of the major factors and due consideration be given to it in any remedial and diagnostic procedures when and if a need arises to examine it. The Law of Thermodynamic is the Law governing the movement of matter and anything from a high potential to a low potential in whatever form and content that potential is manifested. This is at the crux of the dynamism exhibited in the human movement from trans-family to trans- continents. The law of thermodynamics pre supposes a number of scenarios for the dynamism to continue in the direction and for it to cease or reverse, the polarities of the potentials have to either reverse or equate.

Uniformity in distribution of any and everything earthly or even Universal and such an equation is unheard of and may never be heard. Asynchrony and uneven distribution are the engines and forces causing and maintaining the constant dynamism in the human social movement and other animates and in animates. Here it would do a lot of disservice to pass without mentioning the internal and external asynchrony of the Universe and the Earth itself adding to the human social dynamism. In all without exception, the second law of thermodynamics in different forms and manifestations seems and truly, works and governs the restlessness we have come to love and sometimes take with some reservation and at other times with measured resentment.

As it is in the law to have energy to be expend and gained; In these dynamisms and movements, it is expected that there be often and always, payments expected and ascertained sometimes disproportionately by some though with the first law not violated. Even the so highly acclaimed economic law of supply and demand which by in large is upheld as the driving and governing factor in the social and economic dynamism, can as well be very well explained by the same two fundamental laws of thermodynamics.

The first Law defining and determining the conservation of the totality of whatever it is in a closed system and the second determining the give and take or lose and gain in a material movement. In this material movement, the flow rate determines the pressure by which a flow could be transformed to perform a reasonable work done. A funneling effect and a restriction of a material movement is often useful and even indispensable at times to change the material movement in to a driving force of any engine. It is this semantics in thermodynamics that comes to my mind when I read and hear the current discussion on the revampment of the US immigration laws. There is no disagreement that the us economic engine is driven by this funneled social movement and at the same time it is easy to see and comprehend that this movement has to be restricted to make it drive this ever expanding engine.

A movement that is not controlled, directed and compressed will remain amorphous and of no use, and a totally restricted movement will ultimately build up and break any levy and any barrier, Social movements will always continue and the from a low opportunity zones to a high opportunity zones and like any of the other potential buildups will build up and ultimately break any barrier built. It is with expendable energy and other assets that social movements or any material movement happens and as such always has something to spend some thing to gain. These are at the core of every movement, it is by in large transforming and expansive than it is diminutive contrary to popular belief.

May be our effort to stop this natural phenomenon is wasted than to control and make better use of it as we have done to every natural movement. Here again the 3rd law of thermodynamics could be effectual to explain the qualitative and quantitative content of the material moving and at rest the Enthalpy and Entropy that it will gain as it loses and loose as it gains and give as it takes and take as it gives.

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The instant we are born into this world, we embark on a challenging, lifelong journey of learning. We start out learning basic things like walking and talking. From there we enter school, where we take on the alphabet, socializing and writing, as well as reading and arithmetic. Then it goes on and on. Many teenagers think that learning stops after high school or college, but in reality, learning goes on until the end of our lifetimes. Some things we excel at, some we are just okay with, and other things we are embarrassed to show people how little we know. Why is this? Why do we all comprehend and excel at learning things at various skill levels? The answers to that can be found in the Five Laws of Learning, and they are as follows:

1. The Law of Doing. Hands on, otherwise known as experience, teaches us best. The connection between actually doing something and our brain is a strong one. So, when you are learning something new, don’t just discuss how to do it, or read about how to do it…Do It.

2. The Law of Motivation. When something is worth learning, it is worth learning well, to paraphrase that old adage. If your heart just isn’t into something, you will not learn it. Attitude has a lot to do with approaching a new subject to learn it. So does motivation. Know why what you are about to learn is important to you. Learn how it affects your life. Understand the basic concept behind what you are about to learn. Find what will motivate you to pick up a new skill. Get behind it and go for it.

3. The Law of Relevancy. If a subject is not relevant to you in your life, you will unconsciously refuse to learn it. That is because you inherently need to know why you are learning it. You want to learn how to use the internet, but you may not need to know HTML or any of its scripting languages in order to learn how to find things on the search engines, or navigate around websites. You must know what is relevant, and cut out all of the rest that will be of no use to you.

4. The Law of Association. Have you ever started to learn something, and upon learning some key concepts, found that you learned the subject more easily, because you discovered that what you are learning now is similar to something you learned before? That is the Law of Association at work for you. Your mind works by associating similar classifications of things, and applying them to the new field of study. We learn to read by first learning about letters and sounds, then putting them together in the new field of study called reading. We first learn about numbers, then about basic ways to add, subtract, multiply and divide those numbers, before entering new fields of study like algebra, geometry and calculus. This example can be carried into anything we learn, for our entire lives. It is easier to learn something new and more advanced when we have a basic background that is similar, that we can associate with our new subject.

5. The Law of Repetition. Anyone who has gone to church for any length of time, especially as children, can relate to this Law. How many times did we need to hear about the Story of Noah, or the Fall of Adam? Until we learned it, that’s how many times. By repeating information and principles, we retain the subject matter more strongly and are more easily able to recall the subject. The reason we can remember song lyrics from our favorite songs years later is because of the Law of Repetition. The more we are exposed to a topic, the deeper it is embedded into our minds. Memorization is just the Law of Repetition.

As you embark on new learning experiences, keep these five Laws in your mind. They will be your guide as you feel frustrated about “not getting it at first.” Apply these Laws and you will get it. You may not master the subject, but you will learn it.

For more information about improving memory and mental health try [http://www.learnarticle.com] for products to help with memory and learning, in addition to other resources. Also try [http://www.learnanythingsite.com] for a learning resource for business minded people.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_Stanton

The united states federal government maintains numerous law enforcement agencies throughout it’s many departments with a myriad of roles and responsibilities. Some of the more well known federal law enforcement agencies are the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), The United States Marshal’s service (USMS) and the United States Secret Service (USSS). Each of these federal agencies has very different roles and responsibilities within the law enforcement community. There are several dozen federal agencies in existence and their responsibilities run the gamut from static protection of federal lands and buildings to proactive patrol, protection and investigations.

Federal law enforcement agencies are able to enforce both federal as well as state laws throughout the united states and possess full police powers granted to them under the United States Code. Most law enforcement officers employed by federal agencies are not referred to as police officers but are officially designated as ‘Special Agents’. Many federal agencies maintain both plain clothes as well as a uniformed division, one well known example of this is the United States Secret Service. Although many in the public are familiar with the neat, well dressed men and women who they see shadowing the president of the united states where ever he goes and speaking frequently in to their coat sleeves, what many people don’t know is that there is also a uniformed division that is responsible for protecting the White House, the US vice presidents official home in Washington as well as protecting foreign diplomatic missions in the Washington DC federal district.

Becoming a member of a federal agency can be a long and involved undertaking. The hiring process can take up to a year or longer in some cases and includes written and physical tests as well as a stringent background investigation. The hiring process typically will include a psychological test and interview as well as a polygraph examination. Failure in any one of the phases of testing during the hiring process results in the applicant being removed from further consideration. Once an applicant has passed all phases of the hiring process and has been approved for hire, they will be placed on an eligible list of applicants. At which point they may be sent to Gynco, Georgia to be trained at the Federal Training Center located there or at one of the satellite facilities.

Becoming a federal officer with a federal law enforcement agency can be a grueling and time consuming process, but the variety of assignments and travel available in federal law enforcement as compared to a typical municipal or even a state agency, make the effort well worth it.

For more information about Federal Law Enforcement Agencies and job availability click here.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Ekman