Common Terms Explained

This page contains explanations of common terms used in the handbook

Female professionals in training session

Common terms explained

Throughout the parent carer handbook we use some common terms.  We’ve listed these below. 

Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)– At Contact we use the words ‘disabled children’ and ‘children with additional needs.’  We use these terms for many reasons, but especially to ensure we are inclusive and welcoming to those families with or without a diagnosis and to ensure our language is as applicable as possible across the UK.   In this parent carer forum handbook we will use the term ‘special educational needs and disability’ (SEND).  The forum handbook is primarily for forums in receipt of the Department for Education grant in England where the term ‘SEND’ is used.

Parent Carer Forum – We mean the parent carer forum in receipt of the Department for Education , or parent carers accessing the Department for Education Parent Participation grant. 

Parent carer – We mean anyone who has parental responsibility for a child or young person aged 0-25 with special educational needs and disabilities .  This includes foster parents, grand parents,adoptive parents, kinship parents, etc.

Leadership of your forum/leadership roles – when we talk about the leadership of your forum we mean the people legally responsible for the running of the forum.  Depending on your legal structure (if you have one), and charity status, these people may be called trustees, directors, steering group members, or committee members.

Department for Education grant – This is the grant forums access to develop and enhance parent participation in their local area. You can read more about this grant here.

Glossary

Conditions of Grant The conditions the forum or their grant-holding organisation must abide by to receive the grant.

Steering group/Committee/Trustee/Director – Generally, we refer to committee and steering group as the people with responsibility for the forum. Some legal structures mean those with responsibility are referred to as trustees or directors.  When we talk about committee/steering group/trustee/director we mean those legally responsible for leading the forum.

(HM Government) Code of Conduct – A standard Government code of conduct for all recipients of government grants.

Grant applicant – The representative of the forum, or their host organisation, if the forum is not the applicant, that has applied for the parent carer participation grant.

Safeguarding policy – The forum and, or, its host organisation needs to have policies to protect vulnerable adults and children and a set procedure to follow if there are any concerns. If you don’t have one, there is a link to a recent online learning session that can help you to develop one.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) – Background checks to ensure someone’s suitability to work or volunteer for the forum. This used to be known as a CRB check.

Disclosure – An act of making information known.

General Data Protection Regulations – The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) came into effect on 25th May 2018. They provide a legal framework for keeping everyone’s personal data safe by requiring companies to have robust processes in place for handling and storing personal information. It also protects individuals from organisations contacting them without express permission.

Privacy notice/policy – A privacy policy is a statement or legal document that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client’s data.

Information Commissioners’ Office – The Information Commissioners’ Office (ICO) upholds information (data) rights in the public interest, promoting openness of public bodies, and data privacy for individuals. ICO is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.

Proof(s) of expenditure (POE) – A proof of purchase or of the forum buying goods or services. Forums need to keep, file, and store these safely to keep an accurate running total of their grant spend, and against each of their budget headings. Some forums must submit their full POEs with their grant monitoring.

Community Matters – As part of Contact’s core offer to forums, forums can sign up for a complimentary subscription to Community Matters, which includes access to their Advice and Information Service. This service provides access to a comprehensive Knowledge bank of Information, with over 150 information sheets and template documents. To sign up for please email Heather on [email protected] with your forum’s name and contact details.

CIC – As part of Contact’s core offer to forums, 8 members of the forum’s steering group or committee can access Counselling in Companies. CIC offer wellbeing resources, access to counselling, legal and family helplines and more. For further information on how to access this service, speak to your Parent Carer Participation Advisor.

CIC – A community interest company (or CIC) is a special form of non-charitable limited company. It exists primarily to benefit a community or with a view to pursuing a social purpose, rather than to make a profit for shareholders.

Equality Act 2010 – The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people with protected characteristics from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.

Protected Characteristic – It is against the law to discriminate against someone because of their protected characteristics, which are: 

Civil debt – A civil debt results from a lawsuit where in a binding agreement the debtor agrees to pay a set amount of money to the creditor. If the debtor fails to pay the debt, the creditor has several options to take to recover it.

Clawback – An act of retrieving money that has already paid out.

Material – This is a legal term. An item of evidence is said to be material if it has some logical connection to a fact or of consequence to the outcome of a case.

Grant monitoring process – As part of the grant conditions, all recipients of the parent carer participation grant must complete a grant monitoring form. This outlines what activities they carried out with the grant; the outputs and outcomes (impact, or the ‘so what?’) achieved. It should also demonstrate that they used the money effectively and that there was value for money.

Financial irregularity – This is where someone may give false information (lie) about information related to financial transactions (payments/purchases). This includes fraud/misuses of grant funds/misuses of assets (such as computer equipment or savings) creating false invoices, and other breaking of laws or regulations.

Due diligence – Doing careful checks and research before making an important decision.

Breach – Means literally ‘to break’, in this respect to break an agreement or promise

Written notice – An official letter informing someone of something. Email is an accepted form of written notice.

Non-compliance – Failure to act in accordance with a wish, command, or agreement.

Prosecution – The conducting of legal proceedings against someone in respect of a criminal charge.

Action Fraud – Action Fraud provides a central point of contact for information about fraud and financially motivated crime. Reports taken are passed to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau

Intellectual Property Rights – Intellectual property rights are the rights persons have over the creations of their minds such as brand names or designs. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of their creation for a certain period.

Senior Officer – A member of senior management in any organisation such as chief executive officer, director, assistant director. In the case of a forum, it could be an officer such as chair, secretary, treasurer, or director.

Financial Control Policy – A set of rules and procedures that the forum follows to manage its money effectively. It helps to prevent mistakes and protect against fraud or the misuse of funds. A good financial control policy helps to ensure money is spent wisely and records are accurate.

Securely wiped – Secure delete is a process of data deletion that ensures that the deleted file cannot be retrieved. This process is vital for protecting sensitive data properly. It removes the risk of outsiders mining discarded storage hardware for data. There are many ways to secure delete. Several software applications can claim to have this functionality.

Party-political activity – Any activity in support of or in connection with any campaign for elective office or any political organisation.

Campaigning or lobbying – Raising awareness and encouraging people to take action to bring about change. Campaiging often involves getting the public, media and decision-makers to support an issue. A series of planned and integrated activities within a set timescale, that motivate action and support for a change in national/local government policy, business practice and/or individual behaviours to achieve specific objective(s).

Gifts – A gift is property, money, or assets that one person (or organisation) gives to another while receiving nothing, or less than fair market value, in return. Forums cannot gift more than £25 of goods or vouchers to one individual in any grant year.

Underspend – This is the amount of grant funds forums do not spend within the financial year of the grant award. Forums cannot carry forward underspend into the next financial year. Instead, it will be deducted from the following year’s grant award or reclaimed.

Conflict of interest – When someone’s relationships, personal interests or connections could, or could be seen to, prevent them acting in the best interest of the forum.