Adult Social Care Glossary, v 0.6

The glossary is being developed by Socitm Advisory Ltd as a contribution to the Adult Social Care Terminology Project which we are undertaking for NHS England. The glossary is held on the Adult Social Care Data Catalogue; this website provides an alternative way to access its content.

You can search the glossary by clicking on the alphabetical index at the top of the page, browse by theme or source, or try the acronym buster.  A search box will be provided at a later date.

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We have also now included an index to proxies, representatives and advocates, which describes the legal basis of these roles, the criteria for appointment, and their terms of reference.

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About the glossary

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This is a data glossary rather than a data dictionary. It captures the wide range of vocabulary in use within adult social care, offering quick and easy access to definitions from a range of sources, rather than providing a single validated or approved definition of a word or term for use in a specific context.

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The glossary should provide a reference point for the development of future data dictionaries, as well as helping to inform an ongoing discussion between social care professionals, people who draw on care and support, and other stakeholders. 

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Contents

The glossary contains definitions from a number of different types of source, including statutory definitions, professional and technical definitions, and terms in general day-to-day use. (See the table below for a full list of definition types.) Most source material is in the public domain; wherever possible, links have been included to the original source of the definition. Where source material is not in the public domain, it appears here with permission of its authors.

Some definitions are tagged as data descriptors: these are specific definitions used in the context of a particular data collection.  Some of these include value sets - defined lists of terms which might appear in a drop-down menu. There are  also entries for references to a word/term and/or to additional resources which may help to clarify context, meaning and usage. There is also a Discussion category which records the comments made during the discovery phase of the ASC Terminology project.

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Definitions are provided "as seen" and no warranty can be given as to their accuracy. ​Some definitions are specific to one context; some are inconsistent with other definitions of the same word or term. We have started to identify these, with a flag on the definition itself and narrative under the Discussion category. We would welcome your feedback.

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To provide feedback on a specific definition, click the button underneath that definition.  To comment on a word or term, use the comments box towards the bottom of its page.  To make a general comment on the glossary, use the comments box in the footer.

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Conventions

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Given the wide range of sources, we have adopted the following conventions to enable a degree of consistency and ease of navigation:

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• Singular, not plural.  Terms are expressed in the singular, e.g. "Person who uses services" rather than "People who use services".

• Alignment of lookup terms.  Where different sources use similar lookup terms, they have been combined under one heading to improve navigation. For example, definitions of "Strengths-based approach", "Strength-based assessment" and "Strength and asset-based approaches" all appear under "Strengths-based"; the latter also appears under "Asset-based". 

• Key terms.  There are a great many terms included in the glossary that, while useful in some contexts, can't really be described as the core language of adult social care.  Examples include terms about technology enabled care (TEC) and terms used as specific, detailed data descriptors in existing data collections.  The "Key terms" checkbox allows you to filter these out.  Inevitably there has been a degree of subjectivity about what constitutes a key term; again, we would welcome your feedback.

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Definition categories

Below you can find out more about the main types of definitions included in the glossary. They are colour-coded for ease of reference.