The care home glossary
Plain-English definitions of the regulations, records, and acronyms UK care homes work with every day. Written to be accurate and useful, with links to the guidance behind each term.
16 terms and counting.
Compliance & regulation
CQCCare Quality Commission
The independent regulator of health and adult social care in England, which registers, monitors, inspects, and rates services including care homes.
Read definitionDoLSDeprivation of Liberty Safeguards
The legal process, part of the Mental Capacity Act, for authorising arrangements that deprive a person in a care home or hospital of their liberty in their best interests.
Read definitionKLOEKey Lines of Enquiry
The standard questions the CQC previously used under each key question to guide inspections, now largely replaced by the quality statements of the Single Assessment Framework.
Read definitionMental Capacity ActMental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA)
The law that governs decision-making for adults in England and Wales who may lack the capacity to make a particular decision for themselves.
Read definitionSafeguarding
The duty to protect adults at risk from abuse, harm, and neglect, set out for England in the Care Act 2014 and local safeguarding procedures.
Read definitionSingle Assessment FrameworkCQC Single Assessment Framework (SAF)
The approach the CQC uses to assess quality across all the services it regulates, built around quality statements under the five key questions.
Read definitionMedication
Controlled drugs
Medicines subject to additional legal controls under the Misuse of Drugs legislation, requiring secure storage, a controlled drugs register, and, in many homes, witnessed administration.
Read definitioneMARElectronic Medication Administration Record
A digital version of the medication administration record, replacing the paper MAR chart with an on-screen record of every dose given, refused, or missed.
Read definitionMAR chartMedication Administration Record
The record of the medicines prescribed for a resident and every administration against them, historically kept on paper and increasingly kept electronically.
Read definitionPRN medicationpro re nata (Latin for "as the situation arises")
Medicine given only when needed rather than on a fixed schedule, for example pain relief, supported by a written protocol describing when and how much to give.
Read definitionCare planning
Care plan
A working document that records a resident's assessed needs and exactly how the home will meet them, reviewed and updated as things change.
Read definitionPerson-centred care
Care that is shaped around the individual's needs, preferences, history, and goals, rather than around a fixed routine.
Read definitionData & security
Audit trail
A chronological, tamper-evident record of who did what and when within a system, used to demonstrate accountability and reconstruct events.
Read definitionDSCRDigital Social Care Records
An NHS England programme encouraging adult social care providers to move from paper to digital care record systems that meet a defined set of standards.
Read definitionDSPTData Security and Protection Toolkit
An annual online self-assessment published by NHS England that organisations complete to show they meet the National Data Guardian's data security standards.
Read definitionUK GDPRUK General Data Protection Regulation
The UK's data protection law, working alongside the Data Protection Act 2018, which governs how organisations handle personal data including sensitive health data.
Read definitionSoftware built around these standards
Revitaco is care home management software designed to help you evidence CQC compliance, manage medicines, and keep person-centred records. See how it fits your home.