The latest data for 2018 show that in England 16.7/1,000 young women under-18 became pregnant, a 6.2% decrease compared with 2017, and a 58% decline compared with 2008. The 2018 conception rate for under-16s also fell by 7% from 2017.  Both rates are at the lowest level since records began in 1969.

Alison Hadley OBE, Director of the Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange (TPKE) at the University of Bedfordshire, praised the continued efforts of councils to help young people prevent early pregnancy and to support those who choose to become young parents, despite significant funding reductions.

Alison, who led the original Labour Government’s successful Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, is also the Teenage Pregnancy Advisor to Public Health England and works with the World Health Organisation to share the successful lessons of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy internationally. On today’s results she commented:

We welcome the continuing downward trend in England's teenage pregnancy rate, but there is no room for complacency. Stark inequalities persist between and within local areas, with the highest rates in the North of England, the regions suffering the greatest burden of funding cuts. England’s teenage birth rates also continue to be higher than comparable European countries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From this September, relationships, sex and health education will be compulsory in all schools. This will be key for giving all young people the knowledge and confidence they need to navigate healthy relationships and avoid unplanned pregnancy, but effective implementation will rely on government investment in teacher training. Councils also need sufficient resources to focus on the other aspects of effective teenage pregnancy programmes – including youth-friendly contraceptive services, targeted help for young people most at risk and high-quality support for young parents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Significant reductions in inequalities will also depend on tackling the wider determinants of early pregnancy and poor outcomes – notably family poverty, school exclusion and poor attainment.

Looking at the results at a local level, Luton has maintained a rate below the England average – a reduction of 47% since 2010. The Council has continued to apply the national evidence-based guidance, drawn from the original strategy – giving young people good relationship advice and sex education; easy access to contraception and sexual health advice within a youth friendly service or outreach clinics; training for professionals; and support for young people who choose to become parents – and local experts are encouraged that their work has ‘paid off’.

Councillor Khtija Malik, Portfolio holder for public health at Luton Borough Council said:

As part of our robust strategy and action plan we have commissioned a range of services to help reduce teenage pregnancies and to support young parents up to the age of 25, to help prevent the risk of second unplanned pregnancies. This includes commissioning a local integrated sexual health service, providing young people with specific clinics, a teenage parents service particularly for young people who are at an increased risk of poor sexual health, and we are also supporting schools by providing good quality learning packages, used to deliver relationships and sex education in primary, secondary schools and colleges. Partnership work has also been instrumental in the success of the strategy, ensuring key health, education and voluntary agencies as well as our Flying Start Children’s Centres and maternity services work together, to provide the right platform and support to young people in Luton.

Louise Lee, Executive Principal of Stockwood Park Academy – one of the schools which benefits from Luton’s Sexual Health Service outreach programme, ‘Tea Stop’ – commented:

We are proud to be part of the Tea Stop programme. Outreach work provides an effective bridge to clinic based services. Bringing the service to young people is an effective way of engaging and supporting them.