A&E Glossary Term

Accident & Emergency Department (Casualty).

Abuse Glossary Term

Violation of an individual's human or civil rights by any other person or persons. Any or all types of abuse may be perpetrated as the result of deliberate intent, negligence or ignorance. Different types of abuse include: physical; neglect/acts of omission; financial/ material; psychological; sexual; institutional; discriminatory; self harm/abuse; racial; or any combination of these or other factors. Abuse also has a number of specific legal definitions contained in various acts of

Activities of daily living Glossary Term

Tasks that people carry out to look after their home, themselves, and their participation in work, social and leisure activities.

ADSS Cymru Glossary Term

The Association of Directors of Social Services Cymru is a constituted group of statutory directors and senior social services managers who work in local government in Wales and who have come together to promote the social wellbeing of the vulnerable citizens in Wales irrespective of their circumstances.

Advocacy Glossary Term

Some people are able to self-advocate and speak up for themselves without assistance to insure that their needs and wishes are clearly expressed and acted upon. Others need assistance. Advocates and advocacy services exist to give independent help to enable people to take control of their lives, explore and express their own needs and access the services and support they need to meet their needs.

Assessed needs Glossary Term

The needs of an individual that have been identified as a result of an assessment.

Assessment Glossary Term

In social care teminology, the process whereby the needs of an individual are identified alongside their impact on independence, daily functioning and quality of life so that appropriate care, health or other services can be planned. It aims to identify and explore the many issues connected with a person's needs and should include all relevant viewpoints. It should be self-contained and time-limited, culminating in the clear identification of needs and the objectives for how these needs will be met.

Befriending Service Glossary Term

A scheme whereby an individual is given support in the form of friendship, sometimes helping with shopping or simply being someone to talk to and to ensure the individual is happy and safe.

Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Glossary Term

Terminology used in social care and other fields to refer to people from a Black and Minority Ethnic background.

Budget - Indicative Glossary Term

An Indicative Budget gives a rough idea of how much a Personal Budget will be.

Budget - Individual Glossary Term

An Individual Budget is money given to people for them to buy in the services or equipment they need to meet their assessed care needs. Individual budgets differ fromp ersonal budgets in that they pool funding resources from a variety of places, making the system easier to navigate. An Individual Budget can include a Personal Budget from a local authority as well as money from other sources, such as the Independent Living Fund (ILF) or Supporting People funding.

Budget - Managed Glossary Term

When a local authority looks after a person's Personal Budget, it is called a Managed Budget. The person still knows how much it amounts to and what it is being spent on, but they don't receive any actual monies.

Budgets - Personal Glossary Term

A Personal Budget is money which is allocated to someone by a local authority to pay for their assessed support or care needs. Personal Budgets are similar to Individual Budgets, but they are made up solely of local authority social care funding. Personal Budgets do not draw in any payments from other organisations outside of the local authority, so people would have to contact these organisations separately to receive additional support (for example, personal budgets do not include Supporting People Funding, which would need to be applied for separately). People can take their Personal Budget as a direct payment (choosing themselves how their care needs are met and by whom), leave councils with the responsibility to commission the services, or elect to have some combination of the two.

Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) Glossary Term

CIW registers, inspects and takes action to improve the quality and safety of services for the well-being of the people of Wales. They carry out functions on behalf of Welsh Ministers; decide who can provide services; inspect and drive improvement of regulated services and local authority social services; undertake thematic reviews of social care services; take action to ensure services meet legislative and regulatory requirements; and investigate concerns raised about regulated services.

Care Management Glossary Term

A system of organising care for vulnerable adults by local authorities.

Care Plan Glossary Term

The plan of treatment or actions agreed with a service user following an assessment of need by a health or care agency.

Carer Glossary Term

Someone, usually unpaid, and often a friend or family member who supports a person with social care needs either full time or part time.

Commissioning - Individual Glossary Term

Involves buying services to produce an individually tailored package of support. Individual commissioning links to personal budgets and Individual Service Funds (ISF)and aims to ensure that services meet an individual's assessed needs and produces the best outcomes.

Community Care Services Glossary Term

Services helping people live full and independent lives. They are intended to help people overcome particular difficulties, and to assist people to live in their own home/local area, for as long as possible.

