UK Teen Pregancies Double

£6m drive to cut teen pregnancies sees them DOUBLE

By Daniel Martin
Last updated at 8:20 AM on 08th July 2009


A multi-million pound initiative to reduce teenage pregnancies more than doubled the number of girls conceiving.

The Government-backed scheme tried to persuade teenage girls not to get pregnant by handing out condoms and teaching them about sex.

But research funded by the Department of Health shows that young women who attended the programme, at a cost of £2,500 each, were 'significantly' more likely to become pregnant than those on other youth programmes who were not given contraception and sex advice.

A total of 16 per cent of those on the Young People's Development Programme conceived compared with just 6 per cent in other programmes.

Experts said the scheme failed because it introduced girls 'at risk' of becoming pregnant to promiscuous girls they might not otherwise have met.

Because of peer pressure, the more timid teenagers were more likely to have sex and become pregnant.

The £5.9million YPDP programme was also designed to slash cannabis use and drunkenness among teenagers, but made no difference whatsoever.

Last night ministers pledged to drop the scheme after admitting it had failed. Around 40,000 teenage girls become pregnant every year in the UK, the highest level in western Europe.

The failed YPDP, launched in 2004, was based on a similar scheme in New York claimed to have significantly reduced teenage pregnancies.

However, attempts to replicate the work elsewhere in the U.S. did not lead to a fall in teenage pregnancies, casting doubt on the project as a whole.

In England, 2,371 teenagers took part in the programme over three years. They were nominated by social workers, teachers or NHS staff who thought they were at risk of school exclusion, drug abuse and pregnancy.

The study, published online by the British Medical Journal, was carried out by Meg Wiggins, from the Institute of Education at the University of London and Chris Bonell, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

They were commissioned by the Department of Health to evaluate the programme independently.

They concluded that 'at best, the programme had no impact - and at worst it had a negative impact'.

A Department of Health spokesman said: 'This pilot was based on a successful American programme. It did not appear to reduce teenage pregnancy so we will not be taking it any further.'

Case study - Lucy Lanelly

By the time she reached the age of consent, Lucy Lanelly had become pregnant four times.

And on each occasion the teenager from Toll Bar, South Yorkshire, had an abortion.

Now 19, she became pregnant at 12 after a single encounter with a 15-year-old boy.

She was then given a three-month contraceptive jab but failed to get another one.

The following year Lucy became pregnant by a 19-year-old man at a party. Her third pregnancy was by a 15-year-old boy who said he was infertile.

The last pregnancy was by her boyfriend Jack, 20, when a condom failed.

Lucy said: 'I don't regret having the terminations because I was too young to have a baby, but I do regret having sex when I wasn't mature enough to deal with it.'

The failed YPDP, launched in 2004, was based on a similar scheme in New York claimed to have significantly reduced teenage pregnancies.

However, attempts to replicate the work elsewhere in the U.S. did not lead to a fall in teenage pregnancies, casting doubt on the project as a whole.