BTEC E3/L1 Health and Social Care

Unit 8
Investigating rights and
responsibilities at work
Unit overview Credits: 1

This unit introduces the learner to the concept of rights, helping them to understand that everyone has the
right to be treated fairly and with respect whilst they are in the workplace, whilst also working in a safe and
secure environment. The unit also allows learners to explore what other rights they have at work.

Learners will realise that although they have these rights, their rights will not always be respected by
individuals including employers and employees in the workplace. Therefore learners will explore the wide
range of laws and legislation that can protect them in the workplace as well as the responsibilities that the
employer has toward them, which should be beneficial to the learner.

Unit 8 also focuses on the topic of equality of opportunity. Learners will be encouraged to draw upon their
own thoughts and experiences with the help of any work placements (although this is not a mandatory part of
the unit) to gain an understanding of how to avoid disrespecting an individual or breaking their rights.

Although this unit has links with Unit 1: Investigating rights and responsibilities at work for Entry Level 3 and
in some areas the content is similar, it should be noted that the criteria between the two levels and units
differ in their expectations of what they wish the learner to cover. Opportunities to address Unit 1 criteria are
highlighted in the Scheme of work and the Assessment grid, for your reference.

On completion of this unit, learners will:

LO1 Understand what ‘rights’ and ‘responsibilities’ are
LO2 Understand how to respect the rights of individuals
LO3 Know laws that can protect the rights of employees
LO4 Know that employers have certain responsibilities

1
© Pearson Education Ltd 2010. Copying permitted for purchasing institution only. This material is not copyright free.
Unit 8 Investigating rights BTEC Entry 3/Level 1 Health & Social Care
and responsibilities at work

Delivery guidance
Whilst teaching this unit, you may discover that the learners have a basic knowledge of the content due to
their previous experiences. However, this knowledge base will need to be teased out of the learner as they
may not have the confidence to realise that they already have this awareness. The activities that you choose
within the class can make all the difference.

A range of activities should be used to spark and promote the learners’ interests. Activities such as photo
stories, role plays, worksheets, and spider diagrams could also be considered to assist teaching and learning
as well as the activities given in this delivery guidance. In addition, activities should be used to accompany
rather than replace the teaching. The use of the activities alone is not enough to give the learners a full
understanding of the unit.

External links
This unit would benefit from external links with the vocational sector. These links could be developed in many
ways, such as guest speakers and work placements. You could also try to make your assignments as vocational
as possible, as this will help to engage the learners’ interests. This can take two forms: the learner acquiring
the vocational language and skills by using these terms and skills regularly in class, in assignments and on
work placement; or setting the assignment within a strong vocational context such as researching a job role
whilst on placement.

Functional skills
The specification will offer guidance on how functional skills can be embedded in your delivery of each unit.
The most appropriate skill to embed within this unit is English, as a lot of the activities suggested in the
Student Book require the learner to communicate with other individuals in the class and produce elements
of written work. This in turn could also incorporate ICT as you could ask the learner to word process their
assignment work.

LO1 – Understand what rights and responsibilities are

This unit starts by introducing learners to the range of different rights that individuals have. This includes
rights as users of health and social care services (see topic: Our basic human rights) and as employees in the
workplace (see topic: Rights at work). It may be useful for learners to think about what the term ‘rights’ means
before discussing what rights we have.

An activity that could be useful here is ‘snowballing’. Snowballing is where learners work individually, in pairs,
and as part of groups. To start the activity, individual learners write down what they think the term ‘rights’
means. They then work with a partner and agree on the meaning of the word ‘rights’. The pairs are put into
small groups where they share their definitions and agree on one meaning between them. Finally, these
definitions are written on the board and can be discussed as a whole class.

The number of stages you use to do this is up to you. If you are looking for a quick activity ask learners to do
this on an individual basis and then feedback. If you have more time, you could keep increasing the group size.

2
© Pearson Education Ltd 2010. Copying permitted for purchasing institution only. This material is not copyright free.
BTEC Entry 3/Level 1 Health & Social Care Unit 8 Investigating rights
and responsibilities at work

Work experience
Learners may benefit from embarking on a work placement whilst studying this unit (although this is not a
specific requirement of the unit). Work experience within health and social care is relatively easy to arrange
especially if strong links are developed with local care settings. The evidence required for many of the criteria
can be generated from good work experience. Evidence can also be usefully generated from learners’ part-
time work if in a relevant care setting. For example, learners could be given tasks to find out about the laws
and legislation that the placement follows. A work placement diary would also be a useful method to record
how individuals use the service and how the employees have had their rights promoted and respected.

A visit or a work placement to a local residential or nursing home could be arranged to enable the learner
to shadow a member of staff carrying out their day to day activities. Learners could be set particular topics
or questions to consider whilst shadowing a member of staff, such as: what tasks/jobs do they do every day?
How did the staff show they respected the rights of the individuals who use the service?

