Jargon Buster

There is often a tendency to use Jargon, Acronyms and Abbreviations to communicate. This is fine for those who know the terminology but often leaves other feeling left out or simply not understanding what is being communicated.

In an effort to open communication to a wider audience we have produced this Jargon Buster to explain some of the terms often used.

Accountability - Obligation to ensure that work has been conducted in compliance with agreed rules or standards.
Accountable Body - The accountable body for East Sussex ChangeUp is Action in rural Sussex. See Accountability.
Aim (Overall) - The overall aim is the same as the Mission. 
Aims (Specific) - Particular changes or differences the project or organisation plans to bring about for its users. 
Audit - Independent, objective assurance activity.
Baseline - Information about the situation a project is trying to affect, showing what it is like before the work commenced. 
Benchmark - A standard of achievement that a project has already achieved, which it can compare with other achievements of its own or of other projects. 
Benchmarking - Systematic comparison of performance and processes e.g.: measuring what you do comparing your organisation to others; identifying gaps in performance - 'fail' points where the expectations of internal or external customers are not met; looking for new ways of reducing those gaps by learning from others; putting the new ideas into practice; reviewing the benefits of what you have done.
Beneficiary - Anyone who might benefit from the activity of an organisation. Could, for instance, be receiving advice, care or financial support.
BME - Black and Minority Ethnic.
BRM - Black and other Racial Minorities.
Capacitybuilders - Capacitybuilders were set up in April 2006 to take over management of the ChangeUp programme and to work with other funders to develop strategies and influence policy on building the capacity of the third sector. ChangeUp is managed at arms-length from government by Capacitybuilders.
Capacity Building - Empowering activity that strengthens the ability of VCOs to build their structures, systems, people, and skills so that they are better able to: define and achieve their objectives; engage in consultation and planning; manage projects; take part in partnerships, social enterprise and service delivery.
ChangeUp - ChangeUp is about strengthening the support and assistance available to voluntary and community organisations. The ChangeUp framework was developed in partnership with the voluntary and community sector and focuses on improving capacity building and infrastructurewithin the sector. The ChangeUp programme is managed by Capacitybuilders, an agency at arms length to government, led by a board of sector experts.
ChangeUp Consortium - The East Sussex ChangeUp Consortium comprises the principal infrastructure bodies that serve frontline organisations either at a locality level or pan East Sussex including those who have a specific and specialist function by means of reach into a particular community of interest.
Co-financing - Method by which ESF funds are delivered in England, where European funds are matched with UK governments funds and administered by government agencies, typically the Learning and Skills Council or Jobcentre Plus.
Commissioning - The process by which the needs of the local population are identified, priorities set, and then appropriate services are purchase and evaluated.
Community Accountancy - Many charities and voluntary organisations do not have the financial resources to engage professional accountants to advise them and therefore they have struggled through the maze of charity law and charity accounting and a few have made it to the other side. Some Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) have recognised that their members have been struggling to comply with all these charity regulations and have gained funding to employ an accountant to work specifically in this sector. Some community accountancy services have been set up by like-minded accountants that wish to serve this sector and gain much job satisfaction, this has come before the desire for financial gain. But in all cases these accountants are employed by a charitable organisation and their clients are charities, voluntary or not-for-profit organisations.
Community Empowerment Network (CEN) - Groupings of VCFS organisations providing a link between the Local Strategic Partnership and the wider community.
Compact - An agreement between the voluntary and community sector and the public sector regarding how they should work together.
Consortium - A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal.
Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) - A voluntary organisation which is set up, owned and run by local groups to support, promote and develop local voluntary and community action. CVS support their members by providing them with a range of services and by acting as a voice for the local voluntary, community and faith sector.
Cost-effectiveness - Comparison of costs and results.
Delivery Plan - A plan to set out what a project or programme intends to achieve, when, where and at what cost.
Destination 2014 - The Destination 2014 document is Capacitybuilders strategic framework reflecting a new way forward for the ChangeUp programme. The draft document received feedback from widespread consultation with the voluntary and community sector. After reformulation it was launched on 3 July 2007at Capacitybuilders Annual Conference.
