Children's Services glossary and acronyms

View a glossary and acronyms of words commonly associated with Children's Services.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y

ACE
Alternative Complementary Education. ACE is for pupils who can't attend mainstream school for a variety of reasons, such as school exclusion, behaviour issues, short- or long-term illness, school refusal or teenage pregnancy.

ACEs
Adverse Childhood Experiences

ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

ADM
Alternative Delivery Model

Adoption
Adoption is a way of providing new families for children who cannot be brought up by their birth parents or within their birth family. The granting of an adoption order transfers all legal responsibility and rights to the adoptive parents. Adoption is a lifelong commitment to the child or children who become a full member of the adoptive family.

AP
Alternative Provision (for children not in mainstream school)
Advanced Practitioner

Adoption Order
An adoption order grants complete parental responsibility (in summary, who has the legal right to make decisions about the child and their future) to the child's adoptive parents, and removes it from all others, including the child's birth parents and the local authority. An adoption order cannot be applied for until a child has lived with his or her adoptive parents, continuously, for at least ten weeks in England and Wales - though, in reality, most families have the order granted around nine to 12 months after the child moves in. These time limits are for children placed for adoption by agencies, rather than, for example, long-term foster carers who later decide to apply to adopt the child they are fostering.

Adoptive Placement
The point at which a child begins to live with prospective adoptive parents; the period before the adoption is finalised.

ARC
ARC Panel is for children and young people cases who are "At Risk of Care"

ASC
Autistic Spectrum Condition
Adult Social Care

ASD
Autistic Spectrum Disorder

ASDV
Alternative Service Delivery Vehicle

ASF
Adoption Support Fund. The Adoption Support Fund has been set up by the Government to pay for therapeutic services including therapeutic parenting training and intensive family interventions. To access the Fund, the local authority is asked do an assessment of adoption support needs. If the assessment shows that therapeutic services would be beneficial, the local authority can make an application to the Fund.

B

Behavioural Phenotypes
The expression of distinctive physiological and behavioural characteristics that have a chromosomal or genetic cause

BASE
Barnardo's Against Sexual Exploitation

BSL
British Sign Language

C

CARE ACT 2014
The Care Act requires local authorities to help develop a market that delivers a wide range of sustainable high-quality care and support services that will be available to their communities. In current practice, some authorities may wait until people reach the age of 17½ or even 19 to make an assessment, as situations during these years are often subject to change and they want to avoid performing two assessments. The assessment of young people with a life-threatening or life-limiting condition may not happen until they have reached 18 or 19 years old, if at all. Under the Care Act this will not be routinely acceptable. However, unless a young person or carer is identified early enough and assessed, the authority may be falling short in their duty in relation to 'significant benefit'.

CAMHS
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Plymouth has community Camhs and dedicated Children in Care Camhs.

CANS
Children with Additional Needs Service

CARA
Conditional Cautioning and Relationship Abuse
Children At Risk Assessment

Carer
A person who provides unpaid support to a partner, family member, friend or neighbour who is ill, struggling or has a disability. This does not include paid carers (care workers), who are included in the definition of staff.

Carefirst
Social Care Information System. Records key information about children and young people, including any assessments and placement addresses.

Care Leavers - Staying Put
From the age of eighteen young people are no longer legally 'in care' or 'looked after' and therefore fostering arrangements and legislation relating to children placed with foster carers no longer applies. In circumstances where a young person remains with their former foster carer/s after their eighteenth birthday, the arrangement becomes a "Staying Put" arrangement. The term 'arrangement' should be used rather than placement; the term 'placement' denotes a situation where the local authority arranged and placed the child with a foster carer. Once the child reaches the age of eighteen and legal adulthood, the local authority is no longer making a placement, but facilitating a "Staying Put" arrangement for the young person.

Care Leavers - Supported Lodgings
Supported Lodgings look very similar to foster placements but aren't covered by regulation. A young person over the age of 16 lives with a "host" in their home, in the style of a lodger. The host will provide support for the young person, but isn't expected to provide transport, pocket money, clothing etc. The host often helps with providing food or sharing meals with the young person.

Care Leavers - Supported Accommodation
A type of placement, often in a shared house, with staff on site either 24 hours or on a drop-in basis. The young person must be aged 16 or older. This type of provision may be regulated by the CQC (for adults with complex needs including personal care requirements), but is often unregulated.

