A RETHINK of school sex education aims to halve the number of teenage pregnancies in the region.

New proposals for a sex education programme focus on the areas of the county with the highest rates of unwanted pregnancies and abortions among teenage girls. They include Catterick Garrison, Colburn, Harrogate and areas of Scarborough.

North Yorkshire County Council has put together a draft sex and relationship education programme to tackle the problem.

It aims to ensure sex education is promoted effectively in primary and secondary schools across the county.

The council has recruited a teenage pregnancy strategy co-ordinator to oversee the programme.

The scheme has been agreed by the authority's children and young people overview and scrutiny committee, but will have to be finalised by the executive at its next meeting.

The document includes plans to encourage staff at schools in problem areas to enrol in personal, social and health education training courses.

A sexual health drama production will be taken into schools and the council will work with primary care trusts to secure additional school nurses when funding becomes available next year.

Councillor Heather Garnett, chairwoman of the scrutiny committee, said: "The committee consulted with young people in schools and other youth organisations across North Yorkshire before making some important decisions about the future of sex and relationship education in our county.

"The target is a tough one and we need to make sure that our efforts continue to be focused and sustained if we are to improve the health and well being of young people in North Yorkshire."

The authority has a local teenage pregnancy strategy, which was drawn up four years ago after the launch of a national campaign by the Government.

The two main goals of the county council are to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in the under-18 conception rate by 2010 and establish a downward trend in the under-16 conception rate.

Countywide, teenage pregnancy rates are lower then the national average. Between 1998 and 2003, the rate fell by more than 20 per cent.