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SocietyGuardian - glossary of society Category: People and society Date & country: 14/09/2007, UK Words: 527

Full council
A meeting of every councillor on a local authority to vote on council decisions. Has to ratify policy frameworks and decide on budgets.

Gap funding
A regeneration initiative to attract private investment in potentially risky projects by making up the cash difference between the extra cost of developing difficult sites and the possible market values if the project fails. In 1999, the European commission claimed the scheme breached its state aid rules. Less effective alternatives have now been approved by the commission.

Garden city
Pioneering town planner Ebenezer Howard's concept for an ideal settlement based around gardens, parks and farmland. Its influence is seen as one of the reasons for the high level of suburban development in Britain.

General Medical Council (GMC)
Regulatory body that licenses doctors to practice medicine in the UK. The GMC's role includes keeping a register of qualified doctors and disciplining those whose conduct fails to meet professional standards (in extreme cases, a doctor is 'struck off' the register, meaning his or her right to practice medicine is removed).

General social care council (GSCC)
The general social care council is the independent regulatory body responsible for overseeing social care training. Its aim is to raise standards of conduct and practice by setting requirements for training, qualifications and professional development, as well as registering social workers and other social care staff.

Generalised needs index (GNI)
The government's statistical measure to assess relative housing needs across the country used in the allocation of resources to councils. The methodology used is the subject of frequent rows between different regions of the country over the weightings given to the separate criteria that make up the index.

Gift Aid
Scheme that allows charities to reclaim the tax paid on donations by UK taxpayers, estimated to be worth up to £350m a year to the voluntary sector, or an annual £750,000 for an average-sized charity. For every £1 donated, the charity receives £1.28. Higher rate taxpayers can claim the difference between the higher rate of tax and the basic rate in their self assessment return.

Gifts in kind
Non-monetary donations to a charity or voluntary organisation. Can include the donation of computers from a company, or donations of company shares. Also refers to the donation of time, from a company or other body, to an organisation.

Glass ceiling
A discriminatory barrier that prevents professionals - usually women - attaining senior positions in an organisation, even though no formal barriers to advancement exist.

GMB
Formerly the general, municipal and boiler makers union. Now a leftwing, general trade union with 700,000 members from a wide range of industries. It takes in staff from local government and the health service.

Gob-ons
Slang used by house builders and developers for details such as balconies, porches and coach lamps stuck on to the exterior of new homes in an effort to evoke certain architectural styles.

Good council
Category in the local government league table system for councils that have strong services and know where they need to improve. They have good leadership, high ambitions and are mostly focussed on the issues that matter to their communities. These councils are given some new freedom from government control, but have to reach the 'excellent' league table category before getting the full package of new powers. Of the 150 larger councils, 54 were ranked in this category in 2002.

Governance
Refers to the process by which charity management and trustees oversee and determine the direction, finance and day to day running of a charity. Governance is overseen by and accountable to the charity commission.

Grants
Sums of money given to a charity, organisation or individual, usually from some kind of grant making body such as a charitable foundation or government department. A grant is different to a donation in that it is usually applied for along strict criteria drawn up by the grant make that the applicant must adhere to in order to receive the money.

Greater London authority
City-wide organisation with strategic responsibility for police, fire services, planning, regeneration and transport. Headed by a directly elected mayor, currently Ken Livingstone, who is scrutinised by a 25-strong assembly.

Green paper
A consultation document that sets out the government's views on a policy area - such as planning or the NHS - and invites discussion. The first step in a policy-making process that usually leads to legislation.

Greenbelt
Planning restriction that applies to the countryside around towns and cities to prevent new building taking place.

Greenfield site
Land where there has been no previous development. Developers prefer building on such sites because there is no cost of clearance or risk of contamination, but greenfield development is usually vehemently opposed by countryside campaigners.

Grievance procedure
A procedure for staff to object to an order from a senior officer that they believe to be illegal, unethical or counterproductive.

