The amount of unplanned teenage pregnancies in the city of Nottingham has fallen again – but the number is still above the national average.
In the most recently available data, the amount of unplanned teenage pregnancies decreased from 160 in 2014 to 152 in 2015, the 15-17-year-old age group.
The rate of conceptions per 1,000 girls aged 15-17 in 2015 was 31.2 This is compared with a rate of 82.6 back in 2004.
However the current rate is till higher than the England rate of 20.8 conceptions per 1,000 girls in the same age group.
The report found Aspley was the area of the city with the highest aggregate of unplanned teenage pregnancies from 2012 to 2014 with Wollaton West the lowest.
Nottingham City Council published its annual update for the Nottingham City Health and Wellbeing Board ahead of a meeting on Wednesday (July 26).
The board has set a target of reducing the rates by a further third by 2020, an ‘ambitious target’ which consultant in public health at Nottingham City Council Helene Denness thinks is achievable.
“The annual report shows good news in that rates are continuing to come down,” she said.
“However there are a couple of key things we need to do more of to decrease these rates even further, which are sex and relationship education and making sure sexual health services are in the right places for young people to access.
“We need to make sure we have the right sort of support in schools.”
Ms Denness does not believe there is a ‘simple answer’ as to why unplanned teenage pregnancies happen in Nottingham.
She said: “There also needs to be support to make sure that an unplanned teenage pregnancy doesn’t happen to the same person again.
“The factors to why this happens are complex and diverse, such as living in a deprived community or being the child of a teenage mum themselves.
“Not enjoying and achieving at school can increase its likelihood, which national and international evidence suggests, but there is not a simple answer as to why unplanned teenage pregnancies happen and you can’t say one thing directly links to another.
“Some cases have the risk factors described and some don’t – we have an ambitious target in place to reduce the amount of unplanned teenage pregnancies but it is achievable.”
The report also found there was a ‘weak positive correlation’ between attendance at sexual health clinics and teenage conceptions.
