A policy obsession with teenage mothers? Yes please!

If we have a policy obsession with teenage mothers then I hope it continues through the deep public spending cuts.

Whilst many young people are making active choices that are right for them, far too many young people can’t access contraception easily and many come to Brook unsure if they had sex or consented to it, without the confidence to take control of their sexual lives.

The focus on teenage pregnancy is right because the social, health and economic outcomes for teenage parents, particularly those who are very young, and their children remain poor and because, with the right support  – housing, education and training, budgeting and so on those who do become young parents can be outstanding parents.  Yes there were inevitable flaws in design and delivery, but the strategy has begun to deliver a step change in our attitudes towards young people and sex and the support offered to those young parents who need it.

As a result, teenage pregnancy rates in England are the lowest for over 20 years. Latest statistics show about 39,000 young women under 18 became pregnant in England in a year (a rate of 40.5 per 1000 which is a decrease of 13.3% since 1998).  Approximately half opted for abortion.  We know optimism for the future is fundamental to young people’s decisions about pregnancy and parenthood and that for some becoming a teenage mother creates focus and opportunity for them and their child/ren.

We also know the target of reducing teenage conceptions by 50% was over ambitious. But let’s be clear the strategy never set out to eradicate teenage parenthood in England.  The much forgotten second strand of the strategy was better support for young parents.

Yet it is right to aspire to have teenage pregnancy rates that are in line with our Northern European neighbours, not because I disapprove of young people becoming parents, or young people can’t be good parents, or I believe young women who get pregnant are scheming to get a council house.  I know this not true.  It is right because evidence shows us that teenage parenthood is both a cause and consequence of social exclusion.  And it is right because young people and professionals in countries where teenage pregnancy rates are much lower have a sensible attitude towards young people, sex and sexuality; gender relations are more equal; young people talk to their parents more; sex and relationships education is uncontroversial; access to contraception is normal; and young people are much better equipped to have sex they enjoy and take responsibility for.

How different from the UK where too often young people have sex because they want to find out what it is, they thought their mates were, or they were drunk.  This is not, as some argue, a moral failing of young people in the UK – day in day out we see evidence at Brook that young people want to get their relationships right.  Instead it is a collective failure to create opportunities for all and a sexual culture that sets high expectations for young people about the sex they have.

Over the coming years I want to debate how current teenage pregnancy policy can be built upon and refined.  But the localisation agenda will, in some areas, undoubtedly push young people’s sexual health to the bottom of the pile.  This combined with prolonged periods of youth unemployment, ruthless hacking of youth services and provision of contraception in pursuit of (very) short term savings, and an ongoing failure to sort sex and relationships education once and for all, has real potential to reverse our downward trend in teenage pregnancy rates.  If a policy obsession with teenage mothers can help prevent that, I welcome this particular obsession.

* Dr Jan Macvarish: Why is policy obsessed with teenage pregnancy?

Throughout October and November, The Independent Online is partnering with the Battle of Ideas festival to present a series of guest blogs from festival speakers on the key questions of our time.

Simon Blake is national director of Brook, the only national young people’s charity specialising in sexual health, providing services to over 250,000 young people a year. He is speaking at the session Too much, too young: why is policy obsessed with teenage mums? at the Battle of Ideas festival on Saturday 30 October.

(Pictures:Getty Images)

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