A HEALTH trust is failing to meet targets aimed at slashing the numbers of teenage pregnancies.
NHS North East Essex was told to halve the number of under 18-year-olds falling pregnant by April 2010, but latest figures showed it has only managed a ten per cent drop.
The target was set by Teenage Pregnancy Strategy in 1998. In north-east Essex it represents a drop to 20 pregnancies for every 1,000 under-18 girls in Colchester, and 23 in Tendring.
However, the trust has admitted it does not expect to meet the target.
Latest available figures, from 2008, show over the decade, the number of under-18s falling pregnant fell by just 10.1 per cent across north-east Essex.
In Colchester the figure had dropped by 13.6 per cent, in Tendring it was a drop of just 6.6 per cent.
It compares to a drop of 15.6 per cent across Essex in the same period, and 13.9 per cent nationally.
NHS North East Essex has tried to tackle the problem through offering young people specialist sexual health advice and contraception.
It also runs the website www.your teenlife.co.uk with information about sexual health and pregnancy.
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