County Durham Local Teenage Pregnancy Strategy - Full Document

• Work with young men
Work to develop effective ways to involve young men in the prevention of
teenage pregnancy. This will involve a range of measures, some included
elsewhere in this report ( eg, the Investing in Children Group referred to in section
4 is likely to include young men, the results of Contraceptive Awareness Week
included young men “trying out” local contraceptive service providers).
Publicity related to well by young men could be part of the development.
Investigation to follow up with young men who are using services (eg Annfield
Plain, End House, South Durham Health Care) could identify what the key factors
are and enable these to be more widely utilised.
• Sexual Health Forum
Consider establishing a Sexual Health Forum for Easington and
Durham/Chester-le-Street and Derwentside, if there is local practitioner support.
• Research into young women’s choices generating educational materials
A local research project could involve young women’s pathways. The project
would produce narrative data to enable further exploration of what makes a
difference in relation to the “choices” and “decisions” young women make. One
idea is to collect data from pairs of friends where one has become a teenage
mother and the other not, but where they are demographically matched with the
same school background and peer group. Outputs from the project would be
materials to feed back into schools.
A different approach to a similar idea could involve cross generational work such
as discussion/focus groups involving single gender 15/25/35 year olds to explore
changing views and experiences of sex and sexual health. The project would cut
across current generational boundaries in relation to parents/teachers/health
workers versus young people, and yet move beyond peer education and the
problems attached to it. The learning would not necessarily be one directional,
and could begin to break down the them/us barrier. Resources to be sought
separately from Research Funds.
• Developing best practice
Ensure local evaluation and monitoring contributes to developing good practice,
and that local developments use evidence generated nationally and
internationally. If a co-ordinator is funded this could be part of his/her brief.
Suggestions to the Teenage Pregnancy Unit nationally
• Payment for male contraceptive care
A change in the payment system to enable GP’s to claim for male contraceptive
care including giving advice and condoms would be of great benefit in
encouraging service delivery attractive to young men in the Primary Care setting.
• Enhance the role of Colleges
Colleges are an important venue where many 16 – 18 year olds attend, who can
be offered support through the college setting currently provision is patchy. There
should be a national recommendation to colleges to encourage a consistent
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