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01  Voice · Sector leader · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking

Kenny Steele: no photograph is held, so the Highland Hospice monogram is shown instead.
Sector leader

Kenny Steele

Chief Executive, Highland Hospice

Press coverage by month · bar height shows relative volume
Feb 2026MarAprMayJuneJulyAugSeptOctNovto date
2

Quoted in the press, across 2 topics since 9 Feb 2026

INVERNESS
OfficeHighland Hospice, Inverness, IV3 5SBHighland Hospice is based in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire: the organisation’s base, not a personal address.

02  Quoted on · 2 of 29 topics

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Kenny Steele: key facts

Kind of voice
Sector leader
Role
Chief Executive
Organisation
Highland Hospice
Organisation based in
Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire
Quoted on
Hospital discharge / bed-blocking, Care home closures & provider failure
Press coverage
Quoted in the press
Most recently quoted
13 Sept 2026
First quoted
9 Feb 2026

03  Profile

Who Kenny Steele is

Kenny Steele is chief executive of Highland Hospice, an independent hospice based in Inverness. The charity is registered with the Scottish charity regulator (OSCR) and provides services free of charge to people in the Highlands.

He has argued that everything possible should be done to enable end-of-life care at home, and he has pointed to the potential savings from reducing hospital use. Highland Hospice leads the End of Life Care Together partnership with NHS Highland. Under that partnership, Highland Hospice says it has used charitable funding to pilot home-based end-of-life care, and it wants to extend the service across the Highlands.

He has also been quoted on partnership working in social care and on volunteer-supported medical deliveries across remote Highland communities.

Notable achievements

  1. 01

    Highland Hospice leads the End of Life Care Together partnership with NHS Highland. Highland Hospice estimates its work has generated savings of nearly £4m, and the Scottish Health Secretary agreed to visit it. Source ↗

  2. 02

    Highland Hospice hosted a Inverness conference of about 100 third-sector and community representatives, which agreed to set up a new Highland social care network. The hospice announced seed funding for it. Source ↗

  3. 03

    Highland Hospice was given the highest possible grade for its care in a 2019 Healthcare Improvement Scotland report, during his tenure as chief executive. Source ↗

  4. 04

    Highland Hospice formed a partnership with volunteer service HAIBB (Blood Bikes) to speed up medical deliveries across the Highlands. Source ↗

04  The signal · where Kenny Steele sits on hospital discharge / bed-blocking

Quoted

Quoted in the press on hospital discharge / bed-blocking.

Placed by press coverage on this topic only, not across all topics.

  1. Dr Ian Higginson portraitDr Ian HigginsonClinicianPresident, Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM)Leading
  2. Caroline Abrahams portraitCaroline AbrahamsSector leaderCharity Director, Age UKLeading
  3. Colin PoolmanSector leaderexecutive director of Royal College of Nursing (RCN) ScotlandLeading
  4. Dr Sudhir NaikClinicianTrustee and past President, Association of Medical Consultants
  5. Elaine JacksonSector leaderDischarge Facilitator, Royal Bolton Hospital
  6. Kenny SteeleSector leaderChief Executive, Highland Hospice
  7. Clarissa CorbisieroSector leaderDeputy Chief Executive of Community Housing Cymru
  8. Dr Angela TillettAcademicChief Medical Officer at ESNEFT

Showing the leading voices and those placed around Kenny Steele · See every voice on the topic →

05  On the record · press

What Kenny Steele has said

By outlet · bar length shows relative volume
  • bbc.com
  • strathspey-herald.co.uk

Where Kenny Steele has been quoted

  1. Health Secretary agrees to visit Highland Hospice as it aims to provide end-of-life service across the northstrathspey-herald.co.uk · 13 Sept 2026
  2. Care home closure meant my brother had to move away to diebbc.com · 9 Feb 2026
How we found the articles that name Kenny Steele: we searched news for these terms, by topic. Terms for 2 topics

