As the Government steps up pressure on councils to tackle teenage pregnancy, Nicola Carroll reports on how the problem is being addressed by Blackburn with Darwen Council, in partnership with the local Primary Care Trust The UK still tops the European league table for teenage conceptions, with 39,000 a year, and there are well-recognised ‘hotspots’ around the country where seeing 16-year-old mums pushing prams is a common sight. The Government first focused attention on the problem of pregnancy among girls aged 18 and under with a national strategy in 1999. This summer, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) published an update, Teenage pregnancy next steps: Guidance for local authorities and primary care trusts on effective delivery of local strategies. This highlights a wide variation in local performance on reducing teenage pregnancy, and calls for faster action among councils and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to achieve the target of halving the number of conceptions among under-18s by 2010. The report makes the obvious point that teenage pregnancy is the result of underlying causes such as low self-esteem and a lack of aspirations and opportunities among young people living in the most deprived areas. For many girls with poor qualifications and few job opportunities it is regarded as the only route into adulthood. It argues that every £1 of public money spent on reducing the number of teenage parents leads to an overall saving of £4 spent on paying benefits and providing other support to young mothers. One of the key recommendations made in the report is more joint working between partners from health and social services, youth services, education and the voluntary sector, with a ‘champion’ in a senior position to drive it forward. It also says there should be well-publicised advice centres providing contraception and sexual health information, for attention to be concentrated on the most at-risk areas and for such work to be mainstreamed within Children’s and Young People’s Plans. Crucially, local teenage pregnancy strategies should run hand-in-hand with attempts to increase young people’s school attendance and motivation to pursue education and careers. Blackburn with Darwen has made teenage pregnancy a priority, and is already implementing many of the suggestions made in the report. It saw an initial drop of 23% in teenage pregnancy as a result of giving the matter a sharper focus after the 1999 national strategy. But this has fluctuated, and the overall reduction to date is around 10.5%. The council and PCT made a joint appointment in 2002. Claire Jackson is now the young person’s sexual health strategy co-ordinator, a role which takes in the broader remit of sexual health rather than just teenage pregnancy. She says: ‘It is a complex issue and it’s about making it a priority and having clear partnership structures between the local authority and health bodies.’ She is focusing on wards with the highest teenage pregnancy rates and trying to get information to young people in those areas. Campaigns have included Valentine’s Day posters using cartoon characters to put across messages about sex and relationships, and there is outreach work in schools, youth and voluntary sector projects. One of the most effective measures has been a ‘peer education project’, which has trained young people to go into pubs and clubs and talk to others about contraception and sexual health. ‘This is all very much linked to Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership work on improving ambition, education and raising self-esteem, and looking at alternative options,’ says Ms Jackson. The next step is looking at condom distribution and delivering services to boys. She says the biggest barrier is keeping up momentum for this work around children’s services. The latest DfES push should increase pressure on councils to address the issue. Further government publications to help tackle teenage pregnancy are expected in the autumn, including a self-assessment toolkit to help councils and PCTs review their existing strategies and a broader policy document looking at how to improve life-chances of young people who are most at risk of becoming teenage parents. w
