Age UK is the country's leading charity dedicated to helping everyone make the most of later life.

At Alzheimer’s Society we’re working towards a world where dementia no longer devastates lives. We do this by giving help to those living with dementia today, and providing hope for the future.

We’re here for everyone living with dementia
As a Society, we are made up of people with dementia, carers, trusted experts, campaigners, researchers and clinicians. We are the UK’s largest collective force of people with unparalleled knowledge and over 40 years of experience addressing the biggest challenges facing people living with dementia.

ADASS is the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services - a membership charity and a leading, independent voice of adult social care.

We promote higher standards of social care services, influence policies and decision-makers, so that anyone needing or providing care and support can live the lives they want regardless of age, disability, status and social background.

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) is the independent professional membership association for social work and social workers.

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The Cambridge English Dictionary is based on original research on the unique Cambridge English Corpus, and includes all the words at CEFR levels A1–C2 in the English Vocabulary Profile.

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Definitions from the Care Quality Commission's Glossary of terms used in the guidance for providers and managers and other CQC publications.

The Chartered Institute of Housing and BME National are joint publishers of to the Housing Rights website.

The Housing Rights website gives recent arrivals and housing advisers up-to-date information about people's rights when looking for a home, based on their immigration status.

Please note: we provide information about housing rights and options, but the website is not designed to help people make immigration applications or asylum claims. Only regulated advisers can give immigration advice.

Contsys is described on its website as "A system of concepts for the continuity of care; a visualisation of a model conforming to International Standard EN ISO 13940:2016."

Several of the terms and definitions in the above International Standard have been used in the development of the Minimum Operational Dataset (MODS) under NHS England's Digitising Social Care Programme.

EN ISO 13940:2016 states (para 0.4): "Healthcare as well as social care has the objective to influence, restore and maintain health in the WHO sense. All kinds of activities that have the potential to influence any one of the five components of health mentioned in the ICF model can be a part of such care. There is an evident overlap between healthcare activities and social care activities. This International Standard is focused upon the part of healthcare that (in most cultures) does not include social care. The role of the subject of care is defined with respect to healthcare and the terms chosen are from this sector. However, many of the concepts are relevant for the social care sector and through the cooperation of the different domains of healthcare this International Standard should also be applicable for social care."

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Most DHSC definitions in the glossary are taken from the Care and Support Statutory Guidance

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Digital Social Care is a group of organisations working together to support adult social care providers. Their website hosts the Social Care Data Catalogue created under the NHS England Digitising Social Care (DiSC) Programme. It also includes a Digital Signposting Glossary of terms used in the digital and Technology Enabled Care (TEC) sectors, which is incorporated in full here.

The glossary includes definitions drawn together as part of NHS England's Digitising Social Care Programme. These include definitions relating to the Minimum Operational Dataset (MODS) for social care providers.

Disability Rights UK is the UK’s leading organisation led by, run by, and working for disabled people.

We work with Disabled People’s Organisations, public bodies, businesses and Government across the UK to influence regional and national change for better rights, accessibility, benefits, quality of life and economic opportunities for Disabled people.

The glossary includes a number of comments made by stakeholders during the initial engagement and discovery work.

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Experian is a multinational data analytics and consumer credit reporting company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. It is one of the "Big Three" credit-reporting agencies, alongside TransUnion and Equifax. In addition to its credit services, Experian also sells decision analytic and marketing assistance to businesses.

FHIR® – Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (hl7.org/fhir) – is a next generation standards framework created by HL7. FHIR combines the best features of HL7's v2 icon, HL7 v3 icon and CDA icon product lines while leveraging the latest web standards and applying a tight focus on implementability.

FHIR solutions are built from a set of modular components called "Resources". These resources can easily be assembled into working systems that solve real-world clinical and administrative problems at a fraction of the price of existing alternatives. FHIR is suitable for use in a wide variety of contexts – mobile phone apps, cloud communications, EHR-based data sharing, server communication in large institutional healthcare providers, and much more.

2.1.20.1 Why FHIR is better
FHIR offers many improvements over existing standards:

A strong focus on implementation: fast and easy to implement (multiple developers have had simple interfaces working in a single day)
Multiple implementation libraries, many examples available to kick-start development
Specification is free for use with no restrictions
Interoperability out-of-the-box: base resources can be used as is, but can also be adapted as needed - which happens a lot - for local requirements using Profiles, Extensions, Terminologies and more
Evolutionary development path from HL7 Version 2 and CDA: standards can co-exist and leverage each other
Strong foundation in Web standards: XML, JSON, HTTP, OAuth, etc.
Support for RESTful architectures, seamless exchange of information using messages or documents, and service-based architectures
Concise and easily understood specifications
A human-readable serialization format for ease of use by developers
Ontology-based analysis with formal mapping for correctness (under development)

The Financial Conduct Authority is the conduct regulator for around 50000 financial services firms and financial markets in the UK.

