In response to the recommendations from the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee’s Inquiry into Teenage Pregnancy in 2013, the Scottish Government
committed to producing a Teenage Pregnancy and Young Parents Strategy. The new ‘Teenage Pregnancy and Young Parent Strategy’ will aim to broaden approaches to reducing rates of teenage pregnancy and supporting young parents by considering the wider determinants that such as education, attainment, training and employment,
providing support and advice for those most in need or vulnerable and considering the impact of socio-economic disadvantage. In order to ensure young people to have an opportunity to feed into and shape the development of the Teenage Pregnancy and Young Parent Strategy, Young Scot worked with the team in the Public Health Division at the Scottish Government to formulate a co-design methodology to engage young people in the process. Together we explored young people’s views, experiences and insights in order for the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy (TPS) Team in Scottish Government to understand how young parents aged 14 to 20 think the aims of the strategy
could be achieved, namely: Achieve a reduction in unintended teenage pregnancies; Respond effectively to teenage pregnancies; Achieve positive outcomes for young parent. The co-design project: Delivered a national survey of young people from across Scotland to gather quantitative data on young people’s views around teenage pregnancy, young parents and the strategy; Established four Exploration Workshops to conduct in-depth qualitative investigation into issues around teenage pregnancy and young parents; Hosted an Ideas Gathering to bring together young people and decision-makers to discuss the findings and begin to create recommendations and solutions.