Community Health Services Glossary Term

Services such as district nursing, which are provided by NHS staff working in the community.

Community Nurse Glossary Term

Community nurses are registered nurses who work in the community: in people's homes, in schools and in local surgeries and health centres. The people they work with may be ill or disabled. Community nurses also look after people whose health may be particularly vulnerable, such as older people, children, people with mental ill-health or people with learning disabilities. They visit people at home to provide health care - for example, changing dressings or giving injections - and help people get any home nursing aids and equipment they need. Community nurses can provide help and advice on a wide range of health issues. The term includes practice nurses, district nurses, community mental health nurses, health visitors and school nurses.

Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Glossary Term

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) is an executive agency of the Home Office, which provides wider access to criminal record information. This service enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make safer recruitment decisions by identifying candidates who may be unsuitable for certain jobs, especially where that job involves contact with children or vulnerable adults. The CRB was established under Part V of the Police Act 1997 and was launched in March 2002.

Day Care Glossary Term

Provided within centres to which service users travel or are transported. Service providers vary from statutory agencies such as health or social services to the independent and voluntary sector. Day care may cater for users with high dependency needs in conjunction with home care and residential provision, and be integral to an intermediate care programme. Alternatively, day care, particularly within the voluntary sector, may offer social stimulation and be part of a preventative programme aimed at combating a move towards functional dependence and offering carer relief on a structured basis.

Direct Payments Glossary Term

Direct Payments are means-tested payments made to service users in lieu of community care services they have been assessed as needing, and are intended to give users greater choice in their care. The money received should be enough to meet a person's assessed care needs. Direct Payments have been available since 1997 and are made to a wide variety of people, including carers, adult service users and people with short-term needs. Direct Payments are not the only way a person can have control over their care service funding. Someone else can hold the money for them - a family member or other representative, a trust, an organisation, or a Care Manager. See also Budgets - Personal, Budget - Managed, Budget - Individual and Indirect Payments.

Disability Glossary Term

The Disability Discrimination Acts (1995 and 2005) define a disabled person as 'someone who has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities'. Groups of people with disabilities include people with mental health issues, physical limitations and those with learning disabilities. The social model of disability starts from a different perspective. It is not concerned with how 'bad' a person's impairment is. Instead it establishes that everyone is equal and demonstrates that it is society which restricts their opportunities and erects barriers that prevent disabled people from participating fully.

District Nurse Glossary Term

District Nurses are senior nurses who manage care within the community, leading teams of community nurses and support workers. Typically much of their work involves visiting 'house-bound' patients to provide advice and care, for example, palliative care, wound management, catheter and continence care, medication support. They may be trained to assess patient's needs for equipment provision such as mobility and independent living aids, medical equipment such as specialist beds and mattresses, as well as guidance in applying for grants and welfare benefits. Their work involves both follow-up care for recently discharged hospital inpatients and longer term care for chronically ill patients who may be referred by many other services, as well as working collaboratively with general practitioners in preventing unnecessary or avoidable hospital admissions.

Domiciliary Glossary Term

Service/Services provided for people in their own homes. They include home care and the services of health workers (e.g. physiotherapists who treat people in their own home).

Emergency Duty Team (EDT) Glossary Term

Social work service which responds to social care emergencies outside office hours. Also see Out of Hours Service.

Holistic Glossary Term

This means taking all the elements of a person's life into account - including physical, emotional, mental and spiritual elements.

Independent Sector Glossary Term

Includes both private and voluntary social care providers, who may be contracted to provide services on behalf of statutory agencies.

Indirect Payments Glossary Term

Indirect Payments are similar to Direct Payments, but instead of being paid to the individual who needs the service, payments are made to a nominated individual or into a trust. The trustees or nominated people then pay for services on the individual's behalf.

Individual Service Fund Glossary Term

An Individual Service Fund is an individual budget that a service provider manages on behalf of a service user. Payments are made with the understanding that the service provider can deliver what is needed and it meets the criteria set out in the service user's support plan.

Informed consent Glossary Term

This is consent to treatment or care where a person has been given enough objective, evidence-based information to be able to make their own decision, and the person has the mental capacity to make that decision.

Joint Planning Glossary Term

Organisations within or across sectors (e.g. health and social care) agree objectives and meeting regularly to develop and implement them.

