Drive launched to cut teen pregnancy
A drive to reduce teenage pregnancy is being launched in a Black Country borough which has one of the highest rates in the West Midlands.
Despite previous campaigns to bring down the numbers, Sandwell is still fighting a losing battle.
In 2006, 62.2 out of every 1,000 female 15 to 17-year-olds in the borough fell pregnant. Conception rates for 2007 are released in February. And Sandwell Council and the Primary Care Trust are aiming to reduce the rate by 55 per cent over the next year.
They aim to do this by stepping up sex education in schools and improving access to contraception.
Councillor Maria Crompton from Sandwell Council will lead discussions when she chairs the Children and Young People Scrutiny Board on January 7.
She said: "What we want to do and what is most important is to get young people on board to help us. They are the ones who can tell us why the work we are doing isn't working – because it obviously isn't.
"We put loads of books into schools and try and do what we can but at the moment that hasn't made the difference we wanted.
"We want young people's views and we will include them in discussions."
In October the Healthcare Commission, the industry's watchdog, awarded Sandwell Primary Care Trust, which looks after the borough's GP services, dental surgeries and pharmacies, a fair rating for quality of services and a fair rating for use of resources.
At the time bosses said they were disappointed not to achieve a good rating, which was blamed partly on failing to meet national targets on teen pregnancy.
Under the new plans, which are expected to come into force in the summer, sex and relationship education in schools is to be reassessed, along with help to areas of the borough with the highest conception rates.
In September the council announced plans to designate the Teenage Pregnancy Unit at Batman's Hill as a new children's centre, specialising in helping teenage parents.