Hospital discharge / bed-blocking

  • hospital discharge
  • delayed discharge
  • bed blocking
  • bed-blocking
  • discharge to assess
  • delayed transfers of care
  • discharge delays
  • step-down care

Also searched with “hospital discharge” in each of 8 national papers, and in the Guardian by editor tag, and in trade press by category. Every term for Hospital discharge / bed-blocking

Care home closures & provider failure

  • care home closure
  • provider failure
  • residential care closure
  • care home insolvency
  • care home fees
  • care home places
  • care market
  • market sustainability

Also searched with “care home closure” in each of 8 national papers, and in the Guardian by editor tag, and in trade press by category. Every term for Care home closures & provider failure

Verbatim

“I look forward to welcoming the Cabinet Secretary to Highland Hospice to discuss how we have been working, alongside partners, to shift palliative and end-of-life care from hospital to home. Since 2023, we have used charitable funding to pilot responsive home-based care for those at end of life, working alongside NHS Highland and our partners. This has allowed us to gather evidence showing that supporting people at home can improve the experience for patient and families while also reducing pressure on an already overstretched NHS.”
chief executive of Highland Hospice · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · strathspey-herald.co.uk · 13 Sept 2026 · Read the article
“The scenario that really concerns me is in rural Highland, that people may choose an assisted death against the alternative of only being able to be cared for 100 miles away from their community, their friends and their family.”
Chief executive of Highland Hospice · Care home closures & provider failure · bbc.com · 9 Feb 2026 · Read the article

Related media coverage

Recent UK press coverage of their topics, not necessarily citing them directly.

06  Sources

References for this biography

  1. Highland Hospice Blood Bikes partnership aims to speed up medical deliveries across the Highlands (Inverness Courier). Identifies him as chief executive of Highland Hospice, and describes the Blood Bikes partnership and his comments on it.
  2. Health Secretary agrees to visit Highland Hospice as it aims to provide end-of-life service across the north (Ross-shire Journal). Confirms his role. Covers End of Life Care Together with NHS Highland, the roughly £4m savings estimate, the call for extra funding to roll the service out across the Highlands, and the Health Secretary's agreed visit.
  3. Highland community groups including Highland Hospice unite to form new network in bid strengthen social care (Inverness Courier). Describes the social care conference hosted by Highland Hospice, the new network and the seed funding, with his comments.
  4. Pilot scheme to improve end-of-life home care in Inverness produces impressive results (Inverness Courier). Reports his view that everything possible should be done to enable end-of-life home care. Describes the pilot led by Highland Hospice, with support from Social Finance and Macmillan.
  5. KENNY STEELE: It takes a village to support someone to have a good death (Inverness Courier). His own opinion column. Describes End of Life Care Together as a partnership led by NHS Highland and Highland Hospice.
  6. Highland Hospice Awarded 'Exceptional' Grade for Care (Highland Hospice). Confirms he was Chief Executive Officer in 2019, and covers the Healthcare Improvement Scotland grade and the Investors in People assessment.
  7. Highland Hospice – Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) register entry. Gives the organisation's address (Ness House, 1 Bishops Road, Inverness, IV3 5SB), its website, and that its services are free to all in the Highlands.
  8. Highland Hospice online shop. Gives the registered office, the general enquiries telephone number and the general enquiries email address.

07  Contact & links

Website
highlandhospice.orgpublished here ↗
Press office email
generalenquiries@highlandhospice.org.ukpublished here ↗
Press office phone
01463 243132published here ↗

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.

Chief executives, directors and spokespeople of trade bodies, representative associations and charities speaking for the sector. Citations are counted by an automated scan of UK press coverage and may be incomplete. Roles, biographies and contact details are researched and human-reviewed before they appear here; anything not yet reviewed is simply absent rather than shown unverified. This profile was last updated on 3 Nov 2026. See the methodology for how this page is built, or email contact@bridgeheadcommunications.com to correct anything on it.