CBT
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

CC
Children's Centres

CiC - Children in Care (Looked After Children)
A child who is being looked after by their local authority is known as a child in care, looked after child or child looked after.

C&YP
Children and Young People

CYP&F
Children Young People and Families Service

CCG
Clinical Commissioning Group

CCP
Consultant Community Pediatrician

CDC
Child Development Centre

CDR
Child Death Review

CDRP
Child Death Review Partners

CE
Child Explotation

CEIAG
Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance

CHC
Continuing Healthcare Check - The National Framework for NHS continuing healthcare and the supporting guidance and tools should be used to determine what ongoing care services people aged 18 years or over should receive from the NHS. The continuing healthcare checklist for funding and free care for those young people who have ongoing complex medical health needs. The CHC process is administered by the CCG.

CiN
Children in Need (also refers to young people in need) - where there is a probability of entry into the care system or probability that without intervention, it is assessed as more, rather than less likely.

C&I
Communication and Interaction

C&L
Cognition and Learning

CLD
Complex Learning Difficulties

CME
Children Missing from Education

Collaborative working/collaboration
Agencies working together in a wide variety of different ways to pursue a common goal while also pursuing their own organisational goals

Co-operation
Informal relationships between organisations designed to ensure that organisations can pursue their own goals more effectively
More formal mechanisms to ensure that organisations take account of each other's strategies and activities in their own planning

Contact
Contact between a child and another person or persons including the Child's parents as defined in Section 34 of the Children Act

Care Plan
All children in care are required to have a Care Plan, which is completed by the social worker prior to or soon after coming into the care of the Council. This sets out how the child or young person's needs are to be met, including care, education and health arrangements. The Care Plan is reviewed via statutory reviews or after a significant change in circumstances such as an unplanned placement move.

CP
Child Protection

CPD
Continuous Professional Development

Cross-boundary working
Agencies working together on areas that extends beyond the scope of any one agency or geography

Cross-cutting
Cross-cutting issues are those that are not the "property" of a single organisation or agency. Examples include: social inclusion, improving health, urban regeneration

CRCs
Community Rehabilitation Companies

CRP
Children's Resource Panel. A weekly meeting chaired by Children's Social Care to consider the resources needed by children and young people either in or on the edge of care.

CSA
Childs Sexual Abuse

CSC
Children's Social Care

CSE
Child Sexual Exploitation

CSIB
Children's System Improvement Board

CSW
Children's Social Worker

D

DA
Domestic Abuse

DCS
Director of Children's Services

DDA
Disability Discrimination Act - Repealed and replaced by the Equality Act 2010

DfE
Department for Education

DHO
Designated Health Officer

DLA
Disability Living Allowance

DoH
Department of Health

DIASS
Devon Information and Service for SEND

DSA
Disabled Student Allowance

DSG
Dedicated Schools Grant

DUST
Drug Use Screening tool

DWP
Department for Work and Pensions

E

Early Intervention
More usually called Early Help

Early Years
A phrase used to describe the initial years of a child's life

ECIP
Emergency Care Improvement Programme. The Emergency Care Improvement Programme (ECIP) is a clinically led programme that offers intensive practical help and support to 40 urgent and emergency care systems across England leading to safer, faster and better care for patients.

EET
Education Employment and Training

EHAT
Early Help Assessment Tool

EHC
Education, Health andCare

EHCP
Education, Health andCare Plan. EHCP's replaced Statements for children and young people with additional needs under the Children and Families Act 2014.

EHE
Elective Home Education

EH&TS offer
Early Help and Targeted Support offer

EHWB
Emotional Health and Wellbeing

EfC
Employment for carers

EOTAS
Education Other Than School

EP
Education Psychologist

EPS
Education Psychology Service

EP&S
Education, Participation and Skills

ESFA
Education Skills Funding Agency

ESG
Education Service Grant

ESOL
English for Speakers of Other Languages

EYFS
Early Years Foundation Stage

EWO
Education Welfare Officer

Expressive Communication
The ability to express thoughts, feelings and needs verbally (using words and sentences) and nonverbally (for example, using gestures, facial expressions, gaze, signing and other methods that supplement or replace speech or writing).

