Beverley Hughes, the new children and families minister, was right this week in a Guardian interview to urge parents to become more involved in sex education with their children to reduce unwanted teenage pregnancies. But she was wrong to suggest that state intervention had reached its "sticking point". True, it now looks extremely unlikely the government will achieve its target of halving the number of under-18 pregnancies in England and Wales by 2010. It has only fallen by about 10% between 1998 and 2003, which includes a small rise in under-16 pregnancies in the latest annual statistics released this week. Blips often happen, but the broad trend is a serious disappointment.
In the 1970s the UK had a similar teenage birth rate to other European states, but by the late 1990s it had the highest: twice as high as Germany, three times as high as France, six times as high as the Netherlands. The need for better education on sex and relationships could not be more urgent. The vast majority of under-18 pregnancies are unplanned, with some 46% (19,000) terminated by an abortion. Britain is not just top of the European league for teenage pregnancies, but also has the highest rise in sexually transmitted diseases. The state of ignorance uncovered by the select committee on health in 2003 was devastating: more than a quarter of girls aged 14 and 15 thought contraceptive pills protected them from infection.
As the MPs noted, we need better action across the board: home, school, contraception services and sexual infection clinics. Sex education in school is still too little, too late, and too biological, despite research showing young people on good programmes start their sex lives later, take fewer partners, and are more responsible about contraception. There is a similar finding where parents engaged in open discussions about sex and relationships with their children. Yet surveys show half of all children get little or no information at home. All the more reason why ministers should help fund "speakeasy", the fpa (family planning association) parental-support scheme.