Grooming
This term refers to the process by which child sex offenders ensnare their victims by befriending them. The abuser will often pretend to share a common interest with the child or offer them support and advice before persuading them to meet one-to-one. Public awareness of grooming has grown following a number of cases where paedophiles have used internet chatrooms or email to befriend children in order to abuse them, often pretending to be children themselves. The government's white paper to reform the law on sex offences, Protecting the Public, proposed a new offence of 'sexual grooming' to combat this problem.

Ground rent
Usually a nominal amount charged by a freeholder of a property to a leaseholder. Usually paid annually.

Growth areas
Four areas in the south-east of England identified by government to accommodate an additional 200,000 new homes over the next 10 to 20 years. The areas are: Ashford in Kent; the Thames Gateway to the east of London; Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, and Stanstead in Essex.

Handover
The point in the construction of a new property when the builder passes responsibility for the new building to the owner.

Health action zone
Partnerships between the NHS, local authorities, community groups and the voluntary and business sectors in areas of high deprivation, aimed at tackling health inequalities and poor health.

Health inequality
The gap in health status, and in access to health services, between different social classes and ethnic groups and between populations in different geographical areas.

Health service ombudsman
The health service ombudsmen have the power to launch independent investigations into complaints from the public about poor NHS services, maladministration (such as failure to respond to complaints), and failure to provide services or access to information. Where the ombudsmen uphold complaints, they can demand an apology or seek changes in practice from the offending service provider. There are health service ombudsmen for England, Scotland and Wales.

Healthy living centres
A network of centres across the UK set up in 1999 to promote health and healthy lifestyles and tackle social exclusion in areas of rural or urban deprivation and among the most disadvantaged members of those communities. The centres can be in the form of a building, or as a form of outreach. Services provided by healthy living centres can include: well man and well woman clinics, dietary advice, family planning services, physical exercise facilities, and English language classes.

Hectare
A metric area of land just under 2.5 acres and almost the same size as two football pitches. There are 100 hectares in square kilometre. To ensure higher housing density, the government has insisted that in the south-east all new development should include at least 30 homes on every hectare.

HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attacks the body's immune system, making it hard to fight off infections. There is no vaccine or cure for HIV. The government published its strategy for tackling the rising incidence of HIV in England in July 2001.

Home improvement agency (HIA)
Approved organisations that help older and disabled people stay in their homes by helping them repair and adapt their properties.

Homebuy
Under this scheme the purchasers have to find a mortgage for 75% of the value of a home. The remaining 25% is provided by a housing association. In return, the housing association is paid 25% of the value of the home when it is sold.

Homelessness tsar
Louise Casey, head of the government's rough sleepers unit, which was set up to reduce the number of people sleeping on the streets.

Horizon scanning
Term used in NHS planning to describe the identification at an early stage of new drugs, devices and medical procedures that are likely to emerge in the future and have an impact on the NHS in terms of cost and demand.

House officer
Term for a junior doctor (or doctor in training), who has successfully completed five years at medical school and is learning general medicine in a hospital in preparation to become a registrar, and eventually a GP or consultant.

Housing action trust (Hat)
Six government controlled organisations set up to take over poor quality council stock. The initiative was only taken up in a handful of areas. Their function has largely been superseded by the transfer of council housing to housing associations.

Housing association
Not for profit organisations providing homes mainly to those in housing need. Many housing associations have also diversified into other areas including market rented housing, student housing, social care and shared ownership. Housing associations need to register with the housing corporation to qualify for grants to build new homes and are therefore often given the official title of registered social landlord or RSL.

Housing association grant (Hag)
Now known as social housing grant

Housing benefit
Means-tested benefit to help tenants of housing associations, councils and private landlords pay their rent. Unlike similar allowances in other countries, housing benefit in Britain pays up to all of a tenant's rent. The administration of housing benefit in many areas is notoriously poor. The government is currently piloting wholesale changes to the system, so far only in private rented sector. Under the new system tenants get a fixed housing allowance in their area, which is designed to give them more consumer incentives to shop around for cheaper homes. The new allowance is also paid direct to the tenant rather than the landlord.

Housing Corporation
Quango that funds and regulates housing associations. All housing associations have to register with the corporation in order to qualify for social housing grant that is allocated by agency.

