HEALTH bosses in Gwent are planning to launch a campaign to promote long acting, reversible contraception (LARC) as part of a wider strategy to reduce teenage pregnancies.

Another part of the strategy will be to ensure that condom card (C-Card) schemes across Gwent are consistent and co-ordinated.

There is considerable variation in teenage conception rates in Wales and within Gwent, though overall, over the past decade, underage conceptions have fallen, from 540 to 390 during 2010/11.

Torfaen remains the county borough with the highest rate of teenage conceptions in Gwent in those under 18, at around 50 girls in every 1,000 aged 15-17.

For conceptions among under-16s, Torfaen recorded 10.6 per 1,000 girls aged 13-15 during 2003-08, the highest in Gwent and fourth highest out of 22 local authority areas in Wales.

Blaenau Gwent was sixth highest at 9.9, with Caerphilly ninth and Newport 11th.

Achieving further reductions – the UK has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in western Europe – is a Welsh government priority, and LARC is seen as an effective way of helping do this.

Two methods include implants and the coil, but public and clinical awareness of the advantages of LARC is not widespread and Gwent health chiefs are proposing to launch a campaign next spring to promote it.

A booklet used in the West Midlands, which has helped increase the uptake of LARC among teenagers there, will be adapted for the Aneurin Bevan Health Board area as part of the campaign.

Five separate, individually funded C-Card schemes are running in Gwent, but as they are separate entities, the risk of funding being withdrawn is high.

Work is ongoing to create a single Gwent-wide scheme out of these five, with a stronger financial footing, and to be managed by a C-Card scheme co-ordinator, in line with all-Wales standards.