Jargon

There is SO much jargon in the Local Offer. CAMHS, CAU, Commissioning, Complex needs, Co-production. And it's not going away. But we have to be very careful how we use it. All of these words and acronyms should be explained clearly the first time they are used on a page. And if it's a long page, you might need to explain them again.

Jargon buster

Many Local Offers have a jargon buster. A page (or pages!) dedicated to a list of strange words and acronyms. Here's a jargon buster from Dudley (opens in new tab) (opens in a new tab)

I'm in two minds about them.

1. Making people leave the page they are on so they can understand that page is a very poor experience.
2. When people (and I'm including professionals) hear some jargon in a meeting, they know they have a place to go and check the meaning.

So my advice would be to have a jargon buster (which is jargon in itself, but people seem familiar with it). But don't rely on it at all. Explain everything on the page.

Also, in the jargon buster, list acronyms twice. For example

• CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) - These services assess and treat children and young people up to the age of 17 with emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties.
• Child and mental health service (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) -These services assess and treat children and young people up to the age of 17 with emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties.

Finally, make sure there is a link to the jargon buster on the Local Offer home page.

Tooltips

This is where you have a link on a word which opens a tooltip when the mouse hovers.

You can see that the link is shown by a dotted underline, so it's clear visually that it is not a normal link. Unfortunately, this one only works on hover, so people who do not use a mouse cannot access it. Unless you can get your tech team to make it work through the keyboard, please do not use them.

📝How have you dealt with jargon in your Local Offer? Tell us about it in the discussion.