In 1999, North Lincolnshire had the fourth highest teenage pregnancy rate in the UK, so a new approach was needed. Rather than putting the burden of delivering sex education to sniggering teenagers on the shoulders of the teachers, the youth service has built on its existing work via a multi-agency "blanket approach".
The new programme aims to train professionals from different backgrounds to deliver consistent SRE education to teenagers as a team. North Lincolnshire's teenage pregnancy rates have already fallen below the national average, from 56.8 per 1,000 for 15- to 17-year-olds in 1999 to an estimated 46.9 in 2002.
When the Government launched its Teenage Pregnancy Strategy in 1998, the UK had one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe. It aimed to reduce the number of conceptions by under-18s by 50 per cent by 2010, with an interim reduction of 15 per cent in 2004.
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