Care glossary: UK care terms explained in plain English

A

• Administering medicines: when a trained care worker selects and gives a person their medicines and records each dose, as agreed in the care plan.
• Advance care planning: talking about, and writing down, the care someone would want if they later cannot decide; see our advance care planning guide.
• Advance decision to refuse treatment (ADRT): a legally binding decision to refuse specific treatments in future, which must be written, signed and witnessed if it covers life-sustaining treatment.
• Advance statement: a written record of someone’s wishes and preferences for future care, not legally binding but to be taken into account.
• Advocate (Care Act advocate): an independent person the council must provide when someone has substantial difficulty taking part in assessments and has no suitable friend or relative to help.
• Attendance Allowance: a benefit, not means-tested, for people over State Pension age who need help with care, at £76.70 or £114.60 a week in 2026/27; see our Attendance Allowance guide.

B

• Best interests: the legal test for decisions made for someone who lacks capacity, weighing their wishes, beliefs and values and the views of people close to them.
• Blister pack (monitored dosage system): a pharmacy-filled pack separating tablets by day and time, best used only when an assessment shows it helps.

C

• Capacity (mental capacity): the ability to understand, remember and weigh up information to make a particular decision at the time, and to communicate it.
• Capital limits: the savings thresholds in the council’s means test in England, currently £23,250 (upper) and £14,250 (lower).
• Care Act 2014: the main law in England setting out councils’ duties to assess and meet the care and support needs of adults and carers.
• Care and support plan: the written plan, agreed with the person, setting out their needs, how they will be met and their personal budget.
• Care Certificate: an agreed set of standards that new care workers in England should meet during their induction.
• Care package: the combination of services arranged to meet someone’s needs, such as home care visits, equipment and day care.
• Care Quality Commission (CQC): the independent regulator that registers, inspects and rates health and social care services in England; see our CQC ratings guide.
• Carer’s assessment: a free assessment, by right under the Care Act 2014, of the support an unpaid carer needs; see our carer’s assessment guide.
• Carer’s Allowance: £86.45 a week in 2026/27 for people caring at least 35 hours a week for someone on a qualifying disability benefit, if they earn £204 a week or less after deductions.
• Checklist (CHC Checklist): the short screening tool used to decide whether someone should have a full assessment for NHS Continuing Healthcare.
• Community equipment service: the joint council and NHS service that lends equipment such as commodes, hoists and hospital beds free of charge after assessment.
• Continence care: respectful help with bladder and bowel needs, including using the toilet, pads, catheters and skin care; see our continence care guide.
• Continuing Healthcare (CHC): care fully funded by the NHS for adults whose main need is a health need; see our NHS Continuing Healthcare guide.
• Court of Protection: the court that makes decisions, and appoints deputies, for people who lack capacity to make certain decisions themselves.
• Covert medication: hiding medicine in food or drink, lawful only after a best interests decision for someone who lacks capacity.

D

• Day centre: a place offering company, activities and meals by day, which also gives family carers a break.
• Deferred payment agreement: an arrangement with the council to delay paying care home fees from the value of the home until later, usually when it is sold.
• Deprivation of assets: deliberately giving away money or property to avoid care charges, which the council can treat as still owned.
• Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS): the legal process for authorising restrictive care for someone who lacks capacity in a care home or hospital; at home, the Court of Protection authorises it.
• Deputy: a person appointed by the Court of Protection to make decisions for someone who lacks capacity and has no valid Lasting Power of Attorney.
• Direct payments: council money paid to the person or their representative so they can arrange their own care; see our direct payments guide.
• Disability-related expenditure (DRE): extra costs caused by disability, such as a community alarm, which the council should allow for when charging for care at home.
• Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG): a means-tested council grant of up to £30,000 in England for adaptations such as stairlifts, ramps and level-access showers; see our equipment and adaptations guide.
• Discharge to Assess (D2A): leaving hospital once medically ready and having longer-term needs assessed at home or elsewhere; see our Discharge to Assess guide.
• DNACPR: a doctor’s decision that CPR will not be attempted if the heart stops; it does not affect other treatment.
• Domiciliary care (home care): care workers visiting at set times to help with personal care, meals and medicines; see our types of care at home guide.
• Double-up call: a home care visit that needs two care workers at once, often for hoisting or other moving and handling.
• DST (Decision Support Tool): the tool professionals use to score needs across 12 areas, called domains, and recommend whether someone is eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare.

E

• Eligibility criteria: the national Care Act rules deciding whether needs are “eligible”, meaning the council must make sure they are met.
• Enduring power of attorney (EPA): the older form, made before October 2007, covering property and finances only, which must be registered once the person loses capacity.
• Extra care housing: self-contained flats with care staff on site, combining a home of your own with care when needed.

F

• Fast Track Pathway Tool: the form a clinician uses to arrange NHS Continuing Healthcare quickly for someone who is rapidly deteriorating and may be nearing the end of life.
• Financial assessment (means test): the council’s assessment of a person’s income and savings to work out how much they must pay towards their care.
• Frailty: low reserves of strength and resilience, so a minor illness can have a big effect; see our frailty guide.

H

• Hoist: a lifting device, with a fitted sling, used to move someone safely when they cannot stand or bear weight.

I

• Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA): an advocate for someone lacking capacity who faces serious medical treatment or a long-term move and has no family or friends to consult.
• Integrated care board (ICB): the local NHS body that plans and pays for health services in an area, including deciding NHS Continuing Healthcare.
• Intermediate care: short-term health and care support, usually for up to six weeks, to help someone recover after illness or a hospital stay, or avoid going into hospital.

