Policies and procedures

Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) conducted an inspection of Heart of Kent Hospice in February 2017. The full report can be found by clicking the logo below. The CQC monitors, inspects, and regulates health and social care services in England and publishes their ratings to help people choose where they receive any care required.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Heart of Kent Hospice is committed to providing skilled and compassionate care in a supportive environment based on mutual respect and trust, which recognises and values the difference of every individual, be they patient, carer, colleague, volunteer or visitor.  Respect is one of our organisational values and is reflected in everything we do.

The hospice will maintain a culture that values meritocracy, openness, fairness and transparency. 

Patients and their families will have fair access to our services according to their needs and when they are in our care will know that they are valued for who they are, that their challenges will be addressed and their wishes respected.  Decisions relating to patients, their families and communities will be based on service-related criteria only and any irrelevant information will not form part of the process.

We will recruit, motivate and develop an outstanding and diverse range of people who work together harmoniously towards achieving our vision.  We aspire to have a culture in which all are appreciated, where talents are fully utilised, difference is harnessed and organisational goals are achieved through the principle of inclusivity. 

No individual will be unjustifiably discriminated against because of, but not exclusively, gender or gender reassignment, race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religious or political beliefs, disability, marital status and civil partnership, social background, family circumstance, sexual orientation, age,  pregnancy and maternity, spent criminal offences  or any other reason.

The Board of Trustees, Chief Executive and Directors have responsibility for ensuring the hospice operates within the legal framework.  However, every individual has a responsibility to treat others with dignity and to prevent discrimination which is in their control to prevent or challenge, and will be responsible for the promotion and advancement of this statement and behaviour.  Actions or words that transgress it will not be tolerated and will be dealt in line with hospice policies.

Safeguarding statement

At Heart of Kent Hospice the safety of our patients, families, colleagues and volunteers is paramount and core to the services we provide.

As a regulated provider of Health and Social Care activities Heart of Kent Hospice ensures we meet the fundamental standards of safety and equality (Care Quality Commission).

The fundamental standard states that hospice service users, their families and carers, including anyone associated with the hospice are protected from abuse and improver treatment. All safeguarding issues are managed by adhering to the adhering to the Kent Safeguarding Boards, The Care Act 2014, The Children Act 1989 and 2004, then as above the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and the legislation around deprivation of liberties.

We formally safeguard people through these steps:

• Mandatory safeguarding training and awareness for all hospice colleagues and volunteers.
• Analysing information we receive to minimise risk to service users accessing our care. Particular attention is paid to any concerns raised around alleged or potential harm, neglect or abuse.
• We also refer serious concerns to the police or local authorities for further investigation.
• We aim to ensure people’s wellbeing is promoted. This means we take views, wishes, feelings and beliefs into consideration when we care for them.
• We regularly discuss findings on safeguarding as part of our Clinical Governance structure
• Heart of Kent Hospice takes action if we surmise care services are unsuitably arranged to ensure service users are kept safe.
• We align ourselves with partners such as local councils, regulators, the police and government departments.

Our safeguarding lead is the Head of Family Support and Living Well and our deputy is the Patient Services Director. Contact us to find out more about our safeguarding procedures by emailing enquiries@hokh.co.uk or calling 01622 792200 ext 222

Assisted dying bill

Reviewed Mar 2026

Heart of Kent Hospice aims for a time when end-of-life care and death is a positively supported experience for all. We are here to optimise quality of life and enable people to live with dignity. We do this through the provision of palliative care, which by definition neither prolongs life nor hastens death.

If the law changes to allow assisted dying, Heart of Kent Hospice will not be involved in the provision of assisted dying to people under our care.

We respect the right of everyone to their own individual viewpoint around assisted dying. The hospice makes no judgement about those who support or request assisted dying and we will continue to offer our support and services to all patients and families who need our care, whatever their viewpoint.

Patient Safety Incident Response Framework 

Heart of Kent Hospice sees the safety of our patients as the most important element of our service. We continuously aim to provide safe, effective care at all times when and where it is needed. We are aware that sometimes in all health and care settings, incidents do occur. All our teams right across our hospice supports an open culture of incident reporting, including the reporting of near misses (a situation that did not cause harm but had the potential to do so), to promote learning and improvements in patient safety practice and organisational processes. 

About PSIRF 

The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) is the new way that healthcare organisations, including the NHS and hospices, look at patient safety incidents. 

PSIRF enables the development and maintenance of more effective patient safety incident response systems. It encourages more compassionate engagement and involvement for those affected by patient safety incidents and gives staff involved support and space for reflection. 

PSIRF helps us to understand how incidents happen, allowing us to learn and improve and, in turn, create a safer care system. 

Nurse Training 

The four key aims of PSIRF are: 

• Compassionate engagement and involvement of those affected by patient safety incidents 
• Application of a range of system-based approaches to learning from patient safety incidents 
• Considered and proportionate responses to patient safety incidents 
• Supportive oversight focused on strengthening response system functioning and improvement. 

Heart of Kent Hospice is currently working on our response to PSIRF NHS process and will upload our Patient Safety Incident Response Plan and Patient Safety Incident Response Plan to this page once completed.  

More information about PSIRF can be found on NHS England’s website.