The Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group

The Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group (TPIAG) was set up in 2000 to advise the Government on the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy and to monitor its implementation.

The strategy aims to:

• Halve the rate of conceptions to under-18s by 2010
  
• Increase the participation of teenage parents in education, training and employment.

Background Information

TPIAG currently has 11 members, each with specific expertise in key areas. Members are appointed by the Minister for Children, Young People and Families, for fixed terms, following open competition, in accordance with the Nolan rules for non-departmental public bodies.

The group meets on a quarterly basis, with additional sub-group meetings as needed. The chair and members have an ongoing dialogue with the relevant government departments, and regularly participate in meetings around the country, make presentations, visit projects and work with the media.

TPIAG publishes annual reports, to which the Government makes a formal response. The last report was published in July 2008. The group also publishes occasional reports on specific topics and responds to Government consultations. These documents are available below.

Members' Biographies

Chair: Gill Frances, OBE, has been involved in the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy since its initial development and has a long history of working with children and young people, and of promoting their entitlement to Sex and Relationship Education as part of Personal Social and Health Education across all aspects of their lives; at home and school, and in care, secure and community settings. She also advocates for teenage parents in the parenting of their babies and for securing further education, employment and good housing. She has written, and contributed to, a wide range of publications, including on the subject of effective sex and relationship education for children and young people.

Deputy Chair: Prof John Coleman, OBE, is currently a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University. He is the former Director of the Trust for the Study of Adolescence (TSA), which he established in 1988, and is Chair of the Association for Young People's Health set up in 2008. He previously trained as a clinical psychologist and worked for 14 years as a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at the Royal London Hospital. He is current editor of the Routledge book series, Adolescence and Society; is a former editor of the Journal of Adolescence, and has published a number of books on adolescence, teenage sexuality and supporting parents of teenagers.

Members:

Jacqueline Adusei is currently Chief Executive of Ekaya, a BME housing association that provides a housing and support service to teenage parents in South London. Formerly, Jacqueline worked as Chief Executive of Slough, Basingstoke and Newbury YMCA at which time she was a member of Slough Borough Council's Supporting People Core Strategy Group, which reviewed and identified service provision for vulnerable client groups. Prior to this, Jacqueline worked within the housing sector on both general needs and supported housing for 15 years. On behalf of the Notting Hill Housing Trust, Jacqueline pioneered care leavers' and young homeless people's supported housing services in partnership with local authorities. Jacqueline won a National Training Award in 2007 for her continuous commitment towards learning.

Nicola Baboneau has lead responsibility for Community & Partnerships in the Learning Trust, a private, not-for-profit company managing education in the London Borough of Hackney. She was a headteacher in Hackney for ten years and then worked for three years across education, health, social services and the voluntary sector, with lead responsibility for Hackney's Children's Services Plan. Her current remit is wide and includes working in partnership on the strategic planning and implementation of a number of government programmes including Connexions, Creative Partnerships, Healthy Schools, Safer Schools Partnerships and Teenage Pregnancy. She has been the Chair of Hackney and the City's Teenage Pregnancy Partnership since 2001.

Julie Bentley joined fpa (formerly the Family Planning association) as Chief Executive in January 2008. She has over 15 years experience in the public and voluntary sector. Prior to joining fpa, she was CEO of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust for four years where she established a National Centre for Personal Safety in central London. Having trained as a Youth Worker and Counsellor in the early 1990s, and worked with Essex Youth Service, she set up and ran Young People's Drug Services in the London Borough of Southwark. She was then Director of the Corporate Development for the 'Alcohol Recover Project', a charity working with people affected by problematic substance use where she developed a model for service user involvement, widely recognised as an outstanding example of practice.

Simon Blake is Chief Executive of Brook, the leading voluntary sector provider of integrated sexual health services for young people across the UK.  Simon has written on all aspects of personal, social and health education, particularly teaching and learning about sex and relationships. He is also a member of the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV, and has previously been Director of the Sex Education Forum, the leading authority on sex and relationships education.

Annie Hargreaves is the Adviser for Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education (PSHCE) and strategic lead for anti-bullying for the London Borough of Hounslow. Annie has over twenty years experience of teaching sex and relationships education (SRE) in the secondary sector, including winning the Pamela Sheridan award for SRE in 1997. Her current role involves the active promotion of this agenda through the management of both the Healthy Schools and the national PSHE Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme.

Rhiannon Holder, 20, is in the second year of a degree in Deaf Studies at Bristol University. She is a former member of the City of Bristol Young People's Forum and has volunteered at the Sexual Health Peer Education Project in Bristol, where she has worked extensively with young people; delivering workshops and training on sexual-health and relationship issues for more than 5 years. She is also a trainee youth worker in South Gloucestershire.

Professor Roger Ingham is Director of the Centre for Sexual Health Research based at the University of Southampton. He has carried out a range of research projects in the sexual health area for many years and has written extensively on these issues. He was a member of the core group that developed the national Sexual Health and HIV Strategy, and is a member of the Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel. Until recently, he co-directed a large programme on sexual and reproductive health and young people in poorer countries, funded by the Department for International Development. His most recent book (edited with Peter Appleton) is Promoting Young People's Sexual Health; International Perspectives (Routledge).

Hansa Patel-Kanwal, OBE, works as an independent sexual health consultant. Her previous work experience spans both the statutory and voluntary sector at senior management levels. She currently works extensively with a range of black and minority ethnic communities around sexual health issues. She is also actively involved in sex and relationship policy development, training and consultancy for looked after young people.

Dr Jon Tilbury has worked as a General Practitioner in Cornwall for the past 28 years. His main interest is adolescent medicine and he was instrumental in establishing the first school-based primary-care service in Callington, Cornwall, 12 years ago, which still functions on a daily basis. He was awarded a Health Action Zone (HAZ) fellowship in 2000 to work with partners to establish a set of badged quality criteria for health-related services for young people. These criteria now inform delivery in over 100 sites throughout Cornwall. He now works as Deputy Director in the Primary Care Directorate for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust with clinical responsibility for Practice Based Commissioning and is chairing a review of services for children and young people in Cornwall.

Carol White has been Director of Children's Services in Calderdale, West Yorkshire since January 2006. She has a background in education and was originally a humanities teacher. From 1979-1986 she was Deputy Headteacher at the English Schools Foundation, Hong Kong. Since then she has held senior education and advisory posts. From 1999 until 2003 she was Group Director for School and Children's Services in Calderdale MBC. She had lead responsibility for working with partners to implement the children's trust approach to establish integrated services for children and young people. From 2003 until 2005 she was Deputy Chief Executive at Calderdale.

Documents

The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy: First Annual Report

The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy: Annual Report 2002/03

The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy: Annual Report 2003/04

The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy: Annual Report 2005/06

Government Response to the First Annual Report of the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy

Government Response to the Second Annual Report of the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy

Government Response to the Third Annual Report of the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy

Government Response to the Fourth Annual Report of the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy

Time for Action - Joint TPIAG and Sexual Health IAG Report on PSHE