External Residential Parent and Child Placement
Parent and child placements are a specialist type of fostering where a young parent, usually a mother and baby, stays in a residential placement to receive extra support

F

FASB
Fair Access to Short Breaks

FASS
Family Assessment and Support Service

FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions

FE
Further Education

FFT
Functional Family Therapy

FGC
Family Group Conferencing

FIP
Family Intervention Project

FNP
Family Nurse Partnership

FTE
Full-time equivalent (FTE) or whole time equivalent (WTE) is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a worker's or student's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organisation. An FTE of 1.0 is equivalent to a full-time worker or student, while an FTE of 0.5 signals half of a full work or school load.

Functional Assessment
An assessment of the function of behaviour that challenges, including functional analyses and other methods of assessing behavioural functions.

FWAF
Families with a Future (Troubled Families programme)

G

GP
General Practitioner(Doctor)

H

HI
Hearing Impaired

High Needs Funding
High needs funding is intended to provide the most appropriate support package for an individual with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in a range of settings, taking account of parental and student choice, whilst avoiding perverse incentives to over-identify high needs pupils and students. It is also intended to support good quality alternative provision for pupils who cannot receive their education in schools

Holistic government/governance
Integration and coordination at all levels and in relation to all aspects of policy-related activity - policy-making, regulation, service provision and scrutiny; mutually reinforcing means and objectives

HR
Healthy Relationships (also known as Empower Plymouth)

HSB
Harmful Sexual Behaviour

I

IA
Information and Advice

IAPT
Improving Access to Psychological Therapies

IAG
Information, Advice and Guidance

IAW
In Accordance With

IAW Team
Inclusion Attendance and Welfare Team

ICS
Integrated Children's Services

ICT
Information, Communication Technology

IEP
Individual Education Plan

IFA
Independent Fostering Agency -An Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) are used by local authorities to provide suitable families for looked after children. IFAs play a vital role in providing much-needed placements for young people. To ensure the provision of the highest quality care, foster care agencies are subject to strict regulations and Ofsted inspection.

IFPS
Intensive Family Prevention Service

IHWB
Integrated Health and Wellbeing

In-House Foster Care
Foster Care provider by PCC, through its own Fostering Agency

In-House Parent and Child Placement
Parent and Child Placement provided by PCC, through its own Fostering Agency

ILACS
Inspection of Local Authority Children's Services

Integration
Agencies working together within a single, often new, organisational structure

Inter-Agency working
More than one agency working together in a planned and formal way

IRO
Independent Reviewing Officer

ITT
Independent Travel Training

J

Joined up
Deliberate and co-ordinated planning and working which takes account of different policies and varying agency practice and values. This can refer to thinking or to practice or policy development

Joint Funding Panel
A panel consisting of Social Care, Education and Health representatives who meet to consider shared funding arrangements for placements for children and young people with complex additional needs, usually children with EHCP's and/or complex health needs. Meets monthly.

Joint Working
Professionals from more than one agency working directly together on a project

JSNA
Joint Strategic Needs Analysis

JTAI
Joint Targeted Area Inspection

K

KS1
Key Stage 1 (School years: Reception, Y1, Y2)

KS2
Key Stage 2 (School years: Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6)

KS3
Key Stage 3 (School years: Y7, Y8, Y9)

KS4
Key Stage 4 (School years: Y10, Y11)

L

LA
Local Authority

LAC
Looked After Children - A child is looked after by a local authority if he or she has been provided with accommodation for a continuous period of more than 24 hours, in the circumstances set out in sections 20 and 21 of the Children Act 1989, or is placed in the care of a local authority by virtue of an order made under part IV of the Act

LC
Learning Community

LCP
Local Care Partnership

LD
Learning Disability

LDA
Learning Disability Assessment

LDP
Learning and Development Partnership

LEP
Local Education Partnership
Local Enterprise Partnership

LGO
Local Government Ombudsman

LP
Lead Professional

LSA
Learning Support Assistant

LSP
Local Safeguarding Partnership

M

MARJON
University of St. Mark's and St. John's

MAST
Multi-Agency Support Team

MEAM
Making Every Adult Matter

MEYSOG
Maternity and Early Years System Optimisation Group

MFM
Mockingbird Family Model -is an innovative method of delivering foster care using an extended family model which provides respite care, peer support, regular joint planning and training, and social activities. The programme improves the stability of fostering placements and strengthens the relationships between carers, children and young people, fostering services and birth families.

