Young parents can be desperately in need of financial help and quality childcare. Karen Faux looks at projects which provide practical help and advice to teenage parents
Eighteen months ago Hannah More's* life was defined by a 'crushing sense of isolation and loneliness'. After having her baby at the age of 17, she had delayed going on to take her intended A levels in psychology, biology and English literature and abandoned all hope of going on to study psychology at university.
'I felt my life had come to a complete full stop,' she says.
'I had worked hard at school because I wanted to go to university to get a job in a branch of psychology, but once I had the baby the practical and financial problems of getting back to studying seemed overwhelming.'
Today the picture is brighter. Hannah is awaiting the results of her A levels and if she gets the grades she hopes for, she will be taking up a place at university later in the year.
The dramatic transformation of her prospects is due to both her own determination and the 'hands-on' support provided by the National Childminding Association's (NCMA) pilot Teen Parent Project, which provides financial help and advice for young parents in need of quality childcare.
Since it was launched in 2001, the project has recruited 119 childminders to its network and handled 78 child placements.
While it has still to run until the end of this year, the project is being superseded by the Government's Care To Learn scheme, which demonstrates an even more powerful commitment to deal with the enormous problem of poverty and social exclusion created by teenage pregnancies.
The proportion of teenage girls becoming pregnant has risen steadily since the 1970s. According to the latest Government statistics, there are 50,000 young parents under the age of 19 and only 30 per cent of them are participating in work or education.
Poverty trap
Births to teenage mothers are particularly likely to take place outside marriage and in many cases the father's details are not even registered. This compounds the well-documented poverty trap.
At the same time as wanting to see the number of teenage pregnancies halved by 2010, the Government also recognises the necessity to increase the number of young parents in education and work.
The NCMA believes that the Care To Learn scheme has every chance of making this happen. Its own pioneering project, funded to the tune of 3m by the Government and European Social Fund, has done much to pave the way.
The three-year project is described as 'evidence-based and action-researched'. It focuses on four areas - north-east Lincolnshire, Blackpool, Greenwich and Barking and Dagenham - because of their combination of high teenage pregnancy and low involvement in education.
A priority is to give the teen parent a choice of childminder or nursery, ensuring that he or she enjoys as much input as any parent about the care of their child. Project co-ordinators in each of the four areas look at transport situations, the proximity of colleges, work placements and many other factors in order to advise on the best childcare options.
According to Charlie Rice, NCMA director of training, development and quality assurance, the challenge for the project initially was in reaching teenage mothers.
'In our naivety we thought it would just be a case of putting up posters in local areas, but that didn't work,' he says.
'Getting teenage mothers on board to use the scheme was hard at first and our local co-ordinators and project managers had to work with a plethora of agencies, including the Government's young people support scheme, Connexions, and through health visitors, midwives, schools and various student organisations.'
For Hannah, the beauty of the Teen Project scheme was that it gave her choice in who looked after her son: 'I was very concerned at first that I would be given inferior childcare and I wanted to have my say in who looked after my child,' she says.
'In fact the childminder I have has proved incredibly supportive and flexible and she has not only looked after my son while I'm at college but has also given me study time to work at home.'
Negotiating the minefield of practical difficulties for getting young parents back into education and work has been a massive task for the NCMA but it has pointed the way forward for Care To Learn.
'The initial funding criteria was very strict,' says Mr Rice. 'It did not take into account that authorised absences had to be paid for and that teenage mums need help during holidays at school. In the final analysis childminders have proved big-hearted, often giving mums free cover while they do things like go to job interviews.'
Holistic approach
Mr Rice believes that the Care To Learn scheme is more flexible and less draconian. It takes all the best aspects of the Teen Project but promises to work in a more holistic and empathetic way.
Most reassuring is the fact that the financial basis is solid. Students aged between 16 and 19 in the UK are to be given up to 15,000 towards childcare costs over a period of three years.
The DfES will pay up to 5,000 a child each year towards the costs of all types of registered childcare to enable young mothers and fathers to learn, study or train for employment.
Rosie Pressland, chair of East Riding Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership, welcomes the new scheme with 'gladness' and also believes that sufficient thought and research has gone into it, to ensure real impact.
'It recognises that those young people, either by choice or through misfortune, who have a child early on, must have support in continuing with their education in order to become self-financing,' she says.
Ms Pressland identifies a key advantage of the scheme in the fact that it is not unwieldy and takes into account the wide-ranging practical concerns of dealing with childcare.
'Both parents can access funding without being means-tested, and it is a quick and easy process,' she says. 'They can also utilise the money to book childcare in advance, which is absolutely vital given the difficulties in trying to find the right childminder or nursery, in the right place at the right time.'
Ms Pressland welcomes the children of young mothers at her nursery, Pocklington Montessori School, and emphasises that the scheme provides access to the highest quality of childcare.
'At the end of the day it is entirely up to the mother or father where they place their child,' she says. 'Because all childcare has to be registered and meet high standards of quality assurance, parents know they are getting the best.'
With the NCMA's Teen Parent Project finishing at the end of this year, Hannah More's funding will continue under Care To Learn with the start of the next academic year. She hopes that the new scheme will continue to deliver a supportive point of contact. 'Having a chat with a local co-ordinator was the starting point for getting back on track and I am very grateful for her help and understanding,' she says.
If the Government's Care To Learn can prove itself to be as hands-on as its predecessing NCMA project, it seems that there is every chance it will hit its target of getting 60 per cent of all teen parents back into education or work by 2010.