County Durham Local Teenage Pregnancy Strategy - Full Document

Results of Consultations with Young People’s Groups about
the County Durham Tackling Teenage Pregnancy Strategy
The Investing in Children Group based in Pity Me, Durham, was consulted via
co-ordinator Liam Cairns. The Investing in Children initiative seeks to support
children and young people to comment on issues of importance to them. The
Investing in Children Initiative assists groups of children and young people who
want to become actively involved in dialogue with decision makers about how
things might change.
The first comment about the strategy was, that because it had to be compiled
in the way it was to comply with TPU guidelines, the strategy was not young
people user friendly. The group felt that the strategy could have been written
in a less complex way which would have made it more understandable for
young people as well as professionals. They would like to see one list of all the
new things planned to help prevent teenage pregnancy and support teenage
parents. They would like a list of how the aims were to be met, as a list rather
than as the action plans included in the strategy.
Comments about sex and relationships education included the need for
teacher training. The young people believed that teachers needed specific
training in how to teach sex and relationships education. They talked about
the negative effects of embarrassed teachers preventing discussion in class
about SRE and the effect on children and young people that they then would
not feel confident to speak about sex and relationships.
Related to the media section and publicising services, the group had a lot of
ideas about where to use information cards and posters, some of which were
included in the strategy, some were not. The strategy outlines the use of
posters and credit card information cards to be used on the back of toilet doors
and in public areas, where young people can easily access the information.
Fast food restaurants and other public areas were suggested in the strategy.
The young people suggested that public areas in leisure centres such as
waiting areas, queuing areas, changing rooms and toilets could all be used, so
that young people could access information privately and that this could be
done in places like pubs, leisure centres, cinemas, bowling alleys, possibly
train stations and bus stations, telephone boxes and schools. The young
people specifically suggested that the cards be reinforced so that they would
keep in a good state for longer.
When the young people disused the directory of services, they suggested that
the directory be divided according to towns or localities, so that young people
could easily access their relevant information especially as County Durham is
divided up into six Primary Care Group areas, this seems particularly relevant.
Consultation in County Durham was also conducted with Durham Young
People’s Centre, End House, Durham, via Co-ordinator Mandy Taylor. This
group of young people included some teenage mums. Again the group was
particularly interested in the media campaign and spent most of the
consultation time discussing that. In relation to posters, this group suggested
using bus shelters, bus tickets and adverts inside buses to advertise local
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