Stella Roberts

Introduction

Stella Roberts is a former United Kingdom midwife who served as Head of Midwifery at St George’s University NHS Foundation Trust. On 30 April 2026, a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) fitness to practise panel struck her off the register after finding that she had bullied and belittled colleagues over a sustained period and had acted dishonestly by concealing her suspension and disciplinary investigation from a new NHS employer. The panel found her fitness to practise impaired and her conduct fundamentally incompatible with continued registration .

Background Information

Roberts was registered with the NMC as a midwife under personal identification number 05I0360E . She held the post of Head of Midwifery at St George’s University NHS Foundation Trust, a senior position carrying authority over colleagues in the midwifery service .

While she was employed in that role, St George’s placed Roberts under disciplinary investigation and suspended her . She then applied to West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and signed a contract of employment with that organisation without revealing what had happened at her previous trust .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings in this section come from a Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness-to-practise panel determination, which decided the charges on the balance of probabilities. Charges found proved are court-of-record-equivalent regulatory findings; Stella Roberts was found NOT proved on charges 3a and 3b, two of the twelve charges, which arose from the allegations about her conduct as Head of Midwifery — facts were proved on all the remaining charges. Panels do not convict; nothing here is a criminal conviction unless the determination itself records one.

The NMC’s Fitness to Practise Committee determined the case at a substantive hearing that began on 20 October 2025 and ended on 30 April 2026, and which Roberts did not attend .

Charges 1 to 8 concerned her conduct while Head of Midwifery at St George’s University NHS Foundation Trust. The panel found that Roberts shouted at and belittled colleagues, read a colleague’s personal diary without good reason, locked and blocked the door of a meeting room, and caused colleagues distress. It concluded that this behaviour was bullying, belittling, embarrassing, dismissive and undermining of teamwork, and amounted to a sustained pattern of conduct towards multiple colleagues across multiple incidents .

Charges 9 to 12 concerned her dealings with West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The panel found that, when applying for the position and again after signing the contract of employment, Roberts failed to inform the trust that St George’s had placed her under disciplinary investigation and had suspended her. It described this as deliberate and calculated dishonesty, sustained over several months, for personal and professional gain .

The panel found the proved conduct amounted to misconduct. It identified no mitigating features in the case. Among the aggravating factors it listed abuse of a position of seniority and trust, failure to work collaboratively, demonstrable and serious emotional harm to colleagues, serious potential to put people receiving care at risk of harm, failure to attend the hearing or engage with the process without good reason, and an absence of remorse, reflection or insight .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The committee found Roberts’s fitness to practise impaired on both public protection and public interest grounds. It concluded that her conduct was fundamentally incompatible with continued registration and imposed a striking-off order, removing her from the NMC register. An 18-month interim suspension order was made to cover the appeal period .

The determination was published as a public regulatory record, and the case was added to MedicWatch, an independent archive of UK healthcare regulator decisions, on 11 July 2026 .

Current Status

Roberts remains erased from the NMC register. Her practitioner record showed her as erased from the register at the most recent register check, which was last verified against the NMC register on 13 July 2026 . The striking-off direction takes effect in accordance with the decision’s appeal provisions, and the 18-month interim suspension remained in place to cover that period .

Impact on Their Career/Life

The striking-off order removed Roberts from the register on which midwives must be registered to practise in the United Kingdom, ending her registration as a midwife and, with it, her career in NHS midwifery leadership .

The panel’s findings went to the character of her practice as well as its outcome: it found a sustained pattern of bullying behaviour towards colleagues, deliberate dishonesty maintained over several months, no insight or remorse, and no engagement with the process that decided her case. Its conclusion that her conduct was fundamentally incompatible with continued registration recorded the regulator’s view that she could not safely return to the profession in which she had held one of its most senior roles .

Sources

*MedicWatch, “Stella Roberts — Struck off the register · 30 April 2026 | MedicWatch”, added 11 July 2026 — source

*MedicWatch, “Stella Roberts — Struck off the register | Nursing and Midwifery Council 05I0360E | MedicWatch” — practitioner profile — source