Effectiveness - Extent to which objectives are achieved.
Efficiency Measure - of how economically resources are converted to results.
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) - European Commission fund predominantly for capital projects.
European Social Fund (ESF) - European Commission fund for revenue projects, predominantly around employment and workforce development.
Evaluation - Using information from monitoring and elsewhere to make judgments on the performance of an organisation or project. 
First Tier Organisation - See Frontline Organisations.
Frontline Organisations - VCFS organisations working directly with the public, or particular target groups or communities.
Generic Infrastructure Organisations - Organisations which support all frontline VCFS organisations in a particular geographical area. See also Specialist Infrastructure Organisations.
Government Offices - There are nine Government Office regions which oversee local renewal strategies, administer funding and join up Government neighbourhood renewal policy.
Governance - The systems and processes concerned with ensuring the overall direction, effectiveness, supervision and accountability of an organisation.
Hubs - An approach promoted by government's ChangeUp capacity building/infrastructure framework - the development of hubs of expertise (and facilities), locally regionally or nationally, to support the sector.
ICT - Information and Communications Technology e.g. computer hardware and software, connections to the internet etc., intended to fulfil information processing and communications functions.
Indicator - Measure of achievement. See also Performance Indicator.
Infrastructure - The physical facilities, structures, systems, relationships, people, knowledge and skills that exist to support and develop, coordinate, represent and promote front line organisations, thus enabling them to deliver their missions more effectively. ChangeUp definition of infrastructure organisations: "voluntary and community organisations whose primary purpose is the provision of infrastructure functions (support and development, co-ordination, representation and promotion) to frontline voluntary and community organisations. They are sometimes called umbrella, second tier or intermediary organisations." ChangeUp, August 2004.
Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP) - Produced by East Sussex ChangeUp published in May 2005. This document sets out the priorities for investment for the consortium.  An IIP Update was published in June 2006.
Infrastructure Organisations - Often called 'Second tier' or ‘Umbrella' organisations, they support frontline VCS organisations. See also Support Organisations.
Learning and Skills Council (LSC) - The Learning and Skills Council is responsible for all post-16 education and training. It works alongside the Employment Service, the Small Business Service, Connexions, the National Training Organisations, further education and sixth form colleges, and representatives of community groups, to understand, define and then meet training and education needs. There are 47 LSCs across the country.
Local Area Agreement (LAA) - Local Area Agreements are a programme from the ODPM to simplify the number of funding streams from central government. By focussing on a core set of outcomes, an area has much greater freedom to spend on local priorities.
Milestone - A well-defined and significant step towards achieving a target, output, outcome or impact, allowing one to track progress.
Monitoring - Collecting and recording information in a routine and systematic way to check progress against plans and enable evaluation. 
Mission - Same as Overall Aim. The broad effect the organisation or project wants to have, why it exists. A summary of the overall difference it wants to make. 
National Support Services - New name for the ChangeUp National Hubs.
Objectives - The areas of activity or overall practical steps a project or organisation plans to accomplish its aims. 
Objective 1 - Status given to Merseyside by European Commission for the period 2000-2006. This meant that the sub-region qualified for the highest level of European funding. From 2007 Merseyside no longer qualifies for Objective 1.
Outcomes - The changes, benefits, learning or other effects that result from what the project or organisation makes, offers or provides. 
Outputs - The products, services or facilities a project or organisation offers or provides to its users. 
Organisational Development - Development and reinforcement of organisational strategies, structures and processes for improving an organisation's effectiveness.
Performance - The extent to which a VCFS organisation achieves its mission and furthers its cause.
Performance Improvement - Achieving one's mission more effectively, achieving better outcomes, and becoming a better quality organisation. Performance Indicator - Measure of result/s relative to what was planned. See also Indicator.
Project - A particular service or a whole organisation (more frequently used of smaller organisations). 
