Samantha joined the Health and Social Care Provider team at Gordons Partnership as a Senior Associate Solicitor in March 2024. Prior to joining the firm Samantha worked at a boutique law firm in London specialising in health and social care law and has considerable experience advising providers in the sector.
Expertise:
Samantha advises on legal matters impacting providers in the health and social care sector including care homes, domiciliary care agencies, supported living services, children’s homes, GP practices, hospitals and more. She offers commercial and pragmatic advice encompassing regulatory compliance, crisis management and dispute resolution.
She has extensive experience in preparing cases for the First Tier (Care Standards) Tribunal – from the drafting of initial appeals and witness statements to conducting telephone case management hearings and preparation for the final hearing. Other areas of expertise include responding to CQC and Ofsted inspection reports and enforcement action, managing complaints to regulatory bodies, challenging local authorities in relation to placement contracts, funding and fee disputes, safeguarding investigations, coroners inquests and assisting with judicial review claims. Samantha is also experienced in dealing with the media on behalf of providers, including working with specialist PR agencies in the sector.
Notable Cases:
- Acting for a care home provider in challenging the factual accuracy of a draft inspection report and the ratings awarded in relation to one of their services. The factual accuracy response led to amendments to the report, including the removal of a regulatory breach. A rating review challenge was subsequently raised which resulted in the rating increasing from “Requires Improvement” to “Good”.
- Supporting a care home provider during a local authority safeguarding investigation, attending multi-agency safeguarding meetings and writing to the authority expressing concerns with the process. This caused the local authority to reconsider its approach. A previously applied embargo on admissions was lifted and the safeguarding matters were concluded in a timely manner.
- Acting for a children’s home provider in challenging Ofsted’s service of an urgent suspension of registration. Following a hearing the First-tier Tribunal ordered that the period of suspension should be shortened.
- Acting for a care home provider in challenging a CQC urgent decision to impose a condition on its registration restricting admissions to one of its services. As a result, the First-tier Tribunal allowed the appeal which meant the restriction was removed from the provider’s registration.
- Acting for a care home provider in relation to the receipt of multiple warning notices from CQC. Samantha drafted representations to the notices which resulted in them being withdrawn with no further action taken.
