| Term/Acronym | Description |
| Reablement / Rehabilitation / Interim care | This short-term care is sometimes called intermediate care, or aftercare. Reablement is a type of care that helps people relearn how to do daily activities, like cooking meals and washing. It is provided by local authorities with the aim of mitigating the need for long term care and support. |
| Domiciliary Care / Domiciliary Support Service / Home Care | Domiciliary care, also known as “care at home”, refers to a broad range of care services provided in a person’s own home. It can include assistance with day-to-day living and certain health care issues for the elderly. |
| Residential Care Home / Nursing Home | A residential care home provides accommodation and 24-hour personal care and support to the older people and others who may find it difficult to manage daily life at home. Both a residential care home and nursing home provide care and support 24 hours a day, however the main difference is that a nursing home is able to provide a higher level of care. Nursing homes have qualified nurses on-site around the clock to provide medical care as needed whereas residential homes help people with personal care and support them to engage in physical activity. |
| Children Looked After and Care Experienced Children | Children and young people who are: Looked after at home through a Care OrderLooked after away from home in a residential children’s house, in a foster placement or in a kinship placement (Looked After or Non-Looked After)Previously looked after, where at some point in their lives they have had any of the above experiences. The child / young person may never have been formally looked after |
| Care Leaver | In Wales, care leavers are individuals who have been in the care of the local authority for at least 13 weeks since the age of 14 and have left care on or after their 16th birthday. The support provided to care leavers is intended to be equivalent to what a child who has not been looked after might reasonably expect from their parents. |
| Safeguarding | Safeguarding is about protecting children and adults from abuse or neglect and educating those around them to recognise the signs and dangers. |
| Wales Safeguarding Procedures | They detail the essential roles and responsibilities for practitioners to ensure that they safeguard children and adults who are at risk of abuse and neglect. Provides a useful glossary of safeguarding terms: Safeguarding Wales |
| Performance and Improvement Framework: Measuring activity and performance data | This sets out a framework of metrics covering adults, children, and carers, which must be collected and submitted to Welsh Government together with anonymised person-level data and aggregated data on specific aspects of social care. It states local authorities should also gather their own data to understand better how the local delivery of social care is working according to local priorities. |
| Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) | CIW is the social care provider regulator. They will register, inspect and take action to improve the quality and safety of services for the well-being of the people of Wales. |
| Social Care Wales (SCW) | SCW is the workforce regulator. As part of this they register and set standards for the care and support workforce and develop the workforce. SCW also has an improvement remit, by which they will share good practice, set priorities for research and provide information for the public and other organisations. |
| Resident / Citizen | A person whose usual residence is within the local authority boundary. |
| Service User | A person who is accessing social services. |
| Shared Lives / Adult Placement Scheme | Shared Lives Schemes – also known as adult placements – are a family-based way of supporting a vulnerable person’s housing needs. This type of supportive accommodation can be the ideal stepping stone on the way to independent living. This sharing arrangement is often referred to as ‘shared lives’. |
| Direct Payments | Direct payments are issued to individuals to allow them to pay for their own care. They are a way that local authorities can help to meet individual’s eligible need for care and support, or a carer’s need for support. They are a way for people to arrange their own care and support. |
| Supported Living / Accommodation | Supported living accommodation is a type of housing that provides personal care, support or supervision to help people live independently. The care and support are separate from the housing contract. The accommodation can be shared or single, depending on the needs and preferences of the occupants. |
| Unpaid Carer | An unpaid carer is someone who provides care and support to family members, friends, or neighbours who are affected by disability, physical or mental ill-health, frailty, or substance misuse. The carer does not need to be living with the person they care for. |
| Young Carer | A young carer is an unpaid carer who is up to the age of 18. They may be providing care and support to parents, siblings or other family members. |
| Care and Support Plan | A care and support plan is a document that sets out what has been discussed during a social care needs assessment and what is going to happen as a result. It is a plan which a local authority is required to prepare and maintain under section 54 (1) of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. |
| Carer’s Support Plan | If unpaid carers have needs that are eligible for support, the local authority has a statutory duty to plan for and meet those needs by providing a ‘Carer’s Support Plan.’ Where eligible needs for support are identified for the unpaid carer, local authorities must ensure these needs are met. |
| Advocacy | Advocates in social care are independent from the local authority (local council) and the NHS. They are trained to help people understand their rights, express their views and wishes, and help make sure their voice is heard. |
| Prevention and Early Intervention | Prevention and early intervention are forms of support aimed at improving outcomes for people or preventing escalating need or risk. They are also sometimes referred to as early help or preventative services. |
| The Social Services Complaints Procedure (Wales) Regulations 2014 | The Regulations which introduced a new two stage process to deal with complaints and representations about local authority social services. It brings the process for social services in line with the Model Concerns and Complaints Policy and Guidance and the NHS Complaints Procedure Putting Things Right. |
| Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) | The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) is a legal procedure in the UK designed to protect vulnerable people in care settings. It applies to adults who lack the mental capacity to give consent to their care arrangements and need to be deprived of their liberty. DoLS ensures that those who cannot consent to their care are protected when their arrangements deprive them of their liberty. It will be replaced by Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) in the future. |
| Mwy Na Geiriau / More than words | More than just words is a strategy and delivery plan to aim to improve the quality of care for individuals living in a bilingual country. |
| Extra care | The provision of a domiciliary care package to an individual living in supported living/accommodation. |
| Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan (ARWAP) | The Welsh government plan to tackle racism and make ‘meaningful and measurable changes’ to the lives of BAME people in Wales. The plan aims to make Wales an anti-racist country by 2030. |
| Information, Advice and Assistance (IAA) | Refer to contacts and referrals – consent and level of information recorded – link to proportionate assessment. |
| Not in education, employment or training (NEET) | NEET stands for “Not in Education, Employment, or Training”. It refers to young people who are neither engaged in education or vocational training nor in paid employment. NEET individuals may experience social and economic disadvantage. |
| Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 | The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 is a law that aims to improve the well-being of people who need care and support, and carers who need support, and to transform social services in Wales. |