Housing Inspectorate
Separate organisation within the Audit Commission set up to inspect council-run housing and arms length management organisations. It is part of the government's best value regime designed to secure improvements in public services. The inspectorate rates landlords on a star system based on inspection visits. From April 2003 the inpsectorate also took over the role of inspecting housing assciations from the Housing Corporation, but confusingly the corporation still regulates housing associations.

Housing investment programme (Hip)
Annual cash allocation to council housing departments. The cash awarded is partly based on a council's housing performance and partly on housing need.

Housing needs indicator (HNI)
Statistical measure used by the Housing Corporation in its decisions over the allocation of grant for new homes to housing associations. The methodology used is hotly disputed between regions.

Housing plus
A term used by the housing corporation to describe the activities of housing associations that go beyond standard housing management. Such activities include employment initiatives, regeneration schemes and community projects.

Housing revenue account (HRA)
An account of expenditure and income that every local authority housing department must keep. The account is kept separate or ringfenced from other council activities.

Human Rights Act 1998
Legislates for personal human rights that can be defended in court, including the right to life, the right to liberty, freedom from inhuman treatment and the right to a family. Has been used by individuals to claim services and benefits that have been denied, and by charities to mount campaigns for changes to government policies.

Hypothecated tax
A tax that is raised for spending on a specific purpose - perhaps going to war or improving health services - rather than general spending by the chancellor. Politicians in the UK rarely rely on this type of taxation.

Incapacity benefit
A welfare benefit paid to people of working age who are unable to work due to disability or illness.

Independent housing ombudsman
The body that deals with the complaints of housing association tenants and some private landlords' tenants. Every registered housing association has to sign up to the scheme, which they also fund, through annual subscriptions. Private landlords can sign up on a voluntary basis.

Indices of deprivation
An official measure based on a slew of criteria and statistics used by the government to target regeneration policies to the most deprived areas.

Industrial and provident societies
Organisations conducting an activity for the benefit of a specific community. These include workers' cooperatives, housing associations, social clubs, sporting and other voluntary community based organisations that do not make a profit for their members. Registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, 1965 - 1978.

Inner cities religious council
Set up in 1992 to ensure that religious groups have a say on regeneration policy. It is chaired by a government minister and includes leaders of the five largest faith communities: Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and Sikhs.

Innovation and good practice grant
Grant programme administered by the housing corporation to fund research and new ideas in housing and related areas.

Innovation forum
Government sponsored gathering of those English councils that have been rated as 'excellent' by the comprehensive performance assessment. The aim of the forum is for local government to negotiate with ministers to provide more freedoms and flexibilities for the best.

Inpatient
A patient who has been admitted to hospital for treatment and is occupying a hospital bed.

Institute for Volunteering Research
Carries out and disseminates research on volunteering, and is part of the National Centre for Volunteering. Current projects include research on faith-based volunteering and social exclusion and volunteering.

Interim care order
This may be made by the court to protect a child while waiting for a final hearing. It gives the court time to gather more details about the child's welfare before making a decision whether to grant further care orders.

Intermediate care
Nursing home, rehabilitation or home care services provided to ease the transition of the patient from hospital to home and from medical dependence to functional independence.

Intermediate housing
Accommodation targeted at essential public sector workers and other people on moderate incomes who are priced out of the property market but earn too much to qualify for social housing. Those benefiting are either given help to buy their homes or charged rents at a mid point between private market rents and affordable rents.

Intern
Charities and voluntary organisations often recruit individuals to carry out specific projects and jobs for medium periods of time such as a year, or six months. These people are sometimes referred to as interns. Interns often receive a modest or token salary, but the internship gives them hands-on experience of working in the charity sector and of a particular issue.

Intervention
Ministers have a range of powers to intervene in the affairs of poorly performing councils. Set out in the Local Government Act 1999, these powers allow Whitehall to order councils to take particular measures to improve their services - such as making budget cuts or clearing a benefits backlog. In the worst cases, ministers can personally take control of a local authority's services or nominate someone else to do the job.

Introductory tenancy
A new legal agreement launched in 1996 that makes it easy for local authorities to evict unruly residents in the first year of their tenancy.

