Cyber Essentials Certification
Dr Kershaw's Hospice has provided free, specialist, end-of-life and palliative care to adults across Oldham and surrounding areas since it was founded. As a registered charity (Charity No. 1105924) handling sensitive patient data across a multi-site environment — including 12 inpatient beds, day care services and community outreach — achieving Cyber Essentials certification was both a governance priority and an NHS supply chain compliance requirement. The hospice approached Foresight for support in navigating the certification process.
As a charity receiving less than a quarter of its funding from the NHS Integrated Care System, Dr Kershaw's operates with lean IT resources. Patient data protection is critical — any breach could compromise care continuity, damage donor trust and trigger ICO enforcement action. The IT team needed external expertise to assess their current security posture, understand the five Cyber Essentials controls, identify and remediate any gaps, and manage the full certification application without disruption to clinical operations.
Foresight conducted a thorough pre-assessment of Dr Kershaw's IT environment — mapping all devices, user accounts, network boundaries and software configurations against the Cyber Essentials five controls: firewalls, secure configuration, user access control, malware protection and patch management. We produced a prioritised gap report with clear remediation steps, carried out the technical fixes alongside the hospice's internal team, and guided the application through the IASME certification body to successful approval.
Foresight made what felt like a daunting compliance process completely straightforward. They understood our charitable environment, worked around our clinical priorities, and delivered certification faster than we expected.