Rt Hon Ed Balls MP Visits College to Open the Health and Wellbeing Centre

Rt Hon Ed Balls MP Visits College to open new Health & Wellbeing Centre

Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Rt. Hon Ed Balls MP visited the College to open the new Health & Wellbeing Centre.

Senior Leaders from the NHS and Barnsley VIPs attended the event to celebrate the opening of the new Health & Wellbeing Centre, the result of a partnership between Barnsley College, the local PCT and NHS services. The new centre is located in the college’s main site on Old Mill Lane, and satellite services are also offered in the outlying college sites.

Focussing initially on smoking cessation, drug and alcohol abuse and general personal safety the centre has already engaged over 1500 students in its 5 weeks of opening. Proving of particular interest are services such as C-Card which as allows young people to access free condoms, Chlamydia screening, contraception and sexual health services, stop smoking support and advice about health eating and weight management.

The Health & Wellbeing Team consists of three specialist nurses and a Health Care Assistant and works closely with the local midwifery service and other external agencies. The team offers a mixture of clinical activities such as Contraception and Sexual Health Services, Stop Smoking Support as well as educational/health promotion activities such as health and well being tutorial sessions and health promotion campaigns.

The Health & Wellbeing Centre is an important and exciting development for the college, reflecting the commitment to offer every student realistic and up to date information, advice and guidance on every aspect of our young people’s health and wellbeing.