Cash to curb teen pregnancies

Teenage pregnancy blackspots in Chorley are being targeted.

Four wards have been identified as problem areas in the town which has been identified as one of four Lancashire districts where teenage pregnancy rates have increased.

Now thousands of pounds are being made available to help improve it and two specialist groups are working together on the problem: South Lancashire Teenage Pregnancy Partnership and Chorley LSP's Children and Young People's thematic group.
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The Chorley group has made the task a priority and pledged £10,000 towards delivering the action plan where the youth pregnancy rate is higher than average. Group chairman Coun Mark Perks said: "There are four wards in particular that have cause for concern.

"I am particularly keen to see the training of young mums being carried out by the youth service at Highfield Children's Centre developed. Young people talking about their experiences to other young people brings reality much closer to them and has a much bigger impact."

He added: "Currently there is only one session a week provided for young people to access sexual health services in the whole of the borough. This needs to be increased and it's important key workers in all the partner organisations are skilled to deliver sexual health advice and education."

Main objectives of the action plan are: Increased access and availability of young people's sexual health services.

More key workers trained to deliver sexual health information, advice, education and sexual health services.

Development of a young mothers' peer education programme to target audiences to raise awareness of the realities of teenage parenthood'.

Strong delivery of sex and relationship education in schools.

Central Lancashire PCT said: "Chorley has seen a slight increase in the number of teenage conceptions. In 1998, the figure was 36.7 per 1,000 young women under 18 and by 2004 this figure had fallen to 36.3. This increased slightly to 38.6 in 2005 but this was still less than the Lancashire-wide figure of 41.3.

"We continue to work with our partners who include, education, Social Services and voluntary and youth support services. The aim is to provide an effective and highly targeted sex, relationships and sexual health information to the young people who are in most need of it."

source:www.thisislancashire.co.uk