Agenda item

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health and the Director of Public Health this report provides an update on the progress made to implement Kent’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy which was approved in September 2015.

Ms S Bennett, Consultant in Public Health, was in attendance for this item.

1.            Ms Bennett introduced the report, which gave an update on the strategy which was approved in September 2015. She explained that Kent’s rate of conceptions among 15 – 17 year olds had halved in the last 13 years, was lower than the national rate but higher than the rate in the south east overall. The UK still had one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Europe. Kent’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy had two main themes:- to prevent conceptions, and to support teen parents to mitigate the ongoing effects of becoming parents very young.  Ms Bennett outlined the six ambitions in the strategy and explained how services and initiatives would contribute to them.  She then responded to comments and questions from Members, as follows:-

a)    contraceptive services and sexual health services in schools were open to all young people but could also be targeted specifically to vulnerable groups such as children in care;

b)    many young people in care felt that they had not experienced parental  love and felt that a way to repair this was to have a child of their own.  The way in which sexual health services could possibly work with foster carers or children’s homes to address this was not clear, but Members were assured that vulnerable groups would always be covered;

c)    no data on the percentage of teenage parents who were in care was collected nationally, so if Kent wanted to identify this cohort it would need to undertake its own data gathering.  Mr Ireland confirmed that it was possible to identify from data which children in care had become parents in their teens;

d)    although all 15 – 17 year olds should still be in full-time education, not all would be actively engaged and attending school or college.  It was known that those most likely to conceive in their teens were also the least likely to be attending school;

e)    in response to a question about the contribution of immigrant groups to the higher rates of teenage pregnancy in the Dover area, Ms Bennett explained that ethnicity was not recorded in data, but she assured Members that local service providers would always be sensitive to the ethnic and cultural make-up of their local population and the best ways to reach different groups.  It was more likely that teenage pregnancy rates were linked to levels of deprivation than to the ethnic and cultural profile of an area, as other areas with higher teenage pregnancy rates also had higher levels of deprivation;

f)     provision of youth services in an area would include information about avoiding teenage pregnancy, so a reduction on the former could be a contributing factor in rises in the latter; 

g)    PSHE lessons were considered a good way to tackle the issue of teenage pregnancy, as not all young people engaged with youth services but all should be attending full-time education.  However, provision of PSHE classes was not consistent across the county, and some young people found it limited, not covering emotional development and relationships.  It was important that the County Council use this method of engaging young people and seek to influence the content and quality of lessons to address the issue of teenage pregnancy.  Ms Bennett advised that sex education in schools was part of the school public health service, which had recently been re-commissioned.  Mr Scott-Clark added that work to support emotional resilience would be covered by the new Headstart service, which was soon to start; 

h)   it was suggested that Facebook could be used as another method of engaging young people about teenage pregnancy, but another speaker advised that young people did not look to Facebook to read about and discuss this sort of issue.  Also, many parents would prefer their children to receive information and guidance on relationships from a trusted teacher or other professional.  On social media, self respect was not generally seen as a key priority.  Another speaker took the view that engagement with young people needed to use the methods which young people themselves used, to be proactive in countering negative messages, and that social media had a role to play in this;

i)     the County Council had previously had a select committee looking at PSHE, and it might be time now to review the recommendations which were made by the select committee in 2007 to help inform current debate;

j)      one school in Kent, Canterbury Academy, had community youth tutors available on site, but this arrangement was unusual in Kent schools. Youth tutors were sometimes more trusted by young people and could be more effective than teachers in leading PSHE classes, and this model would be a good one to copy elsewhere; and

k)    now that Members were able to see the areas of the county in which rates of teenage pregnancy were high, work to address them could be targeted.

2.            RESOLVED that the progress in delivering the Kent Teenage
Pregnancy Strategy be noted, and a further update report on the progress of the strategy be submitted to this committee in July 2017