The word ‘kindness’ evokes mixed feelings in the modern world. To begin this exploration of its importance and the value of making it central to improving health and social care, it is important to bring into focus what it is we are discussing. This means attempting a definition. More importantly, it means rescuing the concept (and what it indicates) from the grip of a range of social and cultural forces that obscure, warp and denigrate what kindness is, marginalise it in the debate about what matters, and make it more difficult to be kind.

As an adjective, kind means being of a sympathetic, helpful or forbearing nature and, importantly for our argument, being inclined to act to bring pleasure or relief. It is important to keep the word rooted in its deeper meanings, though. It can easily become a mere synonym for individual acts of generosity, sentiment and affection, for a general, fuzzy ‘kindliness’.