K

• Key safe: a small, coded box fixed outside the home that holds a key, so carers and emergency services can get in.

L

• Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA): a legal document appointing trusted people to decide about money and property, health and welfare, or both; see our LPA guide.
• Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS): a planned replacement for DoLS, set out in law in 2019 but not yet brought into force.
• Light-touch financial assessment: a simpler means test used when it is clear someone will pay the full cost, for example with savings well above the upper limit.
• Live-in care: a carer who lives in the home, giving care and company day and night, with their own bedroom and agreed breaks; see live-in care.
• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO): the free, independent service investigating complaints about councils and care providers after their own process.

M

• Managed live-in care: live-in care from a CQC-registered provider that manages the carers and is responsible for training, supervision and cover; see managed or introductory live-in care.
• MAR (medicines administration record): the chart on which care workers record each dose of medicine given or declined; see our medication guide.
• Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG): the amount of weekly income the council must leave someone with after charging them for care at home.
• Moving and handling: the safe techniques and equipment used to help someone move, stand, transfer or change position without injury to them or the carer.

N

• Needs assessment: the council’s assessment, under the Care Act 2014, of an adult’s care and support needs and the outcomes they want to achieve.
• NHS-funded nursing care (FNC): a weekly NHS payment towards the cost of nursing care for eligible residents of nursing homes.

O

• Occupational therapist (OT): a professional who assesses how someone manages daily tasks and recommends equipment, adaptations or new ways of doing things.
• Ordinary residence: the legal test for which council is responsible for someone’s care, usually the area where they normally live.

P

• Palliative care: care focused on comfort and quality of life when an illness cannot be cured; see planning end of life care at home.
• Personal budget: the amount of money the council works out it will cost to meet someone’s eligible needs, shown in their care and support plan.
• Personal care: help with intimate everyday tasks such as washing, dressing, using the toilet, eating and drinking.
• Personal expenses allowance: the minimum amount a care home resident whose care is council-arranged keeps each week for personal spending.
• Personal health budget: an amount of NHS money to meet someone’s health and wellbeing needs, which adults receiving NHS Continuing Healthcare at home have a right to have.
• Pressure area care: regular checks, repositioning and equipment to prevent pressure ulcers, the skin damage caused by staying in one position too long.
• Prompting: reminding someone to take their medicines or do a task, which they then do themselves.
• PRN (“when required”) medicine: a medicine taken only when needed, such as a painkiller, with written instructions on the dose and how often.
• Property disregard (12-week disregard): the home’s value is ignored in the council’s means test for the first 12 weeks after a permanent move into a care home.

R

• Reablement: short-term support at home, free for up to six weeks, to help someone regain skills and confidence after illness or a hospital stay; see our reablement guide.
• Registered Manager: the person registered with the CQC as responsible for running a care service day to day.
• ReSPECT form: a “Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment”, a short form recording a person’s wishes and clinical recommendations for an emergency.
• Respite care: short-term care that gives a family carer a break, at home or elsewhere; see our respite options guide.

S

• Safeguarding: protecting adults with care and support needs from abuse and neglect, including reporting concerns to the council; see our safeguarding guide.
• Section 42 enquiry: the enquiry a council must make when it suspects an adult with care needs is at risk of abuse or neglect.
• Section 117 aftercare: free aftercare services for people who have been detained in hospital under certain sections of the Mental Health Act 1983.
• Self-funder: someone who pays the full cost of their own care, usually because their savings or income are above the council’s limits.
• Shared Lives: an arrangement in which an adult with care needs lives with, or regularly visits, an approved Shared Lives carer and their family.
• Sleep-in: a carer who sleeps at the person’s home overnight and gets up to help if needed; see our page on night care.
• Structured medication review: a full review of all a person’s medicines, usually with a clinical pharmacist at the GP practice.

T

• Tariff income: the weekly income the council assumes from savings between the lower and upper capital limits, £1 for every £250.
• Telecare: sensors and alarms linked to a response centre, such as fall detectors and smoke or door sensors, that call for help automatically; see our technology and telecare guide.
• Third-party top-up: an extra payment by a relative or friend for a care home costing more than the council’s personal budget.

U

• Urgent community response: NHS community teams that aim to reach someone at home within two hours in a crisis, to avoid a hospital admission.

V

• Virtual ward (hospital at home): hospital-level care and monitoring given in a person’s own home, usually for a short time instead of a hospital stay.

W

• Waking night: a carer who stays awake throughout the night to give help whenever it is needed.
• Wellbeing principle: the Care Act duty on councils to promote each person’s wellbeing, including dignity, control over daily life and health.

How we can help

If a term is still unclear, just ask us. Day and Nightcare is a CQC-registered provider, rated Good; call 01865 715780 for a free initial assessment.

Common questions

Sources and further information

• GOV.UK: Care and support statutory guidance
• legislation.gov.uk: Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014, regulation 3
• NICE: Managing medicines for adults receiving social care in the community (NG67)
• GOV.UK: Make, register or end a lasting power of attorney
• NHS England: Urgent community response services
• NHS: Carer's assessments

Prepared by the Day and Nightcare care team. Last updated 30 October 2026; sources last checked 30 October 2026. This guide is general information about care in England, not financial, legal or medical advice.