Erdington school to open sexual health centre
Mr Balls said: “Teenage pregnancies are too high in our country. They have come down substantially, and they have come down substantially faster in some areas than others.
“The places where we have got teenage pregnancies down faster are where you’ve had a much closer working of schools and health services.
“So I definitely think schools should be making sure, not only that young people have access and information, but also that these services are easy to access.
“And if you can do that through co-location, then that’s a really good way to do it.”
Stockland Green Technology College is to be rebuilt as part of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme, which aims to refurbish or rebuild every school in the country.
It will expand from 600 pupils to 750, with a new three-story building. The plan is to create a site, in Slade Road, Erdington, known as Stockland Green Education Village, which will include the school and sixth form, as well as a leisure centre and the youth centre.
Government figures for 2006, the most recent available, show that there were 508 pregnancies among girls aged between 13 and 15 in the West Midlands conurbation, including Birmingham, the Black Country and Coventry.
This is a rate of 9.7 for every 1,000 people.
It means almost one in 100 girls aged 13 to 15 became pregnant.
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