WHEN REGULATION FAILS
Lives Are Lost.
We Are Here to
Change That.
We are the UK's first independent organisation providing support and systemic accountability for professional regulation across sectors.
Every Year, Professionals Die by Suicide During Regulatory Investigations
Many are later found to have no case to answer.
The system is broken:
• Year-long delays (average 18+ months)
• Financial devastation (lost income + £10k-£50k legal costs)
• Racial discrimination (Black professionals 4x more likely to be referred)
• Whistleblower retaliation (regulatory referral silences safety concerns)
• Mental health crisis (isolation, anxiety, suicide risk)
This must stop…
And it can
THE VISION
Three Ways We Plan On Saving Lives & Demanding Justice
SUPPORT
Emotional support for anyone under investigation
• Suicide prevention
• Financial navigation
• Monthly peer support groups
• Emotional support
• Whistleblower specialisation
Free. Confidential.
No membership required.
RESEARCH & EVIDENCE
Monitoring ALL regulators across sectors
• Tracking delays & discrimination
• Publishing data regulators don't want public
• Annual "State of Regulatory Justice" reports
• Documenting investigation-related suicides
• Building evidence for reform
Independent.
Transparent.
ADVOCACY & CHANGE
Demanding fair, effective regulation
• Parliamentary engagement
• Evidence-based campaigns
• Holding regulators accountable
• Public awareness & education
• Systemic reform
Fearless.
Evidence-driven.
BI-WEEKLY PEER SUPPORT
A Safe space with people who understand
Share experiences
Get support
No judgment
Not in immediate crisis, but need support?
Email: regulatory.justice.foundation@gmail.com
(Mon-Fri, 9 am-5 pm)
We aim to respond within 24 hours.
THE BOARD
Built by Someone Who's Living It
ISHBEL STRAKER
FOUNDER & CEO
A Psychiatric Nurse Prescriber, former Clinical Lecturer, Expert Witness and television mental health expert, Ishbel is the founder of the Regulatory Justice Foundation. She also leads a CQC-registered clinical service supporting more than 2,000 patients.
Ishbel founded RJF following her own experience of professional regulation. While continuing to practise and lead clinical services, she is currently subject to an ongoing Nursing and Midwifery Council investigation. That experience gave her first-hand insight into the personal, professional and financial impact that lengthy regulatory proceedings can have on professionals and their families.
It also exposed a wider question: who is looking systematically at the impact, fairness and effectiveness of professional regulation itself?
The Regulatory Justice Foundation grew from that question.
Ishbel established RJF to bring together evidence, professional experience and independent scrutiny to examine how regulatory systems operate in practice — including the psychological impact of investigations, the consequences of delay, financial hardship, inequality, the treatment of whistleblowers, and whether regulatory processes consistently achieve their fundamental purpose of protecting the public.
What she brings to RJF: Ishbel combines frontline mental health expertise, clinical leadership and lived experience of the regulatory process. Her focus is on ensuring that RJF remains grounded in the experiences of professionals while subjecting those experiences — and the systems responsible for regulating them — to rigorous evidence, research and scrutiny.
Her ambition for RJF is not weaker regulation, but better regulation: regulation that protects the public while being fair, proportionate, timely, transparent and psychologically safe for the professionals subject to it.
DR CARMEL CLANCY
Dr Carmel Clancy is Director of the ICUDDR Centre for Credentialing & Accreditation and Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education at Middlesex University, London.
A registered mental health and adult nurse with over 30 years’ experience in higher education, she has led curriculum development in addiction, including creating Europe’s first Master’s in co-morbidity (dual diagnosis), and founded My Care Academy, a knowledge-building partnership between Middlesex University and London mental health trusts.
Carmel is a former President of the International Nurses Society on Addiction and has held significant national advisory roles, including membership of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and Chair of the Research Advisory Panel for the Universities UK Taskforce on Student Drug Use.
She has written extensively on addiction, harm reduction and the role of nurses in treatment and recovery pathways, and continues to provide training to addiction professionals worldwide.
JON MEADOWS
Solicitor and founder of Regulation Resolution, and a specialist healthcare regulatory defence lawyer. Jon has worked on both sides of fitness to practise.
