Plain-English explanations of the technical terms and legislation used in this document.
- Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment (ADRT)
- A legally binding decision, made in advance by a person with capacity, to refuse a specified treatment in the future should they lose the ability to decide.
- Best interests
- A decision made for someone who cannot decide for themselves, choosing the option that is best for them.
- Capacity (mental capacity)
- Whether a person can understand and make a particular decision for themselves at the time it needs to be made.
- Care Quality Commission (CQC)
- The independent regulator of health and social care services in England.
- Chaperone
- A trained person present during an intimate examination to support and protect the patient and the clinician.
- Court of Protection
- The court that makes decisions, and appoints deputies to make decisions, for people who lack the mental capacity to decide for themselves.
- Data Protection Act 2018
- The UK law that governs how personal information must be handled, sitting alongside the UK General Data Protection Regulation.
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS)
- A legal process that protects a person who lacks capacity when restrictions on their care amount to depriving them of their liberty.
- Deputy
- A person appointed by the Court of Protection to make certain decisions on behalf of someone who lacks the capacity to make them.
- Duty of candour
- The legal duty to be open and honest with a person and their family when something goes wrong with their care.
- Family Law Reform Act 1969
- The law that confirms young people aged 16 and 17 can consent to their own medical treatment.
- General Medical Council (GMC)
- The body that registers doctors in the UK and sets the standards of conduct and practice they must follow.
- Gillick competence
- The test of whether a child under 16 has enough understanding and maturity to consent to a particular treatment for themselves.
- Human Rights Act 1998
- The law that gives effect in the UK to basic rights such as the right to life and the right to private and family life.
- Human Tissue Act 2004
- The law governing the consent needed to remove, store and use human tissue and samples.
- Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA)
- An independent advocate who represents and supports a person who lacks capacity and has no one else suitable to speak for them on serious decisions.
- Information governance
- The framework for handling people's personal and health information legally, securely and appropriately.
- Informed consent
- Agreement to treatment given freely after the risks, benefits and alternatives have been clearly explained.
- Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)
- A legal arrangement letting a person appoint someone they trust to make decisions for them, including about health and welfare, if they later lose capacity.
- Material risk
- A risk that a reasonable patient, or this particular patient, would think important when deciding whether to agree to a treatment.
- Mental Capacity Act 2005
- The law that protects and supports people who may be unable to make particular decisions for themselves.
- Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board
- A 2015 Supreme Court case establishing that patients must be told of the material risks and reasonable alternatives to a proposed treatment.
- Nominated Individual
- The senior person responsible to the regulator for supervising how a service is provided.
- Parental responsibility
- The legal rights and duties a parent or guardian has for a child, including the ability to consent to the child's treatment.
- Registered Manager
- The person registered with the regulator as responsible for the day-to-day running of a service.
- Regulated activity
- A type of care or treatment the law requires a provider to register with the regulator to deliver.
- Restraint
- The use of force or restriction of movement to stop a person doing something, lawful only when necessary and proportionate to prevent harm.
- Safeguarding
- Protecting people's health, wellbeing and rights and keeping them safe from abuse, harm or neglect.
- 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).
- Special-category data
- Sensitive personal information, such as health details, that data-protection law gives extra protection.
- UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)
- The UK's main data-protection law governing how personal information is collected and used.
- Valid consent
- Permission for care given voluntarily by a person who has capacity and has been given enough information to decide.