MH
Mental Health

MHCLG
Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government

MLD
Moderate Learning Difficulties

MSI
Multi-Sensory Impaired

MST
Multi Systemic Therapy

MST-CAN
Multi Systemic Therapy for Child Abuse and Neglect

Multi-agency/cross-agency working
More than one agency working together; services are provided by agencies acting in concert and drawing on pooled resources or a pooled budget, e.g. Youth offending teams

Multi-professional/multi-disciplinary working
Working together of staff with different professional backgrounds and training

N

NEET
Not in Education, Employment or Training

Networks
Informal contact and communication between individuals and agencies

NEW Devon CCG
North, East and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group

NHS
National Health Service

NICE
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

NPS
National Probation Service

NQT
Newly Qualified Teacher

O

OOH'S
Out of Hours

OPCC
Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner

OSOA
One System One Aim

OT
Occupational Therapist

P

PACE
Playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy. PACE is a way of thinking, feeling, communicating and behaving that aims to make the child feel safe. It is based upon how parents connect with their very young infants. As with young toddlers, with safety the child can begin to explore.

PAF
Plymouth Assessment Framework and Thresholds Guidance Document

Pathway Plan
All young people over 16 in care are required to have a Pathway Plan which sets out the plan for their progress towards adulthood. These are reviewed via statutory reviews or after a significant change in circumstances such as an unplanned placement move.

PCC
Plymouth City Council

PCH
Plymouth Community Housing

PCSB
Plymouth Children's Safeguarding Board

PD
Physical Disability

PDAS
Plymouth Domestic Abuse Service

PDG
Project Delivery Group

PEP
Personal Education Plan

PfA
Preparing for Adulthood

PIAS
Plymouth Information Advice and Support for SEND

PICB
Plymouth Integrated Commissioning Board

Placement Plan
All children in care are required to have a Placement Plan completed before their placement begins or within five working days. This sets out the requirements of the placement in meeting the needs of the child or young person and other information to support the placement.

PLP
Plymouth Learning Partnership

PMLD
Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties

PNCN
Plymouth Neighbourhood and Communities Network

POD
Plymouth Online Directory

POP
Plymouth Octopus Project

PPS
Parent Partnership Service

Prevention
Where services or interventions are intended to build skills and resilience and thus prevent problems arising. Prevention includes advice, support and anticipatory guidance at key life stages or transitions. This is a key role for universal services.

PSCB
Plymouth Safeguarding Children's Board

PSP
Primary Support Partnership

PUP
Parent Under Pressure (parenting programme)

Pupil Premium
The pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities and to close the gaps between them and their peers.

PVI
Private Voluntary and Independent

P16
Post 16

Q

QAIT
Quality Assurance and Improvement Team

R

RAM
Resource Allocation Moderation

Reactive Strategies
Any strategy used to make a situation or a person safe when they behave in a way that challenges. This includes procedures for increasing personal space, disengagement from grabs and holds, pro re nata (p.r.n.) (as-needed) medication and more restrictive interventions

REACH
This is the missing young person and exploitation team who complete the return home interviews

Receptive communication
The ability to understand or comprehend language (either spoken or written) or other means of communication (for example, through signing and other methods that supplement or replace speech or writing)

Registered Manager
A suitably qualified and experienced manager of children's home. The Registered Manager is responsible for the day to day operation of the home.

Reinforcer
An event or situation that is dependent on a behaviour and increases the likelihood of that behaviour happening again

Residential Order
When parents are separating, divorcing or applying for civil partnership dissolution and can't agree on arrangements for their children, they can turn to the courts for help. The family courts can issue a contact or residence order that will determine visiting rights and where the child will live

Responsible Individual
Acts on behalf of a children's home provider to ensure that the legal responsibilities are carried out. The RI is accountable for ensuring the effectiveness of the Registered Manager and the quality of the care.