Key Worker Glossary Term

A person responsible for working closely with people who use services to ensure the coordination of their care plan and act as the main contact for everyone involved.

Newly Qualified Social Worker (NQSW) Glossary Term

Newly Qualified Social Workers are social workers in their first year of post qualification practice.

Occupational Therapists Glossary Term

Professionals whose specialist training equips them to work with people with a physical disability, learning disability/difficulty or mental health needs. They help people learn new skills or recover lost skills, and may arrange for special equipment or adaptations to accommodation.

Older people Glossary Term

Usually defined as people aged 65 and over (although definitions vary)

Out of Hours Service Glossary Term

A specific service to operate outside regular office hours to provide either a direct service where necessary, or offer advice, guidance or re-routing to more appropriate services.

Outcomes Glossary Term

In social care, the term 'outcome' is often used to refer to the positive results of the social care a person has received. They represent changes or improvements that have taken place during the time someone has been receiving support.

Personal Assistant Glossary Term

A Personal Assistant is a person employed to help someone with their daily social care in a way that is right for them. Using their Personal Budgets, a person can employ a Personal Assistant to provide support like: cooking, cleaning, help with personal care like washing and using the toilet, driving or help with getting around, medical tasks, shopping, banking or paying bills.

Personal Social Services Glossary Term

Personal Care Services for vulnerable persons, including those with special needs because of old age or physical disability or mental disability, and children in need of care and protection.

Personalisation Glossary Term

Is the all-encompassing term for the Government's agenda to give people more choice about and control in the care they receive. The system places the service user at the centre of the process and allows them to choose the support they use and the manner in which they receive support.

Primary Care Glossary Term

The part of the NHS where GP's, community nurses and other clinicians work to provide a first point of contact for patients. Community pharmacists, dentists and opticians are also part of Primary Care.

Primary Care Trust (PCT) Glossary Term

PCTs are a very important part of the NHS, and they get about 80% of the total NHS budget. PCTs decide what health services a local community needs, and they are responsible for providing them. They must ensure that there are enough services for people within their local area, and that the services are accessible. These services include: GPs, Dentists, Pharmacists, Opticians, NHS Direct, and NHS walk-in centres. PCTs make decisions about the type of services that hospitals provide and are responsible for making sure that the quality of service is high enough. They also control funding for hospitals.

Primary Health Care Team Glossary Term

Medical professionals who provide services from GP surgeries including GP's, practice nurses and community staff.

Promoting Independence Glossary Term

Most people would prefer to look after themselves as much as possible and to remain in their own home. Recent guidance has challenged statutory agencies to promote such independence by ensuring that people have access to the information and services that they need. It also places increased emphasis on rehabilitation and the associated therapy services.

Provider of Care Services Glossary Term

An independent or statutory organisation that may provide a whole range of care services for those in need.

Rapid Response Service Glossary Term

A specific service designed to respond rapidly to prevent hospital admission or to facilitate early discharge.

Reablement Glossary Term

Reablement is about helping people learn or relearn the skills they need for daily living - which they may have lost through the deterioration of their health and/or increased support needs - to help them gain more independence.

Referral Glossary Term

A formal request for an assessment of a person's needs.

Rehabilitation Work Glossary Term

Done to assist someone regain skills they may have lost through illness or disability. It helps them re-learn to do things they could previously do for themselves.

Residential Accommodation Glossary Term

May take the form of either a nursing, or a residential care home, that provides 24 hr care to individuals who, on assessment, have been assessed as no longer being able to be supported at home. Residential accommodation can be either long or short stay.

Respite Care Glossary Term

A service giving carers a break from their caring responsibilities by providing short term care to the cared-for-person in their own home or in a residential setting.

Review Glossary Term

This can refer to re-assessment of service user's needs and issues, and consideration of the extent to which services are to meet the stated objectives, achieve the desired outcomes and respond to changes in circumstances or service criteria. Review may also refer to an organisational review.

Risk Assessment Glossary Term

The assessment of a person's health, their safety, well being and their ability to manage essential daily routines and the impact this has on the individual, their carers and staff.

