Elevated teenage conception risk amongst looked after children; a national audit

The United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of teenage conceptions in Western Europe.[1] Teenage conceptions are a target within the Welsh Assembly Government's Strategy to reduce child poverty however rates are high within Wales and vary by local authority and social deprivation.[2,3] Children in the care of the state (hereafter looked after children) have been identified as being at risk of teenage pregnancy.[4,5] However to date there has been no systematically recorded data on pregnancy and outcomes amongst looked after children. Local authority data from England is available on motherhood status but does not record pregnancies ending in terminations.