He was formerly Head of Prosecutions at the General Dental Council, where he led its prosecution team and chaired its Complex Case Oversight Group, and he has advised the General Pharmaceutical Council.
He now defends nurses, midwives and other regulated healthcare professionals, and is a member of the Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers.
What he brings to RJF: an insider's understanding of how regulators build and run fitness to practise cases, first-hand experience of where the process fails registrants, and a clear view of what fair, proportionate regulation should look like.
FRANCES SWAINE
A solicitor and former Managing Partner of Leigh Day, a firm known for human rights, employment and clinical negligence law, which she led from 2011 until 2022.
Frances championed the Black Solicitor Apprenticeship programme, which won first prize at the Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards in 2021, and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Law.
What she brings to RJF: decades of experience in access to justice and fair process, and a long record of building fairer, more inclusive systems within the legal profession.
PROFESSOR FATIMA ANNAN-DIAB
Vice-Provost (Business) and Executive Dean of the Royal Docks School of Business and Law at the University of East London, with more than 20 years in senior leadership in higher education.
Her recent work includes recovery-ready and trauma-informed workplaces.
What she brings to RJF: expertise in organisational governance, ethics and responsible leadership, and a strong belief that workplaces and the systems around them should support people's wellbeing rather than harm it.
PROFESSOR ALISON LEARY MBE FRCN
Workforce scientist and Chair of Healthcare and Workforce Modelling at London South Bank University.
A registered nurse and mathematician, Alison uses data science and complex-systems modelling to improve workforce planning and patient safety.
She is currently elected Deputy President of the Royal College of Nursing and is also Senior Consultant to the World Health Organisation (Europe) on Human Resources for Health.
What she brings to RJF: an evidence-led understanding of risk and safety in healthcare systems, and of how the way professionals are treated affects both the workforce and the care patients receive.
"Do You Protect Bad Practitioners?"
Answer:
No. We prevent deaths, not accountability.
Our position is simple:
✓ Crisis support is universal—we can't know if someone is "bad" until the investigation concludes
✓ Many who die by suicide are later found to have no case to answer
✓ Fair processes protect the public BETTER than unfair ones
✓ Justice and safety are inseparable
We support strong, effective regulation. That's exactly why we demand it's done justly.
When investigations drag on for years, when Black professionals are disproportionately sanctioned, when whistleblowers face retaliation, when people die by suicide before cases conclude - that doesn't serve public safety. It undermines confidence in regulation.
OUR MISSION —
Regulation should protect the public without destroying the professionals subject to it.
The Regulatory Justice Foundation gives a voice to professionals harmed by regulatory processes and campaigns for meaningful reform.
— OUR PRINCIPLES —
Six guiding principles drive everything we do.
FINANCIAL SECURITY = SAFETY
—
Preventing a financial crisis prevents suicide
FULL INDEPENDENCE
—
No regulator funding
We speak truth to power
JUSTICE SERVES SAFETY
—
Fair processes protect the public better than unfair ones
UNIVERSALITY
—
We support ALL regulated Health professionals
SYSTEMIC ACCOUNTABILITY
—
Regulators must be accountable to standards of justice
TRANSPARENCY
—
We publish outcomes data
LIFE-SAVING FIRST
—
Preventing suicide and serious psychological harm is our primary moral imperative.
Justice for Nurses
A campaign supported by the Regulatory Justice Foundation
Justice for Nurses is a national campaign calling for greater scrutiny of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and for a statutory public inquiry into its fitness to practise processes.
The campaign gives nurses and midwives affected by regulatory proceedings a platform to share their experiences, access peer support and help build the evidence for meaningful reform.
Justice for Nurses operates with its own identity and voice, with accountability through the Regulatory Justice Foundation.
Meet Justice for Nurses at Labour Party Conference 2026
We're delighted to be hosting a Justice for Nurses stand at the 2026 Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.
If you're attending, please come and say hello, meet the team and find out more about the campaign. We'd love to see you and have your support!
27–30 September 2026 | Liverpool
Contact Us
Whether you need some support or wish to support and join the campaign, please complete this form so we can reach out to you.