What is next of kin? The person they ring first, explained

Next of kin is the person a hospital, care home or official form will contact first, and the one they turn to for your views if you can’t speak for yourself. It isn’t a legal role, and who it is is up to you. That’s how it works in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland get their own section below.

Who it can be

Whoever you choose. Hospitals usually ask you to name someone when you’re admitted, and it doesn’t have to be a relative or a partner. A close friend works too. You don’t have to give anyone, and you can change your mind whenever you like. If there’s nobody on the record in an emergency, staff look to whoever seems closest to you.

What it comes with

Less than most people think. NHS guidance says next of kin can’t give or refuse consent to care on your behalf if you lose the ability to decide. Their views are asked for, but the clinician in charge makes the final call. They aren’t legally responsible for funeral costs, and the title gives them no legal right to your medical notes or your belongings. It doesn’t decide who inherits either. That’s down to your will, or the law if there isn’t one.

One NHS trust’s guidance adds that after a death, the next of kin is who’d be asked about things like funeral arrangements. Which makes it handy if they already know what you’d want.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Across the UK the phrase has no legal definition, and you can name anyone as your next of kin. Some laws use their own separate terms for relatives, such as the “nearest relative” in mental health law, and those are set by the law rather than chosen by you. The bigger difference is inheritance: if someone dies without a will, the order of relatives who inherit is slightly different in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In every case it’s the will, or the law where you live, that decides, not who’s down as next of kin.

Where a gatekeeper fits

Next of kin gets the phone call. A gatekeeper has the playlist, the wishes and the stories, because you put them there.

On Twentyfive, a gatekeeper is someone you choose to look after your wishes and your story on your Twentyfive Card: your songs, your people, the little things only you’d think of. They only see what you choose to share.

Your next of kin and your gatekeeper can be the same person, or two different people. There’s no limit on gatekeepers, so the one they’d ring and the one who knows your songs can both be on your list, or the same person. If you ever want someone to have legal power to make decisions for you, that’s what a lasting power of attorney is for. Here’s the plain version.

Quick answers

Put a name on the form, then tell them why it’s them. It’s a good excuse for the conversation.