Restrictive interventions
Interventions that may infringe a person's human rights and freedom of movement, including locking doors, preventing a person from entering certain areas of the living space, seclusion, manual and mechanical restraint, rapid tranquillisation and long-term sedation

RSC
Regional Schools Commissioner

RTT
Referral to Treatment Time

S

SAL
Speech and Language also known as SALT (SAL Therapist)

SALT
Speech and Language Therapy

SARC
Sexual Assault Referral Centre

SCR
Serious Case Review

SDG
System Design Group. The Children and Young People's Partnership System Design Group replaced the Children's Trust and consists of system leaders and partners who meet to maintain system oversight and challenge. The CYPPSDG oversees the work of the children and young people System Optimisation Groups (SOG's). The CYPPSDG reports to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

SDQ
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

Self-harm
When a person intentionally harms themselves, which can include cutting and self-poisoning. It may be an attempt at suicide

Self-injury
Frequently repeated, self-inflicted behaviour, such as people hitting their head or biting themselves, which can lead to tissue damage. This behaviour is usually shown by people with a severe learning disability. It may indicate pain or distress, or it may have another purpose, such as the person using it to communicate

SEMH
Social Emotional and Mental Health

SEN
Special Education Need

SEND
Special Education Need and Disability

SENDCo
Special Education Needs and Disability Coordinator

SENDIST
Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal

SGO
Special Guardianship Order - An SGO is an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child's 'special guardian'. It is a private law order made under the Children Act 1989 and is intended for those children who cannot live with their birth parents and who would benefit from a legally secure placement.

SHAD
Special Heads Association of Devon

SHAP
Special Heads Association of Plymouth

Shortbreak (respite)
Short breaks is the term used for a range of services provided for families to give carers of disabled children, and looked after children and young people, a break from caring, and for children to take part in fun activities and have new experiences that promote positive outcomes.

Single Assessment
Social Work Assessment

SLCN
Speech, Language and Communications Need

SLD
Severe Learning Difficulty

SMART
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Limited (targets)

SMAP
Single Multi-Agency Panel considers requests for additional education support

SME
Subject Matter Expert

SOG
System Optimisation Group. Three SOG's report into the CYP SDG: Vulnerable children and young people SOG, Maternity and Early Years SOG and SEND Steering Group.

SPOA
Single Point of Access

Specialist interventions
Are in addition to the universal and targeted offer for those children and young people who require a highly individualised and personalised programme of work. This group includes children with complex learning and communication needs and those children who are cognitively able and have specific speech, language or communication needs.

SPD
Sensory Processing Disorder

SpLD
Specific Learning Difficulty

SPOC
Single Point Of Contact

SRIB
Sub-Regional Improvement Board

SRO
Senior Responsible Officer

SSG
SEND Steering Group

SSIF
Strategic School Improvement Fund

Staff
Professionals, semi-professionals and practitioners, including those working in community teams for adults or children (such as psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, speech and language therapists, nurses, behavioural analysts, occupational therapists, physiotherapists), paid carers (care workers) in a variety of settings (including residential homes, supported living settings and day services), educational staff

STEM
Science Technology Engineering and Maths

Stereotypy
Repeated behaviours, such as rocking or hand flapping, that may appear to have no obvious function but often serve a purpose for the person (for example, to provide sensory stimulation or indicate distress or discomfort).

STP
Devon Sustainability and Transformation Plan

Sustain
A research project on community cohesion in north prospect

SW
Social Worker

T

T&F
Group Task and Finish Group

TAC
Team Around the Child

TAF
Team Around the Family

TAM
Team Around Me

Targeted interventions
Offer specific support for those children and young people who are felt to be vulnerable in relation to speech, language and communication. The group is wide-ranging and includes children with delayed language and communication skills who following targeted intervention will return to the universal tier, through to identification of children who may go on to have more persistent needs. This level includes small group and individual targeted intervention approaches such as language groups, narrative groups, social communication skills programmes and phonology programmes.

TBC
To Be Confirmed

TF
Troubled Families (programme)

TfC
Together for Childhood

ToD
Teacher of the Deaf

TS
Targeted support

Treatment manual
Detailed advice and guidance on how to deliver an intervention, including its content, duration and frequency. A treatment manual may also include materials to support the delivery of the intervention for staff and people receiving the intervention.

TTBC
Time To Be Confirmed

U

UHPNT (UHP for short)
University Hospital Plymouth NHS Trust

Universal interventions
Support the whole population, i.e. whole class or whole setting/ school and ensure all children have appropriate language and communication opportunities. This level includes workforce development, access to appropriate information, creating communication friendly environments and whole class/setting/school intervention approaches.

UPN
Unique Pupil Number