Glossary
Every acronym and piece of shorthand the portal uses, in one alphabetical index. Each term is explained in plain English so nobody has to guess.
Agent colleague
One of the nine reading agents
One of the nine agent colleagues that read the outside world on a set cadence and draft for a named human. They are colleagues, not bots and not tools. They read, draft and surface. They do not decide.
Annual envelope
Annual investment envelope
The total yearly cost of running the Priority-40 campaign plus the intake programme. £322,800 for 2026. Set once a year. Covers the AI mechanism, the Herald content pipeline, the Marketing team overhead and intake operations.
CIP
Cost Improvement Programme
The annual savings target every NHS trust must deliver.
CMPC
Cheshire and Merseyside Provider Collaborative
NHS provider collaborative covering the Cheshire and Merseyside region. Trusts plan and buy together across the patch.
Commercial tier
Priority-40, Watchlist and Out of scope bands
The rule that separates the 40 trusts worked now (Priority-40, score 62 or above) from every in-house trust below the 62 boundary (Watchlist, around sixty) and the trusts that fail an exclusion rule (Out of scope, around one hundred and nine).
See MethodologyComposite score
The five factor weighted priority score
One number out of 100 built from financial pressure at 30 percent, estates and PLACE at 25 percent, governance trigger at 20 percent, relationship warmth at 15 percent and group leverage at 10 percent. A score of 62 or above puts an in-house acute trust on Priority-40.
See MethodologyCQC
Care Quality Commission
The regulator for health and social care in England.
DoE
Director of Estates
Director of Estates. Also written Chief Estates Officer.
DoF
Director of Finance
Director of Finance. Also written CFO.
DoOps
Director of Operations
Director of Operations. Also written COO.
Envoy verification
Board page check on a named individual
The check the Envoy agent colleague runs on every named individual. The name, post and start date are read from a fetched trust board page and the source link is stored with the row.
Evidence tier
Tier 1 and Tier 2 evidence
The rule that separates publicly citable information (Tier 1) from internal working intelligence (Tier 2).
See MethodologyFirst-outsourcing
A trust outsourcing soft-FM for the first time
A trust that still runs soft-FM in-house and would be moving to a governed external provider for the first time. Every Priority-40 trust is a first-outsourcing candidate, not a rebid.
Governed soft-FM
Soft-FM delivered under published standards and audit
Soft facilities management delivered against published standards, named accountability and an auditable evidence trail. It is the Sodexo model the Priority-40 case is built on.
Hard-FM
Hard facilities management
Building services. Heating, ventilation, lifts, medical gas, planned and reactive maintenance. Distinct from soft-FM.
HFMA channel
Healthcare Financial Management Association route
The Healthcare Financial Management Association route into finance directors. Used for briefings, roundtables and papers aimed at Chief Finance Officers rather than estates leads.
Human function
One of the seven accountable human roles
One of the seven named human functions that authenticate the work. Account Director, Bid Director, Insight Lead, Growth Marketing Lead, Content Lead, Data and Analytics Lead and Programme Lead.
NED
Non-Executive Director
Board role. Brings independent challenge to the trust board.
ODS
Organisation Data Service
The NHS master list of every provider and the codes that identify them.
Out of scope
Trusts that fail an exclusion rule
Around 109 English NHS trusts that fail one of three exclusion rules. Already outsourced, held by competitor, non-acute. Score not relevant. Rule failure is the reason. Live at /portal/out-of-scope.
PLACE
Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment
Annual NHS assessment of cleanliness, food, privacy and dignity, condition, appearance and maintenance and dementia and disability friendliness. Published trust by trust.
PLACE deep dive
Line by line read of a PLACE return
A line by line read of a trust PLACE return covering cleanliness, food, privacy and condition. It turns one headline score into the specific soft-FM gaps a Sodexo bid can answer.
Priority-40
The Sodexo Priority-40 register
The forty NHS trusts scoring 62 or above on the composite score. Top forty in the in-house pool of around one hundred trusts. First outsourcing candidates Sodexo can win.
See MethodologySID
Senior Independent Director
Board role. The independent voice a Chair is held to account by.
Soft-FM
Soft facilities management
The people-facing services that keep a hospital running. Cleaning, catering, portering, waste, linen, security, front-of-house and cash-office. Distinct from hard-FM, which is the building services.
TIER 1 GOVERNED
Publicly citable evidence
Evidence taken from a published source that can be cited outside Sodexo. Board papers, annual reports, PLACE returns and CQC reports. Anything on a Tier 1 chip can go into a bid or a campaign.
See MethodologyTIER 2 WORKING
Internal working intelligence
Internal working intelligence held for judgement only. Colleague observation, inferred warmth and unverified signal. It never leaves Sodexo and never appears in an export.
See MethodologyTUPE
Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations
UK law that protects employees when a service they deliver is outsourced or transferred. Central to any first-outsourcing conversation.
Warmth 0. Warmth 1. Warmth 2
Cold, warm and hot relationship states
The three relationship states on the register. Warmth 0 is Cold with a red badge and no live route in. Warmth 1 is Warm with an amber badge and a credible introduction path. Warmth 2 is Hot with a green badge and an active named conversation.
Watchlist
Every in-house trust below the 62 boundary
Every in-house English NHS trust below the 62 boundary on the composite score. Around sixty trusts. First outsourcing candidates one score bump from Priority-40. Live at /portal/watchlist.
See MethodologyTerms are added as the portal grows. Steward audits the glossary each quarter.