Strengths of Workplace Health and Safety Policy Statement

Discuss about the Report for Health Politics Planning and Practice.

Policy analysis is a complex activity that needs to be approached from different perspectives. The analysis of a health policy is important because it helps in explaining its strengths and weaknesses particularly when looked at from the social, economic, political, and epidemiological perspectives. Workplace Health and Safety Policy Statement is one of the most important policy statements that have revolutionized the healthcare sector. It is distributive policy that is exclusively aimed at benefiting the Australian workforce. It stands to benefit the employees who are to win in case it is implemented. However, it is the employer who may lose because t will bring additional responsibilities to them. Its stakeholders are the employers, employees and other interest groups like the government, trade unions and many others. As a workplace policy statement, it has been focusing on the provision of safe and healthy working environment for all the workers and anyone who might get an opportunity to visit the workplace. The policy had made it a priority that all the employers should strive to use all the available resources to safeguard the welfare of all the employees, visitors or contractors and eliminate any unnecessary risk that might be experienced in the workplace (Jolley, Freeman, Baum, Hurley, Lawless, Bentley & Sanders, 2014).

The strength of the Workplace Health and Safety Policy Statement is that it is a standard policy that was made by applying the right standard it requires. For it to be in place, the policy statement had to mandatorily pass through the agenda setting, policy formation, adoption, implementation and evaluation stages. This is a clear proof that the policy was not rushed, but came into existence by adopting the most appropriate strategy (Kitson, Marshall, Bassett & Zeitz, 2013). By doing this, the policy had to be critically analyzed and weighed against all the previous statements to which it could be linked (Birkland, 2014).

The analysis of this policy can be properly done using the book Healthcare and Public Policy: An Australian Analysis in which the author presents a candid discussion on policy analysis. The strength of the book is that it gives a detailed discussion on the criteria that should be used in analyzing policy statements. After giving a broader view of the definition of policy, the book chapter goes ahead to give an insightful information on how to use the social, economic, political, and epidemiological perspectives in the analysis of a policy statement.  Besides, the other strength of the book chapter is that it highlights the significance of policy statements in the country (Head & Alford, 2015). As a nation, Australia has been coming up with several policy statements aimed at improving different sectors of the society. Therefore, by explaining much about the significance of policies, the formulation and implementation process, it becomes easier to understand why it is important to analyze the policies. A well-guided analysis can help in identifying the underlying strengths and weaknesses that might require to be improved so as to make the policy to be relevant and useful to the society. This is what the country’s healthcare system requires (Fischer, 2012).

Analysis of the policy statement

When analyzed from an economical angle, Workplace Health and Safety Policy Statement stand out as one of the most cost-effective policy statements in Australia. Over the years, Australia’s healthcare sector has had a lot of policy statements. Each of which has made significant impacts on its healthcare sector. What makes Workplace Health and Safety Policy Statement exceptional is that it is a cost-effective policy statement that does not require too much money to implement (Votano & Sunindijo, 2014).

Although it is a primary responsibility of the government to provide adequate healthcare to the public, the resources allocated to the healthcare sector should be properly utilized (Kirkman, Kenny & Fox, 2013). To achieve this objective, the government should come up with viable and cost-effective policies that can benefit a large section of the society, but becomes affordable to implement. It is for this reason that the Workplace Health and Safety Policy Statement qualifies as a suitable policy because if effectively adopted, it will utilize the least possible amount of resources to transform workplace safety and care.

Sociological Perspective

From a sociological perspective, Workplace Health and Safety Policy Statement still remains an invaluable asset. Workplace safety and healthy is a multifaceted initiative that requires a collective approach to handle (Fenna, 2015). As already highlighted, the policy statement advocates for collaboration between the employer and employees. Such a unity is necessary because it can help in supplementing the efforts of one another. Whereas the employer is responsible for using its managers to provide, facilitate and constantly supervise the safety of the workplace, the employees can chip in by supporting the management to do so (Basil, Basil, Deshpande & Lavack, 2013).

This clearly shows that the policy is unitary in nature and can enhance cooperation amongst different stakeholders. By giving different stakeholders a chance to come together and join hands for a good course, the policy serves as a sociological tool that can be relied upon to enhance harmony in the corporate sector. Collaboration is a very important asset that can greatly contribute towards the prosperity of the corporate sector. Under the sociological perspective, the policy can be designed to suit different sections of the society which deserves to be treated with the fairness, equality, and social justice that it deserves.

The policy can be analysed from an epidemiological perspective. Epidemiology refers to an area of study that centres on diseases, their causes, prevalence, effects, and prevention.  The information collected by epidemiologists can therefore be relied upon by the public healthcare system to understand the pattern of diseases, predict their outbreak and come up with the management, prevention and mitigation strategies. Epidemiologically, Workplace Health and Safety Policy Statement prove to be as valuable as any other health policy. Occupational health should be treated with the due respect that it serves. When the employees’ health is not protected in the workplace, nothing can be achieved whatsoever.

Economical Perspective

As clearly outlined in the policy statement, a healthy workforce can be a core pillar of any organization. When the employees are exposed to all sorts of preventable health risks, accidents, diseases or deaths, they cannot be motivated to serve the organization well (Hale, Borys & Adams, 2015). This can, in the long run, lead to loss of productivity and quality service delivery to the satisfaction of the clients. Meaning, the organization cannot manage to accomplish its short and long-term objectives. Therefore, by recognizing occupational health as an issue of concern, the policy will serve to benefit the employer. Workplace should always be a safe place for all the employees, and any other stakeholder who might be interested in accessing it for one reason or the other. If all cases of accidents and pollution are eradicated, the workplace will be free from any illnesses like respiratory and cardiovascular diseases that might in turn injure the health of the employees and the local community.    

The Workplace Health and Safety Policy Statement can be analyzed from a political perspective. As already hinted, healthcare sector can never be divorced from politics because it is one of the major sectors whose survival and success greatly relies on the country’s political good will. It is not possible for the country’s healthcare sector to adopt any commendable reforms without the involvement of the political class (Briggs, Towler, Speerin & March, 2014). After all, this is the legislative arm of the government whose mandate is to make laws to be followed by all Australians. Should the Workplace Health and Safety Policy Statement be fully supported by the political structure, it will definitely succeed. This is the section of the society that uses its powers to influence major policies by turning statements into laws to be mandatorily followed (Dunn, 2015).

Since it is the role of the government to ensure the availability of quality healthcare services to its citizens, such policy statements have to be fully-supported since it is aimed at the benefit of the larger society. The safety of the employees is an issue of major concern because without a healthy workforce, no sector of the Australian economy can realize any progress. Thus justifies why Workplace Health and Safety Policy Statement remain a viable political tool whose proper implementation can greatly transform the Australia’s workplace safety and health. Political involvement can play a significant role in ensuring that such viable policies are enacted and fully supported in the whole country. With a political goodwill, such health policies can be treated with the priority they deserve and get funded without any constraints. This is how workplace safety can be guaranteed in the country.

• Employee training on occupational safety
• Incorporation of the trade unions
• Public awareness on workplace safety
• Involvement of employer associations and organizations

• Provide adequate training to the employees on occupational safety
• Allocate enough resources to implement the policy
• The government to work in conjunction with trade unions and professional bodies to advocate for the rights of employees
• Extend the scope of the policy to cover all stakeholders rather than the employees alone

References

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