They're in the glossary because of an interesting definition of the term 'vulnerable'.

A Community Interest Company which runs Adult Social Care on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council. Their website includes a useful glossary which is incorporated here in full.

GOV.UK is the website for the UK government. It’s the best place to find government services and information. The site is maintained by the Government Digital Service (GDS).

On GOV.UK you can find:

- information and services for citizens and businesses
- detailed guidance for professionals
- information on government and policy.

We work to protect patient safety and improve medical education and practice across the UK.

Excellent addressing and accurate street data has the power to transform people’s lives.

In Great Britain, GeoPlace is the guardian and champion of that information on a national scale.

GeoPlace is a limited liability partnership owned equally by Local Government Association (LGA) and Ordnance Survey (OS). We are responsible for collating, managing and maintaining the primary UK authoritative geospatial address and street data.

Our vision is a world where everyone benefits from digital. We want people to be digitally able, equal and safe, so they can be happier, healthier and better off.

- We partner with community organisations, creating impact, locally and together as a network.
- We work with partners to provide free data to people in need.
- We source and refurbish devices to distribute to people in need.
- We improve people’s lives, individually and at scale.
- We inspire people and shape the future so we can all thrive in a changing digital world.
- We co-design free online learning resources to help people take their first and further steps online.
- We work hard to improve digital capability for all.

Health Education England (HEE) exists for one reason only: to support the delivery of excellent healthcare and health improvement to the patients and public of England by ensuring that the workforce of today and tomorrow has the right numbers, skills, values and behaviours, at the right time and in the right place.

On 1 April 2023 HEE merged with NHS England.

We protect the public by regulating 15 health and care professions in the UK. To do this we:
- set standards for professionals' education and training and practice;

- approve programmes which professionals must complete to register with us;

- keep a register of professionals, known as 'registrants', who meet our standards; and

- take action if professionals on our Register do not meet our standards.

The ICO is the UK's independent body set up to uphold information rights

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is the official UK government body responsible for intellectual property (IP) rights including patents, designs, trade marks and copyright.

IPO is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, supported by 1 public body.

The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) is the global body for the profession. The Federation and its national members strive for social justice, human rights and inclusive, sustainable social development through the promotion of social work best practice and engagement in international cooperation.

The glossary includes definitions and references from:

- primary legislation, including the Care Act 2014, the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005, among others

- secondary legislation - the regulations made under Acts of Parliament

- statutory guidance, such as the Care and Support Statutory Guidance published by the Department of Health and Social Care

We are the national voice of local government, working with councils to support, promote and improve

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The idea behind Mental Capacity Ltd is simple: to support people’s rights, empower their voice and protect them from harm.

We do this by providing guides, resources, and training for healthcare professionals to support them when carrying out Mental Capacity Assessments, to improve the quality of the decisions being made, and to ultimately, help people make the choices that are right for them.

We also provide professional Mental Capacity Assessments for complex cases, to help care teams make the best decisions when things get difficult.

NHS Digital was formerly known as the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), and is the national provider of information, data and IT systems for commissioners, analysts and clinicians in health and social care in England. In February 2023 it merged with NHS England.

NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the National Health Service in England as set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

Definitions from individual trusts and other entities within the NHS

The NHS UK website was formerly known as NHS Choices, and provides medical advice and guidance to the public.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care. Their guidelines include glossaries of the terms they use; some of these definitions are specific to that one guideline, others are more generic.

At this stage we've included definitions from most of the guidelines relating to adult social care.

The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

The Professional Record Standards Body was established in 2013 to develop clinical standards for health and care records. We are a community interest company and as such our core aim is not commercial. The PRSB has a robust and sustainable business model to support its open and inclusive working methods.

Resuscitation Council UK is the national expert in resuscitation.

Formed in 1983, Resuscitation Council UK is committed to ensuring that survival rates for in and out of hospital cardiac arrest improve. We’re doing this by driving CPR education, and encouraging everyone, from healthcare workers to the general public, to learn life-saving resuscitation skills.

Our committees of healthcare professionals bring decades of expertise, research, and training experience to help us deliver life support courses and provide clinical guidelines for health and care professionals.

We want to make sure more people arrive at a hospital with their best chance of surviving a cardiac arrest, and with an opportunity to receive the care they deserve both during the event and while they recover.

This involves public participation and learning skills in CPR so we can all help the people around us in an emergency. It also involves breaking down health inequalities and making sure our resuscitation community is diverse and representative, to ensure all people have their best chance of survival in the event of a cardiac arrest.

