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The health centre at Wellington College has received an ‘Outstanding’ Seacole Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Provision. The Seacole Standard (named after the pioneering 19th century nurse Mary Seacole) is awarded to School Health Centres for achieving a high standard of treatment and care.
The awards are coordinated by The Health in Education Association (HIEDA) who champion excellence in health and wellbeing education. Our ‘outstanding’ certification was given in March following a rigorous day of assessment by the judges who looked at every aspect of care, safety and leadership as well as interviewing nursing staff.
We received exceptional feedback with the judges commending our provision of an “outstanding service” and our “highly effective team.”
Wellington’s health centre has been led by Nurse Manager, Tracey Coles, for the past three years. Prior to joining Wellington College, Tracey worked for nineteen years in the paediatric ward at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and was a Ward Sister when she left. The report from HEIDA praised Tracey as “an experienced, well-qualified, highly competent, and excellent leader of a highly effective Health Care team”.
Tracey says “this award is an acknowledgement of the phenomenal team of nurses that work in the health centre. Each one is amazing in their own way and has different specialisms and areas of interest including ADHD, travel health and disordered eating. I see this award as a celebration of their incredible efforts and of the way we support each other to provide the highest standard of care to pupils”
The team is made up of ten nursing staff alongside Tracey: Deputy Nurses Becky Veal and Miriam Nicholson; Nursing Sisters Katy Beale, Sue Coulthard, Leigh D’Arcy, Claire Durand, Christine Stone, Susie Wallace, Sarah Jane Wicks and Julia Wester; Health Centre Assistant Donna Birch; Medical Secretaries Sharon Ware and Kerry Penny and Donna Johnson from domestic services.
The health centre provides a range of services from a GP surgery every weekday morning, to physio consultations, in-patient bedrooms and drop-in clinics. As well as dealing with illness and injuries, increasingly the nursing team links with the boarding houses and pastoral team, going into college to give talks on pertinent topics including mental and sexual health.
Pupils make extremely good use of the facility with a record footfall through the door of 1,100 in February. As a result of this demand, there will soon be an increase in nursing provision with two more full time members of staff and an additional health care practitioner being recruited. This will mean that more than one member of staff can work in the evenings allowing the centre to offer drop-in slots, as well as appointments, at this time of day. Often pupils like to pop in for a chat to offload any worries that are on their minds. The nursing team makes time to speak to each student and suggest next steps where appropriate. That might be making a GP appointment, using Wellington’s counselling services or giving them the confidence to speak to their parents about something. The health centre team is in close contact with safeguarding colleagues to ensure any issues are flagged up.
With wellbeing at the heart of campus life, we are delighted to see the Wellington Health Centre get the recognition it richly deserves.
Find out more about the Health Centre
