Post-registration chairs

A registered nurse and midwife, Dr Foster brings a wealth of experience from his time in both the NHS and the Civil Service. His postgraduate career focused on adult intensive care nursing before moving into management and professional leadership roles. He ended his NHS career as Director of Nursing at Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospitals NHS Trust.

David then moved into the role of Deputy Chief Nursing Officer in England, where he was the head of the Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions Policy Unit at the Department of Health and Social Care, advising ministers and policy teams.

After retiring from the Civil Service in 2016, David became the Chairman of the Foundation of Nursing Studies and a visiting professor at Buckinghamshire New University, King's College London, and Manchester Metropolitan University. He is also an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Midwives and a fellow of the Royal College of Nursing.

He was awarded an OBE for services to nursing and midwifery and his charity work in 2019.

Read what David says about the post-registration consultation

Owen is a Professor of Nursing and Intellectual Disabilities at Ulster University.

Having worked as a Community Learning Disability Nurse, Owen is now Pathway Leader for SPQ Community Nursing Learning Disability and Specialist Practice learning Disability.

Being part of the Post-registration council, Owen wants to provide opportunities for people who use community nursing services to share their thoughts and views on the work community nurses do. He believes this is important to them and wants to shape the role in a way they would value community nurses doing in the future.

He believes this will enable community nurses across all fields of practice to work collaboratively with people, their families and communities supported by community nursing services. It will build on community nurses’ expertise and the recognition of their crucial role in health and social care.

He hopes this will provide clear and contemporary proficiencies for all community nurses and will update and streamline the regulation of community nursing across all fields of nursing practice.

Read more about what Owen says about the post-registration consultation

Jane is a Registered Nurse and Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (HV) with an MSc in Public Health and Health Services Research. Her current role is a Programme Director at NES where she works closely with colleagues from a range of health and social care disciplines across the NHS. Jane leads national education initiatives that support the development of the nursing professions, including the Scottish Government's Transforming Roles programme.

Her clinical roots are in the community as a nurse in rural North India and then as a district nurse, health visitor and midwife in the non-doctor Islands of Shetland which

have all been a strong influence on her career.Jane was seconded to the Scottish Government in 2010 after various roles in education at Abertay and Dundee universities. She managed the Modernising Nursing in the Community programme that led to significant changes in the role of Health Visitor in Scotland.

As a professional advisor for community nursing, non-medical prescribing and education to Scotland's Chief Nursing Officer, she led Setting the Direction for Nursing and Midwifery Education in Scotland.

Jane is delighted to be chairing the SCPHN (HV) sub-group and with her colleagues to have the opportunity to make a significant contribution to shaping new SCPHN standards that will support education and practice for the profession for the future.

Read what Jane says about our post-registration consultation

Deborah is the Global Vice President for Health Risk Management and Workplace Adjustments at Barclays.

She's an engaging Occupational Health leader with a style that supports creativity and innovation when building solutions and strategies around evidence-based medicines within a culture of continuous improvement. Deborah has delivered large scale health and wellbeing programmes for FTSE listed businesses covering up to 30,000 workforces such as Severn Trent, HS2, Gatwick Airport.

Deborah can introduce and integrate strategies which improve health outcomes, productivity and performance covering prevention, intervention and rehabilitation. Her strong stakeholder management skills have been effective in engaging with C-level and board members, along with operational and line managers to develop a culture of care throughout an organisation. She is highly strategic and has been a pivotal role in leading, empowering and influencing an organisation in areas of strategy, policy and practice to deliver improved health and wellbeing outcomes.

Deborah's work with occupational health is fundamental to addressing health inequalities and improving the health outcomes of the working population. They play a vital role within Global and UK business, Public Sector and SME's to protect and improve employee health and wellbeing, from health risk management to seeing work as a health outcome and enabling those with medical conditions to remain in good work.

As Chair of the occupational health group, Deborah wants to ensure that Occupational Health practitioners have the knowledge, skills and attributes to be exceptional nurse leaders for now and the future.