Programme - A co-ordinated series of projects or one complex project with multiple co-ordinated services.
Quality - Learning about what you are doing well and doing it better; finding out what you may need to change to make sure you meet the needs of your users more effectively.
Qualitative Information - Information about the nature of the thing someone is doing, providing or achieving. 
Quantitative - Information Information about the number of things someone is doing, providing or achieving, or the length of those things, or the number of times they happen. 
Resources - The things a project or organisation draws on to carry out its activities. These include concrete things such as people, equipment, money and services you need. It also includes invisible things such as time, morale and knowledge.
Risk Analysis - Systematic assessment of the threats or vulnerabilities which may affect any aspect of VCFS organisations business, including the likelihood of occurrence, potential severity of impact and mitigation measures needed.
Second Tier Organisations - See Infrastructure Organisations.
Service Level Agreement (SLA) - An agreement between a contractor  and a service provider (e.g. VCFS organisation) setting out the type of service to be provided, how it is to be provided and so on.
Social Capital - The degree of social cohesion in communities. Refers to processes between people that establish networks, norms and social trust, and facilitate co-ordination and co-operation for mutual benefit.
Social Enterprise - A business with primarily social objectives. Surpluses are re-invested for the purpose in the business or in the community, rather than distributed to shareholders. Social Enterprises can encompass everything from mutuals, employee-owned businesses, private companies or co-operatives.
Social Entrepreneurs - The equivalent of business entrepreneurs, but operating in the social, not for profit sector. They aim to seek new and innovative solutions to social problems.
Social Exclusion - When people or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and family breakdown.
Specialist Infrastructure Organisations - Organisations which either support the organisations in a particular sub-sector or offer a particular area of expertise. See also Generic Infrastructure Organisations.
Stakeholders - People with an interest in the organisation. Includes internal stakeholders such as staff, volunteers, or management committee members, as well as external stakeholders such as users, funders etc.
Strategy - A detailed plan for achieving success.
Sub-sectors - Sub-sectors are "groupings" of organisations with a shared theme or specialism, for example older people, disability and working with offenders.
Support Organisations - Organisations that provide information, facilities and other kinds of support to help third sector organisations to become stronger. See also Infrastructure Organisations.
Sustainability - Continuation of benefits after major assistance ends. The probability of longer-term benefits.
Target - A defined level of achievement, which a project sets itself to achieve in a specific period of time. 
Third Sector - The Government defines the third sector as non-governmental organisations that are value driven and which principally reinvest their surpluses to further social, environmental or cultural objectives. It includes voluntary and community organisations, charities, social enterprises, cooperatives and mutuals. We also include housing associations within the third sector.
Third Tier Organisation - An infrastructure organisation is one which supports other infrastructure (or ‘second tier') organisations.
Transparency - Quality of being open, straightforward, accountable etc.
Triangulation - Use of three or more sources or types of information to verify assessment.
Trustee - A member of the governing board of a charity, which is legally responsible for overall management and decision-making. Trustees are obliged to act in the best interests of the charity, to make sure it sticks to its charitable purposes. Can be personally liable for the under performance or illegal acts of a charity.
Umbrella Organisations - Can refer either to membership bodies or federations, or more loosely to infrastructure bodies.
VCFS - Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector.
VCS - Voluntary and Community Sector.
Vision - The ideal state a project or organisation wants the world to be in. What the world will look like if the project or organisation is successful in achieving its mission and aims. 
Volunteering - The definition of volunteering used in the 1997 National Survey of Volunteering is: "any activity which involves spending time, unpaid, doing something which aims to benefit someone (individuals or groups) other than or in addition to close relatives, or to benefit the environment."
Volunteer Centre (VC) - Volunteer Centres otherwise known as Volunteer Development Agencies (VDAs) provide support at a local level for individual volunteers and volunteer involving organisations.
Workforce Development - The process of developing the skills and knowledge of paid staff, volunteers and trustees and board members, underpinned by good management and good employment practice. It also includes work to attract new people to work in the sector so it can flourish and grow.