This activity could also be used for other criteria, particularly 3.1, by simply changing the focus of the
questions/observations.

Useful teaching resources for this topic include:

www.acas.org.uk

Arbitration service, advice on health and well being at work

www.advice.org.uk

Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

In the topic, Responsibilities, learners are introduced to what their responsibilities may be when working
in a health or social care setting. This criterion can be quite difficult for the learners as they need to
understand that different job roles have different responsibilities, however, some job roles have a number of
responsibilities in common.

A good way to familiarise learners with responsibilities is to look at different job adverts of specific job roles
and identify and explain the responsibilities that the job role has. Job adverts could be found in newspapers
or websites, or learners could find job adverts to bring in to use in class.

Alternatively, you could use the following example.

Wanted:
A health care support worker is required to work in a busy hospital environment. You will be working with all
age groups, abilities and disabilities. You will be responsible for helping patients to wash, bath, dress, eat and
visit the toilet, assisting patients with disabilities in getting around or in everyday tasks and generally ensuring
patients are comfortable.

You will need to be caring, friendly and respectful, as well as being able to get on with lots of different types of
people. You will need to be able to identify when someone needs help or assistance even if the patient cannot
ask for help themselves.

You will also need to be aware of different laws that relate to the rights of employees and users of the service.

3
© Pearson Education Ltd 2010. Copying permitted for purchasing institution only. This material is not copyright free.
Unit 8 Investigating rights BTEC Entry 3/Level 1 Health & Social Care
and responsibilities at work

It would be useful for learners to complete the activity before attempting the activity: You decide in the
Student Book.

Useful websites for this learning outcome and related assessment criteria include:

www.direct.gov.uk/en/RightsAndResponsibilities/Yourrights

General rights and responsibilities in the workplace including rights for people with disabilities, carers, older
people and young people

www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/ks4citizenship/cit10/10q2

Schemes of work for KS4 citizenship – Unit 10: Rights and Responsibilities in the world of work.

LO2 – Understand how to respect the rights of individuals

Learners need to be familiar with the different terms used to describe the factors that can affect an individual’s
rights (see topic: Factors affecting rights of individual). Although learners may show understanding of these
terms during the lesson, it is likely that they will have forgotten the meaning of these terms or get them
confused with one another by the following lesson.

It is a good idea to recap the meanings at the start of a lesson by asking learners to match the following
terms: stereotype; discrimination; culture; factors, to definitions and examples to check their understanding.

Furthermore, using case studies that you have created that give examples of factors that affect individuals
and their rights, gives learners the opportunity to identify and explain the factors affecting the rights of
the individuals. This can then flow into the next criterion as learners could provide suggestions of how the
individuals in the case studies could have their rights respected.

You could revisit the case study: Kamill and ask learners to make a list of how the residential home could
respect Kamill’s rights (as well as other employees and residents in the hospital).

Other examples of how to respect others, either individuals using the service, or learner’s workmates, are
introduced in the Student Book topic: Respecting others.

LO3 – Know laws that can protect the rights of employees

The Student Book introduces the topic: Laws that protect you at work. Laws and legislation can be very
difficult for learners to grasp and so it is imperative that laws are covered in a way that is fun, whilst giving a
basic outline of the content of the law. Laws are regularly changed and amended and your knowledge may
need to be updated in order to remain accurate. Although the Sex Discrimination Act, Race Relations Act
and Disability Discrimination Act are not individually referred to in the specifications, it may also be worth
bringing these to the attention of the learners.

You could expand on the information in the Student Book, to talk about how the Disability Discrimination Act,
Race Relations Act and Sex Discrimination Act are all laws that aim to reduce the amount of discrimination
experienced by people with disabilities, different ethnicities, different genders and sexualities. The three laws
make it illegal to discriminate in these areas, meaning that any public places like shops or public services such
as transport should be available to everyone. Health and social care treatment or jobs are usually not allowed
to be decided on these factors, protecting individuals from being discriminated against.

4
© Pearson Education Ltd 2010. Copying permitted for purchasing institution only. This material is not copyright free.
BTEC
 Entry 3/Level 1 Health & Social Care Unit 8 Investigating rights
 and responsibilities at work

A class debate could be a useful method of engaging learners and stimulating discussion as to whether the
laws really do their job. Ask learners to consider the following questions:

1. Do they stop discrimination and people being treated unfairly?

2. Do they enable everyone to access health and social care services?

3. Do they protect the users of the services and the employees?

4. What would you do differently?

Posters, leaflets, presentations and case studies are all useful techniques for ensuring that the learners
have taken on board the information, producing literature or information that others can learn from, whilst
demonstrating to you that they understand the content.

