Ros Foster

Practice Areas

• Public & Administrative Law – Advises public sector bodies on judicial review, governance structures, regulatory compliance, and statutory obligations. Involved in policy making and review, legal risk mitigation, and procedural frameworks

• Regulatory & Professional Discipline – Acts for regulated professionals in fitness to practise investigations and proceedings and for the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (“PSA”) in the exercise of its appeal functions. Advises the PSA on changes in legislation and statutory guidance. Advises providers of fertility services on their regulatory obligations. Conducts appeal proceedings on behalf of the Care Quality Commission (“CQC”)

• Governance – Advises a range of public and third sector organisations on contentious and non-contentious governance issues and conducts reviews and investigations including into high profile and sensitive matters

• Healthcare – Advises NHS Trusts on a range of issues relating to the discharge of their functions including access to electronic records, complaint management and risk assurance.

Career

Ros began her legal career in local government, providing legal advice and support to colleagues in the planning and environmental health departments of the Council. Ros advised the Planning Committee and appeared for the Council in numerous criminal and other Magistrates’ Court proceedings, including the high profile Anti-Social Behaviour Order proceedings against the “lottery lout” Michael Carroll, in which Ros acted as advocate for the Council and was successful in obtaining the Order.

While at Steeles (law) LLP, Ros acted for a wide range of local authorities providing advice on public law, vires and judicial review matters. Ros was also responsible for managing a caseload of benefit fraud and other prosecutions for local authority clients.

Ros was initially appointed as the Deputy Head of Corporate Legal Services of the GDC to provide public and administrative law support to the organisation – which is the statutory regulator of the dental profession. Ros was quickly promoted to Head of Fitness to Practise Legal Services. In that role Ros recruited, developed and managed a team of specialist in-house advocates and ensured that the Fitness to Practise team received appropriate legal support. Ros engaged and managed external legal support as needed and was responsible for reporting to the corporate management team and the Board of the GDC on all fitness to practise matters.

Prior to joining Browne Jacobson LLP, Ros was recruited into the then leading public law team of DAC Beachcroft LLP (“DACB”), having been headhunted from the General Dental Council (“GDC”). The position at DACB enabled Ros to combine her longstanding public law experience with the expertise in disciplinary law that she had gained at the GDC. Ros’ day to day practice at DACB involved advising clients such as the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and NHS England on all aspects of public and administrative law. Ros advised the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), the GDC and the Chartered Institute of Building (“CIOB”) on disciplinary and governance matters. In January 2009 Ros acted for Sharon Shoesmith in her employment and judicial review claims relating to the ‘Baby P’ case. Ros worked closely with Sharon in the judicial review proceedings which were ultimately concluded in Sharon’s favour in the Court of Appeal (Shoesmith v Ofsted and others [2011] EWCA Civ 642)

Ros joined Browne Jacobson LLP in April 2012 as an Associate from DACB, bringing with her a range of clients including all public sector Ombudsmen in England and Wales, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the CIOB. Ros quickly expanded her portfolio of clients into the Public and Administrative Law team with the addition of the National Audit Office and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. In August 2013 Ros began working with the PSA and that relationship has continued and gone from strength to strength such that Ros is now the PSA’s principal external legal adviser on all disciplinary matters and was instructed to act for the PSA in defending the first judicial review challenge brought to its accredited register scheme.

Ros expanded and enhanced the firm’s public law practice in a number of significant respects since joining the partnership in 2014. In addition to the PSA, Ros secured the firm’s appointment as sole provider of legal services to the Regulatory team of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and undertook a secondment in the Anti-Avoidance team of the Pensions Regulator. Ros developed and implemented a programme of legal support to the Overstaying Families Intervention Team of Hackney London Borough Council, which on the Council’s own figures resulted in a saving of around £400k in its first year.

Ros was appointed as head of the firm’s information law practice in May 2018 and since then secured instructions for the team from a series of leading retail and logistics providers in the private sector, NHS bodies, including a range of NHS Trusts and NHS England, and local authorities.

Ros Foster is currently an equity partner in the Healthcare and Public Law team of Hill Dickinson LLP. Ros heads up the firm’s professional disciplinary team, specialising in healthcare regulation. Ros is a leading member of the firm’s information law team.

Professional Memberships

Law Society

ARDL

Publications

Ros wrote the chapters on the Performers List Regulations that appeared in the second edition of “The Regulation of Healthcare Professionals: Law, Principle and Process” by David Gomez.

Ros regularly publishes articles on issues and cases of interest, including recent articles on Social Media for Regulated Professionals and the test for cross-admissibility of evidence in disciplinary proceedings.

Awards

Experience

Ros provides legal advice and support to a range of clients in the public and third sectors, specialising in disciplinary investigations and proceedings and contentious and non-contentious data protection issues and also regularly advises senior leaders within local government, NHS bodies and charities on complex regulatory, disciplinary and governance matters.

Ros has acted for the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) for many years, supporting the PSA in the referral of fitness to practise cases to the High Court and providing advice on a range of regulatory issues and on matters of disciplinary law and practice. Ros has advised the PSA on legislative change and guidance issued by the statutory regulators.

Ros is experienced in conducting sensitive and high-profile investigations, in healthcare regulatory litigation and in dealing with complex and sensitive whistleblowing and anti-harassment cases. Ros has recently assisted a large charity in dealing with a range of difficult and inter-related disciplinary and governance matters, involving liaison with the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Charity Commission.

Ros also specialises in information law and advises a range of clients in the public, private and third sectors on all aspects of data protection, freedom of information, confidentiality, disclosure and privilege.

Work Highlights

• Ros has had the privilege of acting for the PSA for over 10 years in a range of appeals. Two have become leading cases in the field of disciplinary law: General Medical Council v Jagjivan [2017] EWHC 1247 (Admin) and Dr Bawa-Garba v General Medical Council [2018] EWCA Civ 1879

• Ros recently acted for the PSA in a successful appeal that led to the first judgment to provide definitive guidance on the test for cross-admissibility of evidence in disciplinary proceedings: PSA v GMC & Garrard [2025] EWHC 318 (Admin)

• Ros conducted an investigation into the conduct of senior officers at Robin Hood Energy Limited, an energy company that was wholly owned by Nottingham City Council. The collapse of that company led to the issue of a Report in the Public Interest by the Council’s External Auditors

• Ros conducted an investigation into the conduct of the then President of the RIBA when allegations emerged about his relationship with an architectural student

• Ros assisted the CIOB with a comprehensive overhaul of its Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Regulations

• Ros was instructed by the PSA to conduct an investigation on its behalf into whistleblowing complaints about the GDC that had been made to the Secretary of State for Health

• Ros developed and implemented a programme of legal support to the Overstaying Families Intervention Team of Hackney London Borough Council, which on the Council’s own figures resulted in a saving of around £400k in its first year

• Ros acted for Sharon Shoesmith in her judicial review challenge of the decisions in relation to her dismissal in the wake of the ‘Baby P’ case. Sharon’s arguments that those decisions were unfair were successful in the Court of Appeal: Shoesmith v Ofsted and others [2011] EWCA Civ 642. The proceedings took place against a background of intense media pressure and adverse content about our client. Significant disclosure failures occurred on the part of the Treasury Solicitor’s department, leading to the Treasury Solicitor being ordered to appear before the High Court to explain what had happened and the award of indemnity costs in favour of our client.

Education