New research: surprise finding has teen pregnancy gap widening in areas with ‘good practice’

Read the full research paper published by Cambridge University Press free of charge.

A study by The Open University (OU) and Durham University looked at trends in the gap between local teenage pregnancy rates and the national average. A fall in the gap was found in areas with a higher proportion of black and ethnic minority populations and a rise was revealed in areas where standards for commissioning services had been assessed as excellent or good.

Researcher Professor Tim Blackman from the OU’s Faculty of Social Sciences reports his findings in the latest edition of the journal Social Policy and Society, published by Cambridge University Press.

In areas where the standard of commissioning services was assessed as high, the teen pregnancies gap actually increased. Blackman said this had been the most surprising finding of his research:

“Many people would expect to find that areas which had apparently excellent planning and commissioning would have done better at closing their teen pregnancy gap than other areas but this didn’t prove to be the case. In fact, the opposite was true and it appears to have made things worse.”

Research with professionals working in these areas revealed that this apparently good practice was accompanied by an increase in bureaucracy and process, which had taken time and attention away from actually getting things done. Where this was not in the way, the professionals said they were able to get on with the job of helping teens on the ground.