When we talk about improving care, words like "quality", "improvement", "evaluation", and "co-production" come up a lot. But these words can mean different things to different people even when they work in the same team. Without a shared unknow understanding, it can be harder to collaborate, make decisions, or communicate clearly.
That is why the South East London (SEL) Improvement Collaborative created a shared glossary of terms. This is the Collaborative’s first co-produced resource, a practical tool designed to help colleagues across health and care settings, ranging from clinical staff and managers to patient partners, speak the same language when working together on improvement.
The SEL Improvement Collaborative was set up in 2023. It brings together partners from across health and care to shape common principles for improvement, strengthen collaboration, and set joined-up priorities for South East London.
The glossary offers clear, accessible definitions of commonly used terms in quality and improvement. It includes terminologies such as “quality assurance”, “quality improvement”, “culture of improvement”, “lived experience”, “audit”, and “co-production.
You can view the glossary on this link here.
How the glossary was developed
This glossary was facilitated by King’s Improvement Science (KIS) as part of its role in supporting learning and evaluation across the system. It was co-produced by the members of the SEL Improvement Collaborative, including NHS provider trusts, the Integrated Care Board (ICB), primary care leads and KIS.
Public contributors from the KIS Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group played an active role in shaping the glossary. They helped ensure that the definitions were understandable and relevant to a wide audience, not just professionals.
To build the glossary, the group reviewed trusted sources such as NHS England, NIHR, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. They then worked together to agree on how these terms should be understood in the context of local work across South East London.
Why this work is important
The glossary may seem like a small step – just a list of definitions. But in a large, complex system like the NHS, a shared language is powerful.
Having agreed definitions helps people from different backgrounds, roles and organisations to:
- Understand each other more easily
- Work together with more clarity and trust
- Avoid misunderstandings that slow progress
- Build a stronger foundation for system-wide collaboration
The glossary also supports one of the Collaborative’s longer-term goals: developing a shared Quality Management System (QMS) for South East London.
What people involved had to say
“If you can’t understand each other, then it is very difficult to collaborate.”
Katie Richards, a researcher formerly with King’s Improvement Science who led the initial development of the glossary, reflected on its origins and impact:
“The need for the glossary emerged during the Collaborative meetings, where people would sometimes use the same term to talk about different things. That stifles collaborative working. There was also awareness of the need to make sure we had a shared understanding of very basic terms like ‘quality’. Many of these don’t have a single universal meaning, so developing a shared understanding was critical.”
“I drafted the first version using definitions already developed by others, then gathered feedback from the Collaborative and public contributors to shape and refine it. While misunderstandings are always going to happen, the glossary and the process of making it, were key steps in improving how we work together.”
“For others working in improvement, this can offer a helpful reference point, though they may still need to adapt it for their own context. The term that stood out most to me was culture of improvement — it was one of the hardest to pin down.”
Christoforos Pavlakis, a member of the King’s Improvement Science Public Involvement group, emphasised the importance of shared understanding and the role of lived experience:
“Given the complexity of challenges in health care, and the lack of a shared vocabulary, this glossary helps create a basis of common understanding. It also helps us look at how context affects improvement, like where a project takes place, project-specific and organisational factors, and how teams work together.”
“As public contributors, we brought in lived experience to guide this process. We explored how change happens across different levels, including intra- and inter-organisational settings. Meaningful involvement of lay members in improvement work doesn’t just strengthen projects; it can also build teamwork, shared leadership, habits for learning, and better problem-solving.”
“Interaction across quality improvement teams may generate peer recognition and opportunities for learning and capacity building.”
Laura Gudefin, associate director - Centre for Innovation, Transformation and Improvement (CITI) at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, spoke about the glossary’s practical use:
“The glossary is a really useful resource. We’ve used it in our training, and it’s helpful to have something that’s been developed and endorsed by colleagues across the SEL system.”
Using the glossary
We hope this glossary will be helpful to teams across South East London and beyond.
Please take a look, share it with your colleagues, and let us know what you think. We welcome feedback and ideas for how it could be improved in future.
If you would like to learn more about the SEL Improvement Collaborative, visit the project page on our website.
About the author
Sapna Kurade is a project officer at King’s Improvement Science. She works on the South East London Improvement Collaborative and the South London Evaluation Advice Clinic. She is also a project manager with the South West London Integrated Care Board on the Research Support Network and Research Engagement Network project.
Sapna’s work reflects what she cares about most in public health: building strong partnerships across sectors, supporting people doing meaningful work, and creating space for reflection and learning. Her aim is to help improve health and reduce health inequalities.