LO4 – Know that employers have certain responsibilities

Employers’ responsibilities are introduced in the Student Book topics: Equality of opportunity and
Confidentiality. In order to get learners to understand the concept of employers and employees having their
own responsibilities within the work place, class activities would really benefit from being strongly vocationally
led and related directly to the work place.

Guest speakers could be invited from local health and social care organisations to discuss their
responsibilities, and worksheets or handouts could be completed with regard to this as learners need only
‘identify employer responsibilities’, therefore no detailed descriptions or explanations are required. The
answers from these worksheets or handouts could be used by learners to create word searches or crosswords
for other members of the class to complete. This shows you the two individual learners’ understanding: the
learner who created the activity and also the learner who has completed the activity.

Useful websites for this learning outcome and criteria include:

www.tuc.org.uk

Trades Union Congress websites with downloadable leaflets about rights at work

www.worksmart.org.uk/rights

A TUC run website with information about rights at work (paternity and maternity leave, paid holiday etc).

5
© Pearson Education Ltd 2010. Copying permitted for purchasing institution only. This material is not copyright free.
Unit 8 Investigating rights BTEC Entry 3/Level 1 Health & Social Care
and responsibilities at work

Assessment grid
The following grid will show you the assessment criteria that should be met in this unit against the activities
in the student book that contribute. The grid also suggests the types of evidence that you might gather for
each criterion.

E3 – Unit 1: Investigating rights and responsibilities at work

Assessment criteria Activity in Student Book that Evidence that could be offered Student
covers it book page
1.1 Identify aspects Activity: Your rights List of rights. 3
of working life where
they have rights
Case study: Should men and Responses to the questions based on the 5
women be treated differently case study.
at work?

Activity: Being a manager of a Written evidence of advice. 5

day care centre
Witness statement of role play and
participation in class discussion.
Written evidence collected from a work
placement or trip could also be used here.
2.1 Describe how the Case study: Tabatha and Responses to the questions based on the 11
rights of others can be Marley case study.
respected
3.1 Identify aspects Activity: You decide Completion of job adverts for two job roles. 7
of working life where
Written evidence collected from a work
they must fulfil certain
placement or trip could also be used here.
responsibilities

4.1 Identify sources Activity: Sources of help and Written lists of sources of support. 6
of help within the advice
Written evidence collected from a work
workplace
placement or trip could be used here.

6
© Pearson Education Ltd 2010. Copying permitted for purchasing institution only. This material is not copyright free.
BTEC
 Entry 3/Level 1 Health & Social Care Unit 8 Investigating rights
 and responsibilities at work

L1: Unit 8 Investigating rights and responsibilities at work

Assessment criteria Activity in Student Book that Evidence that could be offered Student
covers it book page
1.1 Explain what Activity: Your rights List of rights and leaflet of rights. 3
‘rights’ are
Case study: Should men and Responses to the questions based on the 5
women be treated differently case study.
at work?

Activity: Being a manager of a Written evidence of advice. 5

day care centre
Witness statement of role play and
participation in class discussion.
Written evidence collected from a work
placement or trip could also be used here.
1.2 Explain what Activity: You decide Completion of job adverts for two job roles. 7
‘responsibilities’ are
Written evidence collected from a work
placement or trip could also be used here.
2.1 Explain the factors Case study: Kamill Responses to the questions based on the 9
that may affect the case study.
rights of individuals
Activity: Who do you want to Written responses to the questions. 9
be?
2.2 Explain how to Case study: Tabatha and Responses to the questions based on the 11
respect the rights of Marley case study.
individuals
3.1 Identify laws that Activity: Tell us the law Poster that tells employees of the different 13
can protect employee laws that protect them whilst they are at
rights work.

Alternate ways of producing this

evidence could include presentation of
information of the laws to other learners
in one of the following formats: posters,
leaflets, presentations or the use of case
studies. It may be necessary to video the
presentation.
4.1 Identify employer Activity: What would you do? Written evidence of advice. 15
responsibilities in
Witness statement of participation in class
regard to:
discussion.
• Fulfilling a contract
Case study: Clare and Kirsty Responses to the questions based on the 16
• Health and safety case study.
• Equal opportunities
and prevention of
Activity: What’s the problem? List of breaches of confidentiality. 17
discrimination.
Written solutions to overcome the
confidentiality breaches.
Additional evidence could be produced
through accurate answers to tutor set
questions when listening to guest speaker
talk about their responsibilities in their
job role.

