This glossary explains how important terms are used throughout Care Without Walls. The entries are concise reading aids, not complete statutory definitions, diagnostic criteria or substitutes for legal or clinical advice. The applicable legislation, binding authority, official guidance and individual evidence must always be checked for the precise question being decided.
A–C
| Term | Meaning in this book |
|---|---|
| Adult safeguarding | Work to prevent and respond to abuse or neglect of an adult with care and support needs. Care Act 2014 section 42 sets the statutory enquiry conditions in England. |
| Advocate | A person who helps someone understand, express and secure their wishes and rights. A statutory independent advocate may be required in defined Care Act or Mental Capacity Act circumstances. |
| Agoraphobia | A mental disorder involving marked fear or anxiety about situations from which escape may feel difficult or help may be unavailable. Diagnosis and treatment require individual clinical assessment; forcing a person outside is not automatically lawful or therapeutic. |
| Allegation | A reported assertion that has not yet been proved. The book distinguishes allegations, evidence, professional findings and judicial determinations. |
| Anxiety | An emotional and physiological response involving fear, worry, tension or anticipation of threat. It may be proportionate, part of a disorder, secondary to unmet care or physical illness, or produced by several causes that require assessment. |
| Article 3 | The European Convention prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The threshold is high and fact-sensitive. |
| Article 4 | The European Convention prohibition of slavery and servitude and, subject to defined exceptions, forced or compulsory labour. |
| Article 5 | The European Convention right to liberty and security. A deprivation of liberty requires analysis of objective confinement, valid consent and State responsibility, followed by lawful-authority and procedural safeguards. |
| Article 8 | The European Convention right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence. Interference by a public authority must satisfy the Convention’s legality, legitimate-aim and necessity requirements. |
| Authorised person | For a Direct Payment made for an adult who lacks capacity to request it, the person authorised within the statutory scheme to receive and manage the payment, subject to the legal conditions and oversight. |
| Best interests | The Mental Capacity Act process for a decision made for a person who lacks capacity for that specific decision. It is not a general power to override a capacitous person or merely impose what professionals prefer. |
| Burden and standard of proof | The burden identifies who must prove a proposition; the standard identifies how convincingly. Civil cases generally use the balance of probabilities, while criminal guilt must be proved so the tribunal is sure. |
| Capacity | Under the Mental Capacity Act, the ability to make a particular decision at the relevant time after practicable support has been provided. Capacity is presumed and an unwise decision alone does not establish incapacity. |
| Care and support plan | The Care Act document specifying needs, outcomes, services and arrangements after assessment and eligibility decisions. It should not record unwilling or unavailable unpaid care as guaranteed support. |
| Carer | A person who provides or intends to provide care to another adult. A family relationship or shared home does not by itself establish unlimited willingness, capacity, competence or legal responsibility. |
| Causation | The required connection between conduct and a claimed outcome. Chronology may support an inference, but timing alone does not prove that a service, person or event caused every injury or symptom. |
| Coercion | Pressure, threats, control or exploitation that restricts meaningful choice. Its legal effect depends on the field: sexual consent, contract, capacity, forced labour and criminal offences apply different tests. |
| Consent | Agreement to the particular act or decision. Sexual Offences Act 2003 section 74 requires agreement by choice with the freedom and capacity to make that choice; consent to care, treatment, travel and sexual activity must not be conflated. |
D–M
| Term | Meaning in this book |
|---|---|
| Direct Payment | Money paid under the Care Act scheme so eligible care and support can be arranged directly. Statutory conditions, monitoring and rules about representatives, authorised persons and household employment may apply. |
| Depression | A term that may describe low mood or a depressive disorder. Clinical diagnosis considers the symptom pattern, duration, severity, impairment, physical causes, substances, medication and risk; sadness or justified despair alone is not automatically a disorder. |
| Differential diagnosis | The structured clinical process of considering and distinguishing plausible explanations for symptoms rather than assuming the first or most convenient diagnosis. |
| Disability | Under Equality Act 2010 section 6, a physical or mental impairment with a substantial and long-term adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities, subject to statutory detail and exclusions. |
| Dissociation | A disruption in the usual integration of awareness, memory, identity, emotion or perception. It can occur in several conditions and requires assessment rather than assumption. |
| DSM‑5‑TR | The American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic classification. It assists trained clinical assessment but is not legislation, proof of causation, a capacity determination or a legal verdict. |
| Eligible needs | Needs meeting the Care Act eligibility regulations after assessment. Eligibility does not itself dictate a single preferred service, but the authority must lawfully decide how duties and outcomes will be met. |
| EMDR | Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing, a structured psychological treatment used for PTSD in appropriate cases by trained practitioners. It is not a task for ordinary carers to improvise. |
| Equality duty | Equality Act 2010 section 149 requires specified public authorities to have due regard to equality aims when exercising functions. It is a decision-making duty, not an automatic guarantee of a requested outcome. |
| False imprisonment | The tort of intentionally imposing complete restraint on a person’s freedom of movement without lawful justification. Feeling trapped, lacking care or being unable to leave because of illness may engage other duties but does not automatically prove this tort. |
| Forced or compulsory labour | Work exacted under menace of a penalty and not offered voluntarily, assessed under Article 4 principles and the Modern Slavery Act framework. Difficult, unpaid or morally expected work is not automatically forced labour. |
