Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing

NMC suspends midwife Louise Jane Leeson for 12 months over competence failings

The NMC found repeated deficiencies in medicines management, fetal monitoring and other core midwifery skills. Its panel imposed a 12-month suspension with review, finding lack of competence rather than misconduct.

MedicWatch editorial · Published 28 August 2026 · Updated 22 September 2026

Suspension (suspended from practice) — 1 year

Data last checked: 22 September 2026Report a correction

What does “suspended from practice” mean?

The regulator imposed a fixed-term suspension in this decision. Its start date, appeal provisions and any later review affect whether it is currently in force. Check the official register for the practitioner's current status.

Concerning Louise Jane Leeson, midwife (Nursing and Midwifery Council 23C0779E).

Decision date: 28 August 2026 · Hearing started 24 August 2026 and ended 28 August 2026

In plain English

The NMC found that midwife Louise Jane Leeson repeatedly fell below the required standard in medicines management, fetal monitoring and other areas of care despite substantial supervision. It found lack of competence, not misconduct, and rejected two record-keeping allegations. The panel imposed a 12-month suspension with review, alongside a separate interim suspension covering the appeal period.

Charges

Allegations concerned repeated failures between November 2023 and August 2024 in medicines management, workload prioritisation, fetal monitoring, record keeping, infection control, escalation of a post-partum haemorrhage, handovers and patient care while working under supervision as a Band 5 midwife.

Findings

The panel found repeated and wide-ranging deficiencies in knowledge and clinical skills amounting to lack of competence, expressly not misconduct. Charges 5(b)(i) and 5(d)(i) were not proved; the remaining charges, including charge 4 on three failed fetal-monitoring assessments, were proved in the detailed findings. Despite substantial support, improvements were inconsistent, with no current evidence of insight or remediation. Fitness to practise was impaired on public-protection and public-interest grounds. The panel imposed a 12-month suspension with review. A separate 18-month interim suspension covers the appeal period; if no appeal is made, the substantive suspension replaces it 28 days after the written decision is sent.

Mitigating factors

• Ms Leeson appeared to have had good relationships with her patients and there was evidence regarding her positive communication with them; • While working under supervision, Ms Leeson demonstrated a willingness to learn and improve her practice; and • There was some information about personal and family difficulties during the relevant period, although the information available to the panel was limited.

Aggravating factors

• The large number of concerns and the wide ranging nature of those concerns; • The pattern of concerns over a prolonged period of time; • The repetition of similar concerns within relatively short periods of time which continued despite Ms Leeson receiving significant and robust support from the Trust over a prolonged period; • The vulnerability of the patients for whom Ms Leeson was caring, including women in labour and newborn babies; • The risk of serious harm arising from some of the concerns; • The absence of Ms Leeson’s insight into the concerns identified; • There was no evidence of reflection, further training, continuing professional development or other steps taken by Ms Leeson to strengthen her practice; and • Ms Leeson had not attended the hearing, completed the case management form or otherwise meaningfully engaged with the regulatory process.

Source

All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Nursing and Midwifery Council determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.

Spot something incorrect?

If a fact on this page is wrong, or you believe the page should not be published, please submit a correction or takedown request.