Well-meaning little boy taking rodent into hospital department (10)

I believe the answer is:

benevolent

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'well-meaning' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'boy taking rodent into hospital department' is the wordplay.
'boy' becomes 'ben'.
'taking' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'rodent' becomes 'vole' (vole is a kind of rodent**).
'into' is an insertion indicator.
'hospital department' becomes 'ent'.
'vole' inserted inside 'ent' is 'evolent'.
'ben'+'evolent'='BENEVOLENT'

'little' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for benevolent that I've seen before include "Showing kindness" , "Well-meaning, kindly" , "Well disposed" , "Charitable" , "Philanthropic" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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