Plain-English explanations of the technical terms and legislation used in this document.
- Anonymised
- Having names and other identifying details removed so that no individual patient or member of staff can be recognised.
- Appraisal
- A regular, structured review of a clinician's work and development, used to support safe practice and professional growth.
- Care Quality Commission (CQC)
- The independent regulator of health and social care services in England.
- Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009
- The law setting out, among other things, the incidents a provider must formally notify to the Care Quality Commission.
- Data Protection Act 2018
- The UK law that governs how organisations collect, store and use people's personal information.
- Duty of candour
- The legal duty to be open and honest with a person and their family when something goes wrong with their care.
- General Medical Council (GMC)
- The body that registers doctors in the UK and sets the standards they must meet to practise.
- Good medical practice
- The General Medical Council's core guidance setting out the standards of professional conduct and care expected of doctors.
- Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014
- The regulations setting out the fundamental standards that providers of regulated care must meet, enforced by the Care Quality Commission.
- Human factors
- The way working conditions, workload, environment and the design of systems affect how safely people can carry out their tasks.
- Integrated care board
- The local statutory body responsible for planning and arranging publicly funded health services in an area.
- Just culture
- An open and fair workplace culture that learns from mistakes by examining system failures rather than blaming individuals.
- Locum
- A clinician who works temporarily to cover for a regular member of staff.
- Multidisciplinary
- Involving staff from different roles and professions working together.
- Near miss
- An event that could have caused harm but did not, by chance or because it was caught in time.
- Notifiable safety incident
- A patient safety incident serious enough that the law requires the provider to tell the affected person, apologise and follow the duty of candour.
- Primary Care Network (PCN)
- A group of neighbouring general practices that work together and share resources and learning.
- Regulated activity
- A type of care or treatment the law requires a provider to register with the regulator to deliver.
- Revalidation
- The periodic process by which a doctor demonstrates they remain up to date and fit to practise in order to keep their registration.
- Root cause
- The underlying system or process reason an event happened, beneath the immediate or obvious cause.
- Safeguarding
- Protecting people's health, wellbeing and rights and keeping them safe from abuse, harm or neglect.
- Significant event
- Any event, good or bad, that the team considers important to the care of patients or the running of the practice and from which there is something to learn.
- Significant Event Analysis (SEA)
- A structured team review of a single event to understand what happened, why, and what can be improved.
- Single assessment framework
- The structure the regulator uses to judge a service, built around quality statements and five key questions (safe, effective, caring, responsive, well-led).
- Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
- A written document setting out the agreed step-by-step way of carrying out a particular task or process.
- Triage
- Quickly reviewing and prioritising events according to their seriousness and urgency.
- UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)
- The UK's main data-protection law governing how personal information is collected and used.
- Well-led
- One of the regulator's five key questions, asking whether a service has good leadership, management and a positive, learning culture.