Together, we can save more lives with appropriate in and out of hospital resuscitation. We can also listen to individuals, and make sure that a person’s decision on whether or not they wish to receive CPR is heard.

Anyone who works with me knows that I care a lot about the language we use in social care. I firmly believe that our language reflects our values and our feelings, and in turn the way we think and the way we behave. But I also genuinely believe that because the language of our social care world is so deeply entrenched, we don’t think about the true meaning or impact of the words we use, or question why we continue to use them. So I’ve started this blog to share my thoughts about the words and phrases that make me go hmmm, why language matters and the role of language in rewriting social care.

The language we use every single day in the current world of social care describes a system of process, bureaucracy, transactions and services (‘screening’, ‘signposting’, ‘referral’, ‘assessment’, ‘eligibility’, ‘care package’…) The labels we apply to people divide and dehumanise (‘service user’, ‘customer’. ‘case’, ‘vulnerable’…) The phrases we use distance and blame (‘challenging behaviour’, ‘refusal to engage’, ‘complex needs’, ‘non-complaint’, ‘hard to reach’…)

This language and these labels have no place in our better, brighter social care future, which has people and communities and stories and relationships and dreams and love and good lives and hope at its heart. A whole new vocabulary. Social care rewritten.

We represent a global community of physicians spanning every career stage from medical student to consultant. Together our mission is to educate, improve and influence for better health and care.

Skills for Care is the strategic workforce development and planning body for adult social care in England. They provide support and guidance on digitial technology in social care, including a number of definitions which are included in this glossary.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is a leading values-driven improvement agency. SCIE improves the lives of people of all ages by co-producing, sharing, and supporting the use of the best available knowledge and evidence about what works in practice.

SCIE produces resources for front-line social care professionals which include clear and detailed definitions, although these are not captured in a central glossary on their website. However, we have included them here wherever possible.

SCIE also hosts the core Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) team.

The TEC Services Association (TSA) is the industry and advisory body for TEC in the UK. They work and lobby for the increased uptake of digital solutions and TEC into health and social care. Their Special Interest Group SIG011 (Proactive and Preventative Service Delivery) has called for more work on terminology and language - scope out potential for guidance or white paper around what ‘connected care’ is, the range of terms used, how best practice proactive services can be delivered, incorporating examples of adoption across TEC services, healthcare, domiciliary care, care management and housing." We include several of their definitions here.

The Matrix Standard is the international quality standard for organisations that deliver information, advice and/or guidance (IAG). Either as their sole purpose or as part of their service offering.

The matrix Standard is the Department for Education’s (DfE) standard for ensuring the quality of the delivery of high-quality information, advice and guidance. The DfE supports the matrix Standard as the quality framework for accrediting information, advice and guidance contracts including the National Careers Service, its subcontractors and other services delivered on behalf of the Education Skills Funding Agency.

It helps providers to improve their services by benchmarking against best practice and it offers accreditation to those that meet the full standard.

Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) is a national partnership of more than 50 organisations committed to transforming health and care through personalisation and community-based support.

The partnership spans central and local government, social care providers, the NHS, and the voluntary and community sector as well as people with lived experience, through the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG).

The work is coordinated by a small core team. Policy advisors are responsible for producing resources from different partnership members around the themes of commissioning, self-directed support, and community-centred approaches. This puts us in the unique position of bringing together people who use services and carers with national organisations.

TLAP produces a Care and Support Jargon Buster - a directory of Plain English definitions of commonly used words and phrases in health and social care. The Jargon Buster's homepage also includes a blog post - Daring to drop the jargon - which explains more about the need for the jargon buster.

TLAP is hosted by partner organisation Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE).

Tunstall, one of the largest suppliers of TEC in the UK, has agreed to share their extensive in-house glossary.

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The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international public-interest non-profit organization where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. Founded by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and led by President & CEO Seth Dobbs and a Board of Directors, the Web Consortium's mission is to lead the web to its full potential.

tri.x provide proven and trusted procedures that underpin social care practice and safeguarding partnership and board responsibilities, promoting the best possible outcomes for children and vulnerable adults.

We are the market leader, working with 97% of Local Authorities and LSCP’s in England, and the only provider offering a complete content creation, updating, hosting and archiving procedures service within the social care sector.

We work with children’s services, children’s local safeguarding partnerships, regional adoption agencies, independent fostering agencies, independent residential providers, adult services, adult safeguarding boards and adult providers. Our team of highly experienced professionals monitor and interpret changes to national guidance, new research and reviews to ensure that the procedures you and your staff use, are as up to date as possible. Our procedures ensure your peace of mind while saving you time and money.