Read more about what Deborah says about our post-registration consultation

Gwendolen is Professor in Health Service Education at the University of Bradford where until 2018, she was Pro-Vice Chancellor responsible for the strategic development, implementation and evaluation of the University’s framework for academic standards, quality and enhancement. Gwendolen has taken a keen interest in quality assurance methods and activities. She has undertaken the role of both Subject Reviewer and Institutional Auditor for the Quality Assurance Agency undertaking 16 institutional reviews across a diverse range of institutions including both home and overseas collaborative provision using a range of methodologies.

As a nurse and midwife with a long clinical and teaching career, she worked as Dean of the University's Faculty of Health Studies. Her leadership of teaching, research and scholarship in the faculty focused on the involvement of service users in all aspects of student learning and assessment, a salient feature of her earlier Doctoral thesis that examined the role of women in the formative assessment of student midwives.

As a representative of the Regulatory Body, Gwendolen has acted as a Specialist Registry/ Visitor member on several professional accreditation events. This has been in addition to acting as an external Specialist for midwifery programme validation and periodic review events.

Gwendolen's standing across the midwifery profession is evidenced through the breadth of published work and conference presentations ranging from her exploration of risk management within the curriculum to a co-authored a book for NHS students on health service policy and most recently, through an invited contribution to the latest edition of the renowned Mayes Midwifery 2017.

She has been a keen and frequent contributor to policy formation throughout the United Kingdom over almost two decades. In 2001 she acted as an independent contributor to Education in Focus: Guidelines for Pre-registration Midwifery Programmes for the English National Board for Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting. She had an active committee role in the conception and production of Delivering High Quality Midwifery Care: the priorities, opportunities and challenges for midwives for the Department of Health in 2009. Additionally, she participated in and led the Education and Career Progression Workstream in the creation of Midwifery 2020: Delivering Expectations for the four home nations also or the Department of Health in 2010.

During her career, she has also been a member of the Royal College of Midwives, the Council of Deans of Health and the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) Lead Midwife Educator Strategic Reference Group. She participated in the NMC Subject Matter Expert Group responsible for drafting the requirements of the UK wide Education Framework for Nursing and Midwifery. From 2018 to 2020 she chaired the Review of the Pre-registration Midwifery Programme Standards Reference Group while also participating as a member of the Thought Leadership Group concerned with the Future Midwife Standards. In July 2020 Gwendolen was appointed as a member of the England Future Nurse Future Midwife Board.

Access and widening participation has been among Gwendolen’s key interests. She led the development, implementation and evaluation of her University’s Access and Participation Plan furthering Bradford’s mission to recruit and support a high proportion of its undergraduate students from under-represented groups, something for which it has a long-established renown within the sector.

Professionally, Gwendolen sustains her registration. She was appointed as a Supervisor of Midwives in 1995 and continued in this statutory role maintaining a modest case load until its demise in 2016.

Read more about what Gwendolen says about the post-registration consultation.

Julie qualified as nurse in 1982 and began her career in Accident and Emergency Nursing. She truly believes that this experience provided her with some excellent transferable skills for school nursing practice, for example the ability to manage complex and uncertain situations.

She moved into school nursing in September 1994 and started her career as a Band 5 staff nurse, completing her Diploma in Nursing in 2001. She then undertook the BSc (Hons) Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN) School Nurse pathway during 2001-2002. She has been a Band 6 and 7 Team Leader and Clinical Service Lead.

Julie has always had an interest in workforce development and undertook her Post Graduate Certificate in Professional Development, which she achieved in 2007. This provided her with the qualification to undertake the Practice Teacher Role with SCPHN School Nurse students.

She recently moved into an academic role at Canterbury Christ Church University and continues to lecture on the University Certificate for Community Public Health Nursing.

She has also been a committee member since 2014 for the School and Public Health Nurse Association (SAPHNA).

Julie believes in the ethos of early intervention and supporting children, young people, families, education and other partners to intervene early to support and manage situations to prevent them escalating.