2. Background information

2.1 The national context

In June 1999 the Government launched the Social Exclusion
Unit's report on teenage pregnancy . 1 The two main goals
highlighted in this report are:

1. Reducing the rate of teenage conceptions, with the
   specific aim of halving the rate of conceptions among
   under 18s by 2010.
2. Getting more teenage parents into education, training
   or employment, to reduce their risk of long term social
   exclusion.

   The report includes a 30-point action plan for taking
forward the strategy, which includes a national campaign,
joined up action on a local and national level, prevention of
teenage conception through access to services and education,
and better support for teenage parents.

  The Teenage Pregnancy Unit (TPU) was set up within the
Department of Health and is jointly funded by the Department
of Health, Department for Education and Employment,
Department of the Environment, Transport and the
Regions, Department of Social Security and the Home
Office. The Unit was set up in the autumn of 1999 to coordinate
the work on a national and local level. The Unit is
supported by an independent advisory group to advise the
Government and monitor the success of the whole strategy.

2.2 Government targets

The national target is to reduce the 1998 rate of 46.5
conceptions per 1000 females aged 15-17 to 23.3 per
1000 by 2010 (reporting 2012), with a 15% reduction by
2004 (reporting 2006). A methodology has been developed
which identifies the implications for local areas of meeting
the national goal of halving the 1998 conception rate in
under 18 year-olds by 2010. 4 Variable reduction targets
which all fall in the range of 40-60%, have been devised
using ward level data and are intended to reduce the
inequalities between areas with high and low rates. The aim
of these targets is that no local authority will have a
conception rate greater than 41 per 1000 women aged 15-
17 and that inequalities between areas with the highest and
lowest rates will have reduced by 26%.

  A broad set of indicators is being developed to support
the monitoring and performance management of the
implementation of the teenage pregnancy strategy. 5 The
TPU requires that these indicators are used to support and
inform the following areas within the teenage pregnancy
programme:

The TPU has stated that data collection for the local
targets will be undertaken at national level where possible.
The TPU has aimed to select indicators so that data to
support them is available or easily produced by adapting
existing data without disproportionate cost.

2.3 Local context

In response to national directives all areas in England have
appointed a local teenage pregnancy co-ordinator, jointly
nominated by health and local authorities, and a regional
teenage pregnancy co-ordinator to support these local coordinators
and provide links between local, regional and
national agencies. The main responsibilities of the local coordinators
is to pull together local services that have a role in
preventing teenage pregnancy or in supporting teenage
parents.

   In the South West Region there are local coordinators
from a variety of backgrounds, working to local
authority (unitary or county) boundaries.
In March 2000, the local co-ordinators were required to
submit a report to the TPU profiling teenage pregnancy and
service provision in their area and presenting a bid for the
funding of local services aimed at tackling teenage pregnancy.

Local co-ordinators were also required to submit full
local strategies and a progress report to the TPU by March
2001. The TPU is supporting the local co-ordinators in
developing their strategies through a series of meetings,
seminars and workshops in each region.