| Gross negligence manslaughter | A common-law homicide offence requiring a duty of care, breach, a serious and obvious risk of death at the time of breach, causation of death and negligence so exceptionally bad as to be criminal. |
| Grounding | A person-chosen strategy for reconnecting attention to the present during overwhelming distress, panic, flashbacks or dissociation. It should be offered rather than imposed and adapted to what the individual finds safe. |
| Harassment | Under the Equality Act, unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic that has the statutory purpose or effect. Offence, disagreement or poor treatment is not automatically statutory harassment. |
| Human trafficking | Under Modern Slavery Act 2015 section 2, arranging or facilitating another person’s travel with a view to exploitation. Travel includes movement within a country; each conduct and mental element must be proved. |
| Hypervigilance | Persistent heightened alertness to possible danger. It can occur after trauma and in anxiety conditions, but requires context and differential assessment rather than automatic attribution to PTSD. |
| ICD | The World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases, used in health systems including the NHS. It is distinct from DSM‑5‑TR although categories may overlap. |
| Judicial review | Court supervision of the lawfulness of public decision-making. It generally examines legality, procedure, reasons and rationality rather than simply substituting the court’s preferred care package. |
| Least restrictive option | The Mental Capacity Act principle that action for a person lacking capacity should achieve its purpose in a way less restrictive of rights and freedom where practicable. |
| Mental capacity assessment | An evidence-based, decision-specific and time-specific application of the Mental Capacity Act test after practicable support has been attempted. Diagnosis, disability or disagreement alone is insufficient. |
| Misfeasance in public office | A narrow tort concerning deliberate unlawful conduct by a public officer with the required knowledge or reckless indifference and probable injury. Negligence or maladministration alone is insufficient. |
| Modern slavery | An umbrella expression covering slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour and human trafficking. It should not be used as a final legal conclusion without applying the relevant statutory and Convention tests. |
N–Z
| Term | Meaning in this book |
|---|---|
| Neglect | A failure to meet needs or protect from harm. Its meaning and legal consequence depend on the safeguarding, regulatory, civil or criminal framework and the defendant’s duty and state of mind. |
| Panic attack | A sudden surge of intense fear or discomfort with physical and cognitive symptoms. Panic attacks can occur in several disorders and medical conditions and do not, by themselves, establish panic disorder. |
| Personal budget | The Care Act statement of the cost to the authority of meeting needs it is required or decides to meet. It should be transparent enough to support lawful planning and review. |
| Personal care | Assistance with intimate or bodily functions such as washing, dressing, toileting, continence, eating or mobility. It must be delivered with dignity, privacy, consent and safeguarding boundaries. |
| PTSD | Post-traumatic stress disorder. DSM‑5‑TR and ICD frameworks require qualifying exposure, a defined symptom pattern, duration, impairment and exclusion or consideration of alternative explanations; reported symptoms do not establish a diagnosis by themselves. |
| Psychological formulation | A collaborative explanation of how biological, psychological and social factors may have contributed to and maintained a person’s difficulties and what may help. It is broader than attaching a diagnostic label. |
| Public law | Law governing public bodies and the lawful exercise of statutory powers and duties. Relevant principles include correct legal direction, relevant evidence, fairness, rationality, reasons and Convention rights. |
| Reasonable adjustment | A step required in defined Equality Act circumstances to avoid substantial disability-related disadvantage. What is reasonable depends on effectiveness, practicality, cost, resources, disruption and the statutory setting. |
| Re-traumatisation | The reactivation or intensification of trauma-related distress through reminders, coercive practices or renewed loss of safety and control. Trauma-informed services seek to reduce avoidable re-traumatisation. |
| Safeguarding enquiry | An enquiry made or caused by a local authority under Care Act section 42 when the statutory conditions are met. Its purpose is to decide what action is needed; it is not a criminal trial. |
| Servitude | A particularly serious form of compulsory service involving an obligation to provide services imposed by coercion and a constrained ability to change the condition. It is more demanding than showing onerous unpaid work. |
| Slavery | For Article 4 and Modern Slavery Act analysis, an extreme condition involving powers attaching to ownership. The label must not be applied merely as a rhetorical synonym for unfairness or unpaid work. |
| Sexual exploitation | Exploitation connected with sexual offending or commercial sexual activity, depending on the applicable statute. Sexual abuse, trafficking and prostitution offences are related but legally distinct. |
| Trauma-informed care | Support that recognises trauma’s possible effects, prioritises safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment and cultural consideration, and seeks to avoid re-traumatisation. It is not specialist trauma therapy. |
| Trauma | An event, series of events or circumstances experienced as harmful or life-threatening with possible lasting effects. The broader care meaning of trauma is not identical to the exposure criterion required for a particular DSM‑5‑TR diagnosis. |
| Vicarious liability | Circumstances in which an organisation may be civilly liable for a tort committed by another person because of the relationship and connection with assigned work. It is distinct from direct organisational fault or criminal attribution. |
| Wilful neglect | A criminal concept requiring deliberate or reckless neglect within the scope of a particular offence and qualifying relationship or role. Poor care, mistake or ordinary negligence does not automatically satisfy it. |
| Without lawful justification | A required feature of false-imprisonment analysis. The claimant must prove complete restraint; the defendant must identify any legal justification relied upon, which is then tested against its conditions and limits. |