7
© Pearson Education Ltd 2010. Copying permitted for purchasing institution only. This material is not copyright free.
 8
Scheme of work
Unit 8: Investigating rights and responsibilities at
work Academic year:

Broad aim:

Tutor(s): Number of weeks: 5

and responsibilities at work

Duration of session: 2 hours

Unit 8 Investigating rights 

SB = Student book Credits: 1

Week Learning Tutor activity Learner activity Resources Assessment criteria and
outcomes functional skills
1 E3 and L1 LO1: Introduce the topic of rights Group work to try and define what Board 1.1 Explain what rights are
Understand and responsibilities a right is. Groups to write their
what ‘rights’ and answers on the white board. Student Book
‘responsibilities’
are Materials needed to make leaflets:

E3 Learners to think about the rights Paper of assorted colours

Brief introduction into what the
unit will consist of and what the
learners will be studying
E3
Tutor to explain what a right
is using the definitions on the
board as a guide
that they have in society and at
work, and to list as many as they can Pens/pencils of assorted colours
think of
Magazines to cut out
Learners to make a leaflet that
informs users of health and social
care services of their basic rights

Boardstorm all the rights the FS: Completing the

L1 learners can think of. Class
discussion of these rights.
Class feedback and discussion
E3 and L1 on case study
activity: Your rights will
help show reading, writing,
speaking, listening and
Complete the case study: Should communication skills
men and women be treated
differently at work?

Class to complete the activity Complete the activity: Being FS: Class discussion will

© Pearson Education Ltd 2010. Copying permitted for purchasing institution only. This material is not copyright free.
together. Verbal feedback manager of a day care centre help to show English
and discussion, ensuring that Functional skills
E3 and L1
everyone in the class can have a
say and put forward their ideas.
BTEC Entry 3/Level 1 Health & Social Care
 


Week Learning Tutor activity Learner activity Resources Assessment criteria and
outcomes functional skills
BTEC

2 E3 LO3: Know Tutor-led class discussion Learners to work in small groups to Board FS: Class discussion will
laws that on the meaning of the term discuss the responsibilities that they help to show speaking and
can protect ‘responsibilities’ have Different descriptions of general listening skills
the rights of health and social care job roles
employees Feedback of individual Group activity: Leaners to discuss
responsibilities the job roles and responsibilities Student book
3.1 Identify laws that can
L1 LO1 different health and social care
protect employee rights
Feedback from class of employees have
information found in jigsaw
E3
Feedback of class work 1.2 Explain what
Completion of activity: You decide
‘responsibilities’ are
L1
3 E3 and L1 LO2: Board storm with a discussion Group work on identifying factors Board 2.1 Explain the factors that
Understand the factors after the group that can affect the rights of may affect the rights of
Entry 3/Level 1 Health & Social Care

how to respect work individuals Student book individuals

the rights of
individuals Class feedback of case study Complete case study: Kamill Materials needed to make brochures: 1.2 Explain what
and activity ‘responsibilities are’
Complete the activity Paper of assorted colours

L1 Pens/pencils of assorted colours

Case study: Tabatha and 2.1 Explain the factors that
E3 Marley completed as a class Complete case study: Tabatha and Magazines to cut out may affect the rights of
together Marley individuals

Learners to research laws and Learners to research laws and

L1 legislations that can protect the
rights of employees. This could
be set as homework.
legislations that can protect the
rights of employees
2.2 Explain how to respect
the rights of individuals

FS: Researching laws and

legislation will help show
reading skills

© Pearson Education Ltd 2010. Copying permitted for purchasing institution only. This material is not copyright free.
9
and responsibilities at work
Unit 8 Investigating rights
 10
Week Learning Tutor activity
outcomes
4 L1 LO3 Tutor-led discussion
introducing the different laws
L1 and legislation that can protect
employee rights using the
research from last session/
homework
5 L1 LO4: Know Recap on the term
that employers ‘responsibilities’ and discuss
have certain how it relates to the workplace
responsibilities
Feed the group work of
L1 activity: What would you do?,
back to the class
Introduce the concept
of confidentiality and its
importance using the case
study to help
Feedback of the activity:
What’s the problem?
© Pearson Education Ltd 2010. Copying permitted for purchasing institution only. This material is not copyright free.
Learner activity
Using the research from last
session/homework and tutor-led
discussion, complete the activity:
Tell us the law. Learners to produce
a poster informing employees of
the different laws and legislation.
Group work completion of the
activity: What would you do?
Completion of case study: Clare
and Kirsty
Learners to individually complete
the activity: What’s the problem?
Resources Assessment criteria and
functional skills
Board
Student book FS: Discussing the
completed research as
Materials needed to make posters: a class will help to show
speaking and listening
and responsibilities at work
Large A1/A2 poster paper of assorted
Unit 8 Investigating rights 
skills
colours
Pens/pencils of assorted colours
Magazines to cut out
3.1 Identify laws that can
protect employee rights
Board FS: Discussing the
completed research as
Student book a class will help to show
speaking and listening
skills
4.1 Identify employer
responsibilities in regard to:
• fulfilling a contract
• health and safety
• equal opportunities
and prevention of
discrimination
BTEC Entry 3/Level 1 Health & Social Care