Safeguarding Glossary Term

The process of responding to concerns that a vulnerable person (or people) are being, or are at risk of being abused, neglected or exploited. This will result in an investigation into the alleged behaviour, and often a protection plan to prevent it recurring. Although the local authority takes the lead on adult safeguarding, the responsibility for safeguarding adults lies with every agency.

Self Advocacy Glossary Term

Some people are able to self-advocate: this means speak up for themselves without assistance to ensure that their needs and wishes are clearly expressed and acted upon. Others need assistance. Advocates and advocacy services exist to give independent help to enable people to take control of their lives, explore and express their own needs and access the services and support they need to meet their needs.

Self Funding Glossary Term

When an individual has sufficient funds and is able to make arrangements for and pay privately for their care services.

Self-directed Support Glossary Term

Is the term used for when people choose their services, organise their care and arrange for payments to be made. This is because the individual who requires the service is directing their own care and has choice when it comes to their support.

Service Providers Glossary Term

Organisations of all shapes and sizes which run activities designed to help other people in some way.

Service Users Glossary Term

These are people who receive health and social care services. They may be individuals who live in their own homes, are staying in care or are being cared for in hospital. Some groups note an inferred power relationship from this term and prefer to be referred to as People Who Use Services (PWUS).

Social Care Glossary Term

Any form of support or help given to someone to assist them in taking their place in society.

Social Care Register Glossary Term

The Social Care Register is a register of people who work in social care, and have been assessed as trained and fit to be in the workforce. The register is maintained and policed by the General Social Care Council (GSCC). Social workers and social work students are currently the only groups joining the register. Over time, social care workers of all levels will be registered -from care workers through to directors of social services. Registration will ensure that those working in social care meet rigorous registration requirements and will hold them to account for their conduct by codes of practice. Qualifications, health and good character are checked as part of the registration process. Registered social workers are also required to complete post-registration training and learning activities before renewing their registration every three years.

Social Inclusion Glossary Term

Strategies which seek to ensure participation by targeting communities marginalised by lack of economic opportunity, educational achievement or other barriers.

Social Worker Glossary Term

Social workers help protect vulnerable adults and children from abuse and help people to live more successfully within their local communities by helping them find solutions to their problems. To succeed, social workers must work not only with people who use services, but with their families, neighbours and friends as well as with other organisations such as the police, the NHS and schools. The title 'social worker' has been protected by law in England since 1 April 2005 and all social workers are required to maintain registration on the Social Care Register administered and policed by the General Social Care Council (GSCC).

Specialist Social Worker (VI) Glossary Term

A Social Worker with specific knowledge and experience around supporting service users with sight loss.

Stakeholders Glossary Term

People or organisations which have an interest in a proposed development or idea.

Statutory Agencies Glossary Term

Official organisations set up according to written laws of central government.

Support Plan/Support Planning Glossary Term

A Support Plan says how people will spend their budget to get the life they want. People who use services can get help to make a plan - perhaps from family or friends, or pay someone who specialises in planning. A person's local authority must agree the plan before they get their support money.

Supported Self Assessment Glossary Term

Individuals will be able to have as much say in their Support Plan as they are able. Some may be able to complete this entirely by themselves, or with help from others, and some people may want social care staff to support them to complete it.

Third Sector Glossary Term

Defined by Cabinet Office as 'voluntary and community groups, social enterprises, charities, cooperatives and mutuals' (see also Voluntary Sector).

Voluntary Organisations Glossary Term

A voluntary organisation is one whose main focus is to deliver social benefit in a variety of forms, rather than to generate profit for distribution to its members. It will usually be governed by volunteers and be independent of government.

Voluntary Sector Glossary Term

This includes various voluntary agencies ranging from large organisations with paid staff to small groups run by volunteers.

Vulnerable Adult Glossary Term

Defined in 'No Secrets' (DH 2000) as: 'a person aged 18 years or over, who is in receipt of, or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age or illness and who is or may be unable to take care of him or herself, or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation'.

Young Carers Glossary Term

A young carer is anyone under the age of 18 whose life is in some way restricted because of the need to take responsibility for the care of a person who is ill, has a disability, is experiencing mental distress or is affected by substance abuse (Carers UK Definition).

Young People Glossary Term

The term is used to describe people in the age and groups roughly spanning puberty to young adulthood (aged 10-24).