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Telemedicine
The use of communication systems such as video and computers to provide remote diagnosis and healthcare, allowing more care to be provided in the community or at home.
Big issue: the internet and information technology
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Useful link: Telemedicine Information Service
Useful link: UK e-Health Association Thinktank
Colloquial term which has fallen into official use to denote a research organisation that does pieces of work on specific issues, sometimes for government and other organisations, to promote specific aims and interests. The Labour government is very fond of thinktanks, and some are particularly influential at Whitehall. Examples of thinktanks include Demos, which does work on poverty and social exclusion, and Catalyst, which looks at equality and redistribution of wealth.
Useful link: directory of UK thinktanks Third sector
Generic collective name for charity, voluntary, non government and campaigning organisations.
See also: non government organisation, National Council for Voluntary Organisations TimeBank
National organisation promoting volunteering and the giving of time as a donation to organisations. It provides resources for organisations, as well as running a web-based service matching time-givers' skills to organisations. In the first year since its launch in 2000, 18,000 individuals registered with TimeBank.
See also: volunteer
Big issue: volunteering
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Useful link: about TimeBank Trades Union Congress (TUC)
The TUC is an umbrella group for more than 70 unions. It lobbies the government on their behalf as well as supporting and arbitrating between them.
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Useful link: TUC Trawling
This term refers to a controversial method used by the police to investigate allegations of abuse, usually in children's homes. Senior officers have described trawling operations as the reverse of normal police methods. Instead of starting from a crime and setting out to find the criminal, the trawling procedure starts with the suspect (or an allegation) and then attempts to find the crime. Police make unsolicited approaches to former care home residents and, through interviewing them, uncover more evidence against the original suspect or other care workers. Trawling operations have also been used to identify suspected internet paedophiles, with the police obtaining records of what websites and chatrooms they visit from internet service providers.
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Big issue: social care staff
Useful link: home affairs select committee - the conduct of investigations into past cases of abuse in children's homes (pdf) Triage
A process used in hospitals' emergency departments for assessing the relative needs of patients when deciding which should be given priority for treatment. The term is sometimes used in the distribution of limited resources for charitable aid and in the allocation of homes for homeless people.
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Useful link: Department of Health - planning for major incidents Trickle transfer
The sell-off of council homes to housing associations as each home becomes vacant. Unlike the more usual method of transferring homes to housing associations in one go after a positive ballot from tenants.
Big issue: housing transfers
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Useful link: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - transfer guidance 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.
See also: Trustee Act 2000
See also: charitable purpose
Big issue: charity management
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Useful link: charity commission guide for trustees Trustee Act 2000
Introduced in 2001, the act imposes conditions of duty on trustees to manage charity money as if it was their own. Also governs the payment of fees and expenses to trustees.
See also: trustee
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Useful link: Trustee Act 2000 Tupe
The transfer of undertakings (protection of employment) regulations 1981, pronounced "too-pee", which protects workers' terms and conditions when the employer they work for changes. Usually relates to conditions of workers when their jobs are privatised or transferred to the private sector.
Big issue: the future for public services
Useful link: Unison Tupe pages Two-tier local government
A system under which county and district councils work together to deliver the full range of local government services. The smaller district councils tackle issues such as housing and tourism, while their larger county council delivers in areas such as education and social services.
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Useful link: Durham county council - what is local government? Two-tier workforce
Created when a private company takes over the running of a public service. Workers previously employed in the public sector have their terms and conditions protected by law but new joiners currently have no such defence. An agreement in February 2003 between the government and unions seeks to abolish aspects of the two-tier service in local government by guaranteeing wages and conditions "no less favourable" than the public sector for new staff hired by contractors. But it does not apply to staff who have already been hired on lower wages, or to staff in the NHS or the civil service.
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Useful link: Unison - positively public (pdf)
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