Joined up working
When organisations such as councils, hospitals and schools work together to identify and solve local problems. The government has pushed this idea as a means of closing the gaps between public services and improving overall performance.

Joint funding
Where two or more agencies, for example, health and social services, agree to share the cost of running a project or service.

Joint investment plans
Plans for purchasing care services jointly, produced by health authorities and local authorities as well as other key agencies and representatives of service users and carers.

Key decision
A council decision that involves significant amounts of expenditure or saving, or which affects two or more local government wards. Council executives have to give advance warning that they are making these decisions, and must make them in public.

Key worker
Usually refers to public sector staff, such as nurses, police officers and teachers, that are crucial to the economy and vital for better public services but are relatively poorly paid. Often used in relation to the lack of affordable housing for such people in areas of high house prices. Some argue that the definition of key workers should be broadened to include almost all poorly paid workers. Key workers are sometimes referred to as named workers.

Land bank
A practice by developers, including housing associations, of holding on to land or sites for development at a future date in the expectation that market conditions will be more advantageous for building or sale.

Landfill tax
A charge on disposing waste in pits to encourage more recycling and more environmentally friendly waste disposal. Higher charges apply to the disposal of active waste.

Lead regulation
The housing corporation's system for regulating the largest housing associations - totalling more than 200 landlords - which because of their size and financial complexity represent the largest risk of significant losses of public money. Each large housing association is assigned a specialist 'lead regulator' to oversee its regulation.

Leader
Councillor elected as the political figurehead of a local authority, usually the head of the largest party. Leaders are chosen either by fellow councillors or, in the case of a directly elected mayor, by the general public.

Leadership centre (NHS)
Body set up under the umbrella of the NHS modernisation agency to identify and promote good leadership behaviour and develop management skills in the NHS. It will work with both clinicians and managers.

Learning difficulty
A term covering people who experience more problems than the general population with activities that involve thinking and understanding.

Learning disability
A term covering people who find activities that involve thinking and understanding difficult and will need additional help and support with their everyday lives. Some people with a learning disability may also have an additional impairment such as a sensory impairment or a physical disability.

Leasehold
The right to live in a home on long-term tenancy, typically lasting for around 100 years. Such homes are usually owned by a freeholder to whom leaseholders have to pay ground rent and service charges. If a number of conditions are met, a leaseholder or leaseholders can buy the freehold - a process known as enfranchisement.

Legacy
Sum of money left to a charity or organisation in someone's will, to be awarded when they die. It is estimated that legacies are worth around £1.2bn to the charity sector a year, four times as much as the income received by charities from the corporate sector.

Legacy promotion campaign
Campaign hosted by the Institute of Fundraising to increase the number of people who leave a charitable bequest in their will. Currently only 13% of wills include a charitable bequest, though 65% of the population are regular charity supporters.

Licensee
Residents of houses or hostels that are not given the full legal rights of a tenant. Many housing association residents with care needs are licensees.

Lifetime homes
A design standard to ensure that a house is accessible and useable throughout a person's life - including if and when they become frail or use a wheelchair.

Listed building
A building of architectural or historical interest placed on a statutory list - currently totalling 360,000 - to help protect it from damaging alteration or demolition. Listings are decided on by the secretary of state for culture in consultation with English Heritage, which also holds the list. There are three grades - grade I relates to buildings of exceptional interest, grade II* denotes particularly important buildings of more than special interest and grade II marks special interest. The government is planning widespread changes to the sytem, which include giving English Heritage responsibility for a super register of buldings and monuments.

Listed building consent
The permission needed to alter a listed building. Consent is only given by local planning authorities after consultation with English Heritage.

Local agenda 21 (LA21)
Local authorities are required to produce an LA21 strategy to show how they will work with their communities to achieve sustainable, environmentally friendly development. A product of the Rio earth summit of 1992.

Local development framework
A document setting out the overall principles for new development in an area that councils will have to produce under proposed changes to the planning system. It will also include more detailed plans for specific places that are set to change, such as regeneration areas. The framework will replace the current system of having both regional and local structure plans.

Local education authority (LEA)
Council department responsible for delivering primary and secondary education. England's 149 LEAs have a duty to improve school performance and tackle failure, pass on schools funding, ensure excluded children are educated and provide enough school places for local children.

Local Government Act 1999
Legislation that introduced the best value service improvement and inspection regime. Placed a duty on councils to continuously improve their services and replaced the previous Conservative government's compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) regime.

Local Government Act 2000
Legislation that introduced directly elected mayors and cabinet-style government, largely scrapping the century-old committee system. Also brought in a new, more permissive legal framework for local government allowing councils to take actions to increase the social, economic or environmental wellbeing of local people.

Local Government Association (LGA)
Organisation that represents around 400 councils in England and Wales. Lobbies on behalf of its members and provides advice on policy.

Local government finance settlement
The annual announcement of how much money councils will receive from Whitehall in the following financial year. Sets out the total amount of central government funding available for all local authorities, and how much each individual council will get.

Local government league table
The government plans to rank all councils into one of four categories - high performing, striving, coasting and poor performing. The best will get more freedom, while the worst will receive more government support and face the possibility of ministerial intervention. Introduced by a white paper in December 2001.

Local government ombudsman
Investigates claims of injustice caused by maladministration in councils. England has three ombudsmen, who deal with different parts of the country. They can only question the way a council has acted, rather than investigating a decision simply because someone disagrees with it.

Local housing company (LHC)
A social landlord registered with the housing corporation, set up to take over former council homes. An LHC is distinguished from a housing association by the high proportion of tenants and councillors on its board. LHCs were introduced in 1996 as a way of making housing transfers more acceptable to councils and tenants.

Local medical committee (LMC)
Statutory representative body for all GPs in a particular area. NHS authorities must consult the LMC on issues ranging from GP terms of service to investigations into professional conduct.

Local strategic partnership (LSP)
Initiative to ensure cooperation between public agencies, voluntary groups and businesses in the regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods.

Long-stay mental hospital
A hospital providing long-term care for people with a mental health problem or a learning disability. Most evolved out of 19th century asylums and were the main form of residential care for these patients until the development of community care in the 1980s.

Lottery distributors
The public bodies that hand out the 'good causes' cash raised by the national lottery - 28p for every £1 spent on lottery games. They include the Big Lottery Fund - now the main distributor for the voluntary sector - the Heritage Lottery Fund, Sport England and others. Charities apply for grants for specific projects or initiatives.

Low cost home ownership (LCHO)
A term to describe a variety of initiatives funded by the Housing Corporation that help people buy or partially buy their own homes. Between 2001 and 2004 around 8,700 households were helped in this way.

Low demand
A term used in housing and regeneration to describe homes that people do not want to live in and that are therefore difficult to let or sell. Often seen as an early warning that an area could suffer from abandonment in the future. The problem is most acute in northern cities where economic decline means there is a surplus of housing.

Magnet hospitals
The magnet accreditation program was developed by the American Nursing Association in the US in the early 1990s with the aim of raising standards of nursing. Hospitals which can demonstrate they comply with a range of standards - such as top class nurse leadership, respect for nurses, nurse involvement in corporate decision-making and so on - are awarded 'magnet' status. This 'magnetism', it is argued, helps recruit and retain nurses, increases staff morale and, according to some research, can lead to better clinical outcomes for patients. The first British hospital to receive magnet status was Rochdale healthcare NHS trust (now Pennine acute hospitals trust) in March 2002.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
MRI scanners are large, cylinder shaped machines that use magnetic and radio waves to produce images of the brain, the spinal cord, the musculoskeletal system, the heart, the breast and other organs to aid in the diagnosis of cancer, brain tumours, heart defects and other medical problems.

Major repairs allowance (MRA)
The main housing subsidy for local authorities, based on the cost of maintaining council homes.

Maria Colwell inquiry
This public inquiry, which published its report in 1974, examined why child protection services failed to prevent seven-year-old Maria from being battered to death by her stepfather in 1973. It led to the creation of area child protection committees, which coordinate the services responsible for ensuring the safety of children at risk - including the police, health, schools and social services. Prior to the Climbié inquiry, it was considered the most significant inquiry of its kind in Britain.