Caroline Seabrook

Introduction

Caroline Seabrook is a former Band 7 Team Manager in NHS mental health services whose nursing career ended when the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) removed her from its register in April 2026. A Fitness to Practise Committee sitting over four days found that, while holding that senior post, she formed an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old child service user — communicating with him, meeting him, giving him lifts, inviting him home, and providing or permitting cocaine in his presence — and continued the contact even after her employer told her to stop. The committee found her fitness to practise impaired and imposed the most severe sanction available: erasure from the register — being struck off.

Background Information

The NMC determination (registration reference 14I2282E) records that Seabrook was employed as a Band 7 Team Manager in NHS mental health services. The events giving rise to the case occurred between 14 July and 2 August 2021, while Seabrook was not on shift, and centred on a 16-year-old child service user identified as Child Service User A. She was also twice convicted in the criminal courts of driving offences. The substantive hearing opened on 9 April 2026 and closed on 13 April 2026, when the committee announced its decision.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Only two facts in this case are adjudicated criminal facts: Seabrook’s convictions on 21 September 2021 for driving whilst under the influence of cocaine and on 30 September 2021 for driving whilst intoxicated, together with the sentences accompanying them. Everything else — the charge findings, the conclusions that her conduct amounted to misconduct, caused serious harm and created a real risk of repetition, the impairment finding, and the erasure decision itself — consists of civil-standard findings made by the NMC’s Fitness to Practise Committee, not criminal adjudications. The panel found Charge 1 in respect of one limb, and Charge 2e in respect of alcohol, not proved.

The charges alleged that, while employed as a Band 7 Team Manager in NHS mental health services and not on shift, between 14 July and 2 August 2021 Seabrook engaged in communication with Child Service User A, a 16-year-old; met him in person; gave him lifts in her car; invited him to her home; provided and/or permitted him to take cocaine in her presence; and drove under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs with him in the car. Further charges alleged that she continued the contact after being told not to by her employer on 27 July 2021, and failed to maintain records of her interactions with the young person.

The panel found proved Charges 1 (in respect of one limb), 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2e (in respect of cocaine), 2f, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. It found Charge 1 in respect of another limb, and Charge 2e in respect of alcohol, not proved. On the proved charges, the committee concluded that Seabrook’s actions formed an inappropriate relationship, breached professional boundaries and multiple provisions of the Code, and exposed a particularly vulnerable child to serious harm and the profession to disrepute.

The determination records her two criminal convictions: on 21 September 2021 for driving whilst under the influence of cocaine, and on 30 September 2021 for driving whilst intoxicated. The panel listed as aggravating factors an abuse of a position of trust; misconduct involving a particularly vulnerable child; actual harm caused to Child Service User A; a pattern of misconduct over time rather than an isolated incident; failure to engage in the Fitness to Practise process; absence of insight; no remorse; no remediation; and two serious convictions, the second taking place two days after the first offence. The only mitigating factor recorded was Seabrook’s personal circumstances during the relevant period.

With no engagement, insight, remorse or remediation evidenced, the panel concluded there remained a real risk of repetition. It found her fitness to practise currently impaired by reason of her misconduct and her two convictions, on grounds of public protection and the wider public interest, and determined that erasure was the proportionate outcome.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The public record in this case is the regulator’s published determination, which MedicWatch reproduces without editorial comment. Seabrook’s name was removed from the NMC register — she is no longer permitted to practise as a nurse in the UK — and an 18-month interim suspension order was imposed. The committee grounded its finding of current impairment in public protection and the wider public interest — a formulation reflecting the regulator’s judgment about the risk she poses to patients rather than any criminal court’s conclusions.

Current Status

As of the decision date of 13 April 2026, Caroline Seabrook is struck off the NMC register. Erasure removes a practitioner from the register; the regulator’s explanatory material notes it can be reviewed after a minimum of five years but is otherwise indefinite. The 18-month interim suspension order applies in the interim. Because the panel found no insight, remorse or remediation, and concluded that a real risk of repetition remained, nothing in the determination points to any near-term route back to registration.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The erasure ends Seabrook’s ability to work as a registered nurse anywhere in the UK, closing off not only Band 7 management roles in NHS mental health services but any nursing employment requiring NMC registration. The findings — an inappropriate relationship with a child service user, breaches of professional boundaries, failure to follow her employer’s instruction to stop the contact, and two driving convictions — remain part of the permanent public record consulted by regulators and employers. Her failure to engage with the Fitness to Practise process, and the panel’s consequent finding of no insight and no remediation, weigh heavily against any early restoration application, which in any event cannot occur before the five-year minimum review period has elapsed.

Sources

• MedicWatch, “Caroline Seabrook — Struck off the register · 13 April 2026,” 13 April 2026.source