Legislation/laws guiding health and social care practice

Legislation/law is comprehensive in nature, affecting all aspects of our everyday life, even if we do not realise this to be the case. As well as affecting what we do in everyday life, legislation/law also affects what we can or cannot do in practice. This means that knowing what the legislation/law is and how this affects what we can do as practitioners is very important for health and social care practitioners, and this is the focus of this chapter. The chapter starts with a discussion of what legislation/law is and provides a simple definition of legislation/law. The chapter then discusses the importance of legislation/law for health and social care, as this may not always be apparent. The chapter concludes by briefly linking ten key health and social care practice behaviours to key legislation/law. The focus is on detailing